It's 35 degrees under sunny skies at 3:30 PM at Leelanau Coffee Roasting in Glen Arbor. The record high for a February 8th was 52 degrees in 1925Â with the low of -18 set in 1904. The forecast for today calls for sunny skies with highs in the 30s. For Thursday, expect sunny skies and upper 30s. Expect snow and windy conditions on Friday with temps in the 20s. The early weekend outlook is for snow and teens Saturday and light snow and 20s on Sunday.
This week's photo is A Little Sunrise Ice Magic by Ken Scott. See it bigger and check out Ken's snow slideshow!
Coming Events
Empire Winterfest (Feb 11), Traverse City Winter Microbrew Festival (Feb 11), Glen Arbor Winterfest (Feb 18),   Sleeping Bear Snowshoe Hikes (Every Saturday). Check the Leelanau Calendar. Check the Leelanau Calendar! You can click that link to add your Leelanau & Traverse City events to the calendar for FREE! Not only will they be distributed with our weekly newsletter, but they may be a featured story on Leelanau.com!
Week's Weather & Weather Resources
Click for the Leelanau News Archive from February 2011Â and also the School Closings & Delays from 9&10 News.
Please also check the less pessimistic Weather.com forecast)
Weather Underground is just about as old as the internet (the first net weather service) and is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sometimes the above banner will show personal weather system data from Leelanau Coffee in Glen Arbor, sometimes from Leland and sometimes it comes from a vineyard on Old Mission (it tells you which in the top left of the page it links to).
Buoy 45002 in Lake Michigan is located halfway between North Manitou Island and Washington Island in Lake Michigan. It provides wind and wave data. Also check out Michigan Sea Grant Coastwatch for water temps (the "early evening" images in their archive will give you a better idea of actual temps during peaks swimming hours ... in seasons where you might actually want to swim!).
Ken caught the sunrise - click to see it bigger and check out Ken's snow slideshow!
This photo of the Northern Lights over Fishtown was taken by Ken Scott in October of 2011. Today on Absolute Michigan we posted a feature about a solar flare that may bring northern lights to Leelanau's skies tonight (and potentially over the next few days):
NASA's Space Weather site is the place to go for Aurora Borealis forecasting as they help make sense of the data the space agency receives about solar flares and their impact on earth's atmosphere. Yesterday they gave Northern Lights watchers a lot of hope with this news:
This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash (shown right or in short movie right here)
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft detected a CME rapidly emerging from the blast site: movie. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the leading edge of the CME will reach Earth on Jan. 24 at 14:18UT (+/- 7 hours).
That means it's hitting the Earth 11 AM - 6 PM EST, but this level of intensity makes the Northern Lights a real possibility for the next couple of days so definitely LOOK UP tonight and tomorrow if there's any break in the clouds! If the northern lights hit, our Northern Lights Log will light up with reports. You can also learn a lot more about the Northern Lights at Michigan in Pictures and also at aurora borealis on Leelanau.com!
Along with many sites on the Web, Leelanau.com went dark on January 18th to protest a pair of truly awful bills that are on a fast-track for passage, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA).
Neither of these new laws would stop piracy, which we at Leelanau.com are opposed to. Both, however, would put control of online content in the hands of large entertainment corporations and the government, placing a giant burden on web media outlets like Wikipedia, WordPress, YouTube ... and even little old Leelanau.com.
With our Leelanau.com, Absolute Michigan and Michigan in Pictures websites all down yesterday, there was some time to think about the issue, and we'd like to share one thought: We live in a world very different from the early 1700s when Parliament enacted the Statute of Anne to address the concerns of English booksellers and printers (you can look it up ... for now, on Wikipedia).
We are encouraged at every turn and by every consumer device to sing along to commercials, dance to the latest music and in general, swim in a sea of ever-present media. You can debate the pros and cons of doing that but it seems that expecting our candid videos, blogged observations or FacebookedTM thoughts won't incorporate background music or samples, brand names is flat-out silly. We need intelligent and well thought out laws that recognize the modern world, and SOPA and PIPA definitely aren't either of those things.
