More snow on way as temperatures set to drop sharply this week

Think you’re just dreaming of a white Christmas?”

You can pinch yourself—it’s real this time. Arriving exactly one year after the Dec. 15 tornado on Dec. 15, 2022, a more conventional storm for this time of year saw partial power knockouts at Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Stanley, Owen, Greenwood, Abbotsford, and Colby. Isolated power losses also occurred at Boyd, Thorp, and north of Stanley on H.

Beginning Dec. 14 with a cold rain that quickly turned to ice and provided the adhesive as such, the second volley saw a light peppercorn snowfall providing a crunchy texture underfoot that wasn’t easy to scrape off.

Arriving precisely one year after the Dec. 15, 2021 tornado on Dec. 15, 2022, a more conventional storm for this time of year saw partial power knockouts at Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Stanley, Owen, Greenwood, Abbotsford, and Colby. Isolated power losses also occurred at Boyd, Thorp, and north of Stanley on H.

In Stanley, that outage involved 11 points and 1,015 customers on the grid, while at Owen-Withee a combined seven outages impacted 143 customers as of Thursday morning at 10 a.m. At Abbotsford-Colby a total of 12 outages affected 512 customers, the majority (437) at Colby.

At Dorchester, a three outage hit left 263 customers without power, andat Spencer five outages left a combined 342 customers without electricity.

As for Stanley itself, the breakdown included 140 on the south side, with the Stanley substation down and notable outages on Franklin Street as well, with additional outages through town.

Boyd and Thorp reported one outage each, affecting a single customer in each case.

As to Stanley, many of those who had power after last year’s storm, didn’t, and those who did, didn’t necessarily enjoy that privilege this time around. The Stanley-Boyd High School parking lot remained unplowed as of school open, and one student who came in on snowmobile towards 8 a.m.was seen to turn around at Fourth Avenue as it became clear there would be no school anytime soon.

Down at the Stanley Travel Stop and McDonald’s, a power outage caused issues with the morning open, while out on Highway X the old barn past Kutzee’s continued to hold out against the twin stressors of heavy snow and gravity, while out at the Schmidt Maple Woods Nature Reserve the deer tick danger was effectively neutralized, the silo made visible once again to the west by the dropping of leaves with winter. Buckthorn held steady, while trilliums awaited spring thaw to spread their magic at the no hunting deer paradise.

“Other than the cold it’s very pretty,” said one IGA worker of the dazzling countryside.

With more snow in the forecast and temperatures set to dip below zero, it’s not over yet.