We had a bit of a double-whammy weather-wise on May 14th.

First, the weather was gorgeous throughout the day. Prevailing southwesterly winds pushed temps in southern Wisconsin near 90°… however at Peninsula State Park, the warmest I found it was 81°. 81 glorious, sunny, fabulous degrees. :D Interestingly, it was much cooler from Sister Bay-north. Ephraim was warm — 78° — but Sister Bay was a cool 64°, and it didn’t budge upward.

At Peninsula State Park, the ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapillus) had arrived, their “teacher! teacher! teacher!” call echoing through the woods near Welcker’s Point and Tennison Bay Campground.

The forest floor was blanketed in forget-me-nots (Myosotis spp.) at Tennison Bay as well. It’s boggling how such a tiny flower can make such a beautiful effect. Periwinkle blue is so unexpected on the forest floor.

(Do you see the early spring bumble bee hard at work, in picture #2?)

Near the old site of Camp Meenahga, an odd shape caught my eye, poking up in the woods. Initially I thought they were cattails… but wait, upland? In well-drained soil under white cedars? No way! ;) I threw the car in reverse to have a better look. I was treated to early-season ferns, slowly unfurling their tender green shoots.

As I left the park, I was suspiciously eyed by a defiant male red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), perched in a rare primo tree that overlooks the marsh.

…and then he chickened out (maybe he felt outmatched by the car?) and he flew off with a fuss.

Then the weather hit. In the evening, what I would guess was a secondary front passed through, bringing with it strong, very humid, very warm southwesterly winds. It had been in the low 60s at that point, with a reasonable dewpoint. In less than an hour, this amazing heat/moisture pump had jacked up the temperature to 82° and the dew point to 72° — between 10:30 and 11:30 PM!!!

This heat/moisture pump fueled lines of thunderstorms, which developed over Oconto County and moved eastward. As one line would pass over Door County, another was firing up across the bay. We listened to the thunder rumble for a couple hours before it ever arrived here. The light show from the lightning flashing in the clouds in the distance was, honestly, beautiful.

None of the storms were severe. On average most locations in the county received 0.20-0.40 inches of rain. There were no reports of wind damage nor hail. There was a lot of lightning with these lines, which made for a good show… but that was about it. ;)

The summer-like temps were short-lived. By the next morning, we were back in the 50s. This evening it is 45° with a stiff North wind at 19 MPH.

Filed under: Birds • Flowers • Weather

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!