29. It's been almost a year since my last post, and again the topic of concern is the area's fire danger. Wisconsin DNR set danger levels at Very High and Extreme across most of the state today, with the NWS issuing Red Flag Warnings is certain areas of the state.
I have not seen nor heard of any large fires in the region today, although there is word of a fire in the eastern side of the Cheq-Nic National Forest (so someplace around Forest or Oconto counties). Green Bay TV news doesn't seem to have any fire related reports this evening.
The fortunate news is that the winds will die down this evening; the unfortunate news is that it looks like the dry weather will continue into the foreseeable future. I checked out the 18z GFS model run this evening. All the precipitation will likely stay south of the western Great Lakes through at least the 24th of April, and even then, looking that far ahead is only a guess.
Following the fire danger is the continuing drought. The US Drought Monitor has increased the area of "severe" drought across northern Wisconsin, stretching from Washburn county eastward to Vilas and Oneida counties. "Moderate" drought continues to expand across the rest of far northern Wisconsin and abnormally dry conditions (the yellow shading) are creeping southward.
The growing season has not commenced in far northern Wisconsin, but this will become an agricultural problem if we do not receive adequate rainfall within the next month. In the meantime, river and lake levels continue to fall, while vegetation slowly begins to green up.