Heave ho, the wind blows—oh no! Arriving Friday night into Saturday morning, a storm bringing wind, rain, and snow—the latter as the temperature dropped—made the night of March 31 a proverbial lion in weather terms, continuing into April Fool’s Day with around two inches of white stuff. Caught in the mix was the highway sign at the Stanley Travel Stop, given a narrow pass by the December 2021 tornado but falling Friday night.

With public works making one last round the morning of April 1 as winter parking hours officially expired, the Chippewa River at Eau Claire breached ‘Action’ stage or 764 feet above sea level by noon Saturday, draining the stormwater and melt snow from an area including the Yellow River, Flambeau River, and both forks of the Eau Claire (north and south).

With spring quickly reasserting itself as the day progressed, the blanket of white shrank over the weekend, erasing the gains made by winter in terms of ground cover. With the 2023 spring flood outlook from the National Weather Service predicting minor flood stage for much of Wisconsin as of March 16 and currents unpredictable, it only takes a few inches to lift a vehicle off the road. The old road adage is applicable here: “When in doubt turn around, don’t drown.”

Water wasn’t the whole story, however.

Down at Stanley Travel Stop at 600 South Broadway, the highway sign inviting drivers to exit at Stanley took a tumble, with high winds bringing the sign with broad surface area crashing down and almost knocking out power to the store, leading to a visit from Excel Energy later in the night.

In weather more generally, snow fell from South Dakota across the Great Lakes, while warmer temperatures further south brought severe weather to southern Wisconsin and Illinois.

Looking at this weekend locally, the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies Thursday and Friday with temperature highs ranging from the upper thirties to mid forties Fahrenheit. With Saturday cloudy, the Sun peeks back on Sunday, with a forecast high of 63 degrees.