Looks like we’ve quickly changed over from winter to spring here in Wisconsin. The last couple of days have been very foggy out, yesterday and again this morning we had rain with more rain forecast for the next 5 days and our temperatures are forecast to be in the upper 40’s and pushing 50 the next few days. It goes without saying that the snow is melting fast and our yard has reappeared.

Another sign of spring also happened on Monday when two tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, one of them being an F2 that destroyed 5 homes . Here’s some video of that tornado.

Today could be very rough day for folks living in eastern Oklahoma, southeast Kansas, Arkansas, and southern Missouri as conditions are setting up for the possibility of a big severe thunderstorm and tornado outbreak  this afternoon and tonight. Let’s hope that it’s not to bad for those folks. Lynne has a cousin who lives in southern Missouri so our thoughts will be with him and his family today. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the radar in that area today.

If you’d like to follow the storms chasers live as they chase these storms, the best place to do it is at TornadoVideos.net at this link: http://www.tornadovideos.net/full-screen-chaser-video.php

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First off, sorry for not posting as much the last few days. We’re having some work done in the house this week and we’ve been moving and rearranging things to get ready for that. Because of the work being done, I’m not sure how much I’ll post this week either.

Secondly, our good friend Kahlee has put up a new post on her blog, Spirits Dancing in the Heart of the Wind. The post is entitled Spring Wildflowers are Here… So What’s Blooming Where? and it contains many great links to Kahlee’s favorite online wildflower resources. If  you want to know where the flowers are blooming in California, check out this list.

Finally, our March meltdown has begun here in Wisconsin. Temps have been in the low 40’s for the last few days and Spring is in the air. The forecast is calling for temps to remain in the 40’s with a chance of rain the rest of the week. Today it’s beautiful out.

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March Photo of the Month: Fish Tug Entering Kenosha Harbor, Lake Michigan, Kenosha WI

This month’s photo comes from my first weekend visiting Kenosha back on the 3rd of March, 2008. This interesting  boat is a fish tug, a boat that’s native to the Great Lakes. This fish tug was first created for the commercial fishing industry in the 1930’s. It was designed to stand up to the challenging conditions found on the Great Lakes year around. There are three fish tugs currently in Kenosha Harbor, this was my first encounter with one.

I was out photographing the ice and slush of the harbor when , to my surprise, I heard a boat horn from the lake. I thought I was hearing things.  No way was there a boat out there amongst all that ice. Then I saw it. I quickly changed lenses and got four shots fired off before  the boat was by me. This image is my favorite of the four.

At the time I had no idea what this boat was, but after some searching online I was able to learn more about the fish tugs and their importance to the fishing history of the Great Lakes. If you’d like to know more about fish tugs, here’s a great source: Fish Tugs of the Greatest Lake

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As the latest storm dumped another foot of snow on the Sierra Nevada, the snow pack is looking pretty good for the beginning of March. The March 1st snow surveys are showing the average water content of the snow pack to be 107% of normal.

Mammoth Mtn is the first ski area in the Sierra to reach the 400 inch snowfall mark for the season, passing it yesterday. As of today they sit at 412 inches. Kirkwood is second at 372 inches. Both have snow bases of 11-14 feet.

The next storm comes in this weekend and is forecast to be the first cut-off low of the winter. The current forecast has the storm hitting Southern California more than the Sierra though.

Just an extra note here, this same storm may bring on the first severe weather event for the middle of the country. The storm chasers are beginning to lick their lips as tornado season approaches.

Speaking of tornadoes, there was only one tornado in the whole country for the month of February. You’ll never guess where it was?

Bakersfield, CA

Heard that on The Weather Channel this morning

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