It's been quite the winter here in north-central Wisconsin.
"The temperatures have fluctuated so much," said Justin Loew, Stormtrack9 Meteorologist. "We've
been going between below zero temperatures and high temperatures around 40
degrees during ultimate weeks in the month of January. So every time we get
snow, it seems like it melts. And that happened in December as well."
Forecasters say we've already seen more snow this year than
all of winter last year.
But the ups and downs have made life hard for winter sports
enthusiasts. Fortunately for skiers and snowboarders, Granite
Peak makes its own snow. But for snowmobilers, it's been a tough
season.
"The past few years we've gotten a variety of weather
conditions," said Jon Daniels,
Marathon County Snowmobile/ATV Coordinator.
"We can't really judge what's normal anymore because we've
been getting some extremes that are not typical to the Midwest or certainly
central Wisconsin."
There is some good news for winter sports fans. Snowmobile
trails in Marathon
County will open Friday
at noon.
"We've got probably fair to good conditions," said Daniels. "Not
ideal but they are good enough so we want to get the trails open while they
can."
Forecasters say it's tough to predict how much more snow
we'll get this winter. But say what's already on the ground will stick around
for a few more weeks.
