UPDATE 2/27/17
After our severe bout with spring thunderstorms on Saturday, it got colder quick and we got almost 3 inches of cement mixture Saturday evening that froze overnight.
As to be expected, many trees got bent or knocked down with the heavy snow/ice load.
If you have any designs on riding, better do it today or Tuesday before the next warm rains roll in for Wednesday.
Best bet is to hit Moose River Plains or Perkins Clearing and see what you can do from there.
Please, stay off the lakes. We don’t need any more drownings this winter.
Weekend Outlook: Colder, but we’ll be needing snow!
2/24/17 Report
The Presidents’ Week meltdown is in full swing! Afternoon temperatures in the 50s have really taken their toll. Rainfall today and again Saturday afternoon will speed up the snow melt even more.
We still have decent snow “in the woods” of about a foot-and-a-half as of early Friday afternoon, but the exposed areas are starting to get bald.
Weekend Outlook:
Well…far be it from me to tell any one what to do. But the connections into Indian Lake inner village are getting eaten away by the sun, warmth and now…rain:
Keep in mind that it only gets WORSE though Saturday. On top of that, there is a high risk of strong thunderstorms Saturday afternoon with gusty winds and heavy rain.
Colder air will rush in late Saturday afternoon with a changeover to snow good for maybe a quick inch or two, followed by some minor lake-effect snows Saturday night into Sunday morning. Best case scenario would be a covering of wet paint to freshen things up a bit for Sunday.
If you’re hard up for some riding, probably the best plan would be to park at Mason Lake parking lot about 7 miles north of Speculator, then work your way into Perkins Clearing from the north end.
Moose River Plains would still have snow, but the road between Brown’s Farm and the trail head will be bare, unless we get some real snow Saturday night.
If you decide to stay on the couch this weekend, you’ll have no worries about me showing off what you missed. 😉
Long Range
For a lot of people, this meltdown has finished winter. Adirondack business owners can take solace in that the “commercial” snowmobiling season from Snodeo to Presidents’ Week was light years better than last winter, despite all the ups-and-downs.
Well, I live here and I’m not ready for fuel stablizer runs yet!
GFS ensembles are telegraphing a very active pattern as we get into March:
There are two features that are very interesting:
- NAO- Greenland High, which has been absent most of the winter
- 50/50 or Newfoundland Low
This set up can be a pre-cursor to snowy/stormy patterns over the northeastern United States. Most of the mid-long range models show a seemingly endless parade of weather systems for the first half of March.
With such a fast flow (nearly zonal) across the United States, it’s a fool’s errand to try to latch onto certain dates for storms any more more than a few days away.
Assuming we can get decent snows from at least two or three of these “opportunities” I think that we’ll be able to ride snowmobiles in ilsnow land for at least a few more weeks, even if the best has passed. However, I don’t believe that it will turn tremendously cold for several days at a time. And, unless there is a mega-March snowstorm lurking in the weeds, I think the snowmobiling season is essentially done for most places outside the higher elevation regions of Tug Hill and Adirondacks.
We’ll see what happens…
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Progressive Motorsports, celebrating their 24th year. They live, eat and breathe snowmobiling. Stop in today and see for yourself! Be sure to tell Karen that Darrin @ ilsnow.com sent ya.