Click here to watch a short video or read more about this issue and please take a moment to contact your elected officials through the links we provide!
This week's photo was taken by Mark Miller at Empire Beach. See more of his great work in his slideshow.
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
~Old Farmer’s Almanac
Speaking of wolves and January, last month the US Fish & Wildlife Service removed wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the federal endangered species list. Wolves are now managed by states in the region and the ruling takes effect on Friday, January, 2012. Read the release from the Michigan DNR about wolf de-listing.
Photo credit: Moon over Lake Leelanau by Missy Luick (a February full moon...)
This week's photo is Flying Crane by GLASman1. He captured it this May in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore . See it background big, on his map or check out more shots in his Sandhill Cranes slideshow. You learn more about these majestic birds and see another shot from Mark on Michigan Birds: Sandhill Crane from Michigan in Pictures!
Thanksgiving is just a week away and here's a few ideas to help make your holiday a little more local ... and a lot tastier!
It all starts with the turkey. I'm not sure if the folks at Hubbell's Farm or Haymaker Poultry Co. have any left, but I do know that one great place to get a tasty turkey is Biehl's Circle B Turkey Ranch. You can order them at the Merc in Leland and Oryana in Traverse City (and probably elsewhere as well). Don't forget to check the local produce and products at your favorite store - the Merc, Anderson's in Glen Arbor, Cedar City Market, Hanson's in Suttons Bay and Oryana and Burritt's Market in Traverse City all feature a lot of great food that hasn't traveled too far. There's a indoor farmers market at the Grand Traverse Commons every Saturday from 10 AM - 2 PM. If last week is any guide, there will be PLENTY of potatoes, squash and also lots of greens! If anyone has other ideas to localize your table, post them in the comments!
Once you have your bird and some ingredients, you need to think about how you're going to put it all together. Elizabeth Edwards at MyNorth/Traverse Magazine put together a collection of some of their best Thanksgiving recipes. We asked Lee Lutes, winemaker at Black Star Farms to share some of his thoughts on wine pairings- enjoy!
Two tasty appetizers are a Wild Game Sausage on Apple Slices with Cranberry Butter, with which Lee recommends a lighter red like Pinot Noir or Gamay Noir, and with the Wedge of Raclette Served With Spiced Walnuts and Pear Chips, he calls for something delicate maybe a bubbly (may we recommend Black Star Farms' really excellent Bubbly Nouveau when it's bottled) or a Pinot Grigio or a Pinot Blanc. Two tasty side dishes that really in season are Honey Roasted Root Vegetables and Buttermilk Biscuits with Pumpkin Butter. You'll be in great shape with Pinot Gris, Riesling, Pinot Blanc or Auxerrois. For dessert, how about a Plum Almond Tart, with which Lee would pair any of their Sirius dessert wines and also Ice wines.
See more thoughts on how make it a Michigan Thanksgiving on Absolute Michigan.
photo credit: Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash by carianoff
The annual Toast the Season Wine Tour returns to the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail for two weekends - November 5 & 6 or November 12 & 13. The self-guided tour features a special wine & food pairing (yum) at each of the 19 Leelanau Peninsula member wineries.
At your starting winery you will be given a commemorative glass, an LPVA holiday ornament, a souvenir wine key and a holiday gift bag featuring local food including fair trade coffee from Higher Grounds Trading Company of Traverse City, cocoa-coated chocolate covered almonds from Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire, and (of course) Michigan cherries from Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor!
Tickets are available online along with Toast the Season packages from a number of local lodging partners.
Ken shot this last night in Fishtown - see it bigger along with a couple more in his slideshow.
The display of the aurora borealis was one of the finest in a decade and was part of an EXPLOSION of Northern Lights that was seen all over Michigan!
Great Indoor Folk Festival ~ Feb 12, 2012
