By Joe Crain
Sunset over the frozen lake on Dec. 10
Winter has gotten off to a rather sputtering start here in the great Northwoods of Wisconsin. November’s warm ending melted off a rather late but promising six inches of snow that had come midmonth. The warm spell left the start of December green rather than white. That warmer-than-usual finish of November continued into the start of December with temperatures remaining above average for the first five days of the month. Out on the lake the story of the sputtering start to winter was being told by an advancing and then receding ice sheet. The cold nights had been gradually icing the lake over and by the end of November the lake was about 80% covered in a nice smooth layer of ice. It was looking like Caretaker Andy was going to get another year of early winter ice skating out on Lake Nebagamon. But, with the warm weather that came at the end of November and some strong winds out of the South, the ice receded back to maybe 25% coverage. As the nights once again started to turn cold despite the warmer than average day-time highs, the ice slowly started to advance over the surface of the lake again. On the 6th of December, the weather turned to winter once again when we started the day with a morning temperature of 25 degrees that fell from there through the day to a low of -15! With a below zero start to the 7th and virtually no wind that night, the lake had finally frozen completely over and the ice was as smooth as glass. But winter’s start sputtered again and by the 9th we were at and above freezing again and before Adam Fornear could get his ice boat to the lake all of that nice ice was covered in water. This time around the ice was thick enough and was able to withstand the warmer temps and the sheet remained intact despite reaching a high temperature of 55 degrees on the 15th of December! Yep, you read that 
right, we had a high temperature of 55 degrees here in the far north woods of Wisconsin on December 15th 2021!! Well as you can imagine the snow situation was dismal with all these ups and downs in temperature. Although we had been treated to a six-inch snow fall with the ice forming cold burst of the 6th the subsequent heatwave melted that off in a flash. Though there were a couple of overnight dusters through the month that left the ground white here and there, it wasn’t until 21st that we really had a plowable snow again but another winter sputter and a high temperature of 43 degrees on December 24th made a quick melt of that. Comfortingly, as we stared down the clock and the final hours of 2021 it actually looked like winter outside again. Now there is a solid eight inches of snow in my backyard thanks to two back-to-back post-Christmas storms! The temperatures again have turned cold since the 25th of December with readings hovering in the mid to upper twenties for highs and falling into the sub zeros overnight. With a high of -3 degrees on New Year’s Day and a delightfully frigid forecast reaching out for the first week of the New Year, maybe winter has ceased its sputtering and will finally give us northlanders the weather we all expect and love this time of year.
So happy that my upcoming annual ski week of winter vacation has been saved, it’s Caretaker Joe At camp.
