It wasn’t quite like the planet Hoth outside on Thursday March 9 into Friday morning, but it was enough to call out the plow trucks and city snowblower attachment.

With atmospheric pressure Friday morning registering 30.1 inches and 1040 millibars on the barometer once flurries had cleared Friday night, the day’s brief venture into above freezing territory left the original white fluffy sky drop akin to slush by evening, before a drop below 32 degrees made freezing temperatures overnight.

For those who bothered to clear their driveways in the morning, any remaining snow had disappeared by Friday evening while those who didn’t faced a decidedly slush based  mess, pending the weather.

In the countryside, gravel roads suffered from the wet conditions as pothole chains began to appear in straight lines, a sign that the road base underneath had started to shift with warming temperatures.

The fun started back up Saturday and Sunday, as intermittent snowfall redeposited what had been cleared just two days earlier.

As to the frozen moisture to date and its potential impact on spring planting, unofficial measures taken from from Stanley and Boyd showed approximately half of a two foot ice scraper inserted scraper side down at the entrance to Lotz Park, while a check of the shore on the east side of Chapman Lake at Fandry Park in Stanley hit ice pack after just three inches, a potentially less than promising sign for its quick disappearance, pending the temperature.

As to the surrounding area records for March 9 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show net gain of zero in terms of snowfall, with stations at Chippewa Falls, Jim Falls, Ladysmith, Medford, and Colby all registering this value. Mondovi registered two inches while Wausau registered one, with Rhinelander registering 0.3 inches.

Cleanup continued Monday, with city crews working to remove nature’s latest bounty from city streets. The shadows lengthened as the morning advanced on Monday, shrunk towards noon, and lengthened in the opposite direction as night came.

For those who wish it would be over, remember: spring will come.