The Iceman Cometh

For the most part nothing surprises me much anymore in regards to the weather. Sure, I remarked last week about having a blizzard one week, below zero temperatures the next, and then hitting 50 degrees the next. Well today it was ice. I guess it really wasn’t full-on ice. Yesterday it rained, snowed, sleeted, and everything in between. As a result the roads were covered with a half frozen mix of snow, slush, and ice. It was probably my worst commute to work I’ve had.

The ride home wasn’t much better and was actually made worse by the freezing rain / sleet that were coming down. While it was nice to just up on a bike and leave work right away instead of having to scrape a car windshield like many others, I didn’t appreciate the pelting precipitation on my face. Safe to say I regretted trimming my beard last night. If I was going against the east wind, which of course was also the direction of the rain / sleet was from, it wasn’t so bad I suppose. I knew where the bad patches of icy and slush were from riding this morning and was able to ride more easily even in the waning sunlight. What did catch my attention was the layer of ice that was forming on my gloves. At first I thought it was road spray that was getting on my gloves and freezing. Then I got home, got off the bike, and took stock of the rest of my parts. Not only were my gloves covered in a layer of ice but so were my jacket, helmet, and backpack. This was a new one to me. I’ve been wet from rain and have had snow stuck to me but never ice. I suppose this is yet another good reason to bike every day. I never know what I could miss and what new experience is down the road.

What's With the Wild Wisconsin Weather?

Two weeks ago we had our midweek blizzard, which kept me off the bike three out of five workdays. Last week I only biked to work on Monday as the rest of the week was too cold. If the morning air temperature wasn’t below zero, the wind chill factor always was. Not having eye / upper face protection and warmer gloves for that bitter cold, I regretfully took the car. In all of January I only missed biking to work one day out of the whole month. In the past two weeks, I’ve missed seven days out of ten.

With that all said, what does this week bring weather wise? Oh, it’s just a complete reverse of weather. This week the high temperatures range from 35 – 55F with low temperatures from 15 – 35F. This past Friday the morning low was -9F with a daytime high of 25F. Two days later, Sunday’s temperatures were a low of 29F and a high of 46F. I can’t remember the last time the weather took such a swing.

By no means am I complaining though. It was nice to be able to bike home tonight without as many layers and even without a jacket. I don’t know the last time I was able to only wear a single light pair of gloves. Instead of having to slow down for slippery snow, I instead had to slow down for the giant puddles that all of that snow had caused from melting. There was enough snow melted away that I might even be able to get Ol’ Blue out and leave the burly mountain bike at home in the stable. We’ll see. Of course I’m hoping winter is behind us, but as always I’m sure there’s at least one more substantial winter storm or two coming. Knowing this crazy weather, it will probably come in April.