A Little More Cold, A Lot More Snow

February 16th through 22nd, 2026

Lake Lucerne
At the beginning of last week we enjoyed a spillover of the warm temperatures from the week before. Highs in the upper 40s°F and lows on the good side of freezing felt, sounded, and smelled of spring. That spring time freshness got slowly chilled and suddenly buried as the week progressed.
Lake Lucerne
The heat at the start of the week melted the bottle rocket forts down to and then past ruin.
Lake Lucerne
The lake melt exposed a few more rocket sticks. They were picked.
Lake Lucerne
The warm weather's slow demise started with a one turkey flyby.
Lake Lucerne
The warm peaked early in the week. On Tuesday, a blue sky was replaced by clouds and warm was replaced with seasonal cool. It felt like snow.
Lake Lucerne
The first round of snow was only about 3 inches. The second was the deepest at 5 inches. After that, we'd get a fresh inch or two every night. Clearing it reminded many of the story of Sisyphus.
Lake Lucerne
The above freezing days in the middle of the week grew the Bar's roof teeth back.
Lake Lucerne
By the end of the week, heaps of snow began to encroach on fire number signs and mailboxes. Road signs are still above the growing piles. For now.
Lake Lucerne
In addition to getting covered, some mailboxes were taking abuse from waves of snow kicked up by passing plows.
Lake Lucerne
As the temperatures dropped and snow got deeper, the squirrel and the deer laid down together for warmth. Looks like the squirrel won.
Lake Lucerne
The less said about deteriorating road conditions the better.
Lake Lucerne
On Monday and parts of Tuesday, some of the men were talking tapping. They have not been heard of since mid-week.
Lake Lucerne
By the end of the week, the southern bottle rocket war fort went from ruin to snowaeological dig sight.
Lake Lucerne
The northern fort passed one step further to "Lump".
Lake Lucerne
The last task was to check on the lake ice. It took longer than ever to drill the measurement hole.
Lake Lucerne
On the north end, Lucerne is currently boasting 19.5 inches of very good ice with 9.5 inches of snow covering it.
Lake Lucerne
The sun struggled to come out since last Tuesday. The sky started to clear a little late Sunday, but there was no warmth to be had. Plenty of cold though. This comes as no surprise. It's still February and that big rat Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. In other events, the free drinks, pickled eggs, and the no questions asked policy for fresh groundhog pelts is still being honored on the North end of Lucerne.


-Nemo now considers a turkey flyby a bad omen.