Saguaro

Yeesh. Horror show. So many times this kind of thing happened in the springs and well into the summers too when I lived in ME. Here's memorabilia from another one circa May 2012.

The ridge that will eventually (hopefully?) be migrating out that way is establishing itself over us at the moment. Today's high was right around 90. We had our first 90s of the season about a week and a half ago. Rest of this week: Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 93. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 64. Breezy, with a northeast wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 94. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 63. Northeast wind around 5 mph. Friday: Sunny, with a high near 97. East northeast wind around 5 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 65. Calm wind becoming east northeast around 5 mph after midnight. Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 97. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon. On Sunday it starts moving out of here. Next week will be much cooler with 70s. You really have the best way of wording the unique experience of eastern new england's climate. I say that as someone who endured the same misery there for many, many failed springs and summers. I watched that same elimination game carry well into summer, and forecasted heat waves get continually trimmed back on both the front and backside until, as mentioned it was basically a transient warm sector for 24-48 hours. I remember there being a particularly miserably, cold, rainy period in mid to late May 2002 before the pattern suddenly and dramatically reversed in early June, going on to be a summer for the ages. It wasn't as bad as that 2005 stretch but it was memorable. Maybe more so in Maine than the rest of NE. I heard them out in southwest CT back in mid March when talking to a friend of mine who lives there.

It's showing 33.8 for temp so I don't think it's sticking yet. Last four updates showing -SN https://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/meso_base_dyn.cgi?stn=KIZG&unit=0&timetype=LOCAL

IZG has gone over to snow now

I've been checking IZG obs and they're still raining. I think they're getting close though, dewpoint has been dropping and the temp is now down to 35. I thought lowering ceilings might offer a clue but they've been bouncing around. GYX forecast is 12-18"

Still -4, actually dropped to -5 for a bit within the last hour.

-4 currently in the western Maine Bridgton area. Will be going from this to mid 70s in AZ tomorrow.

Sleet and freezing rain have commenced in the Bridgton ME area. Temps in the lower 20s.

Yesterday's event in the Bridgton ME area began as a burst of snow that amounted to a heavy coating, followed by freezing rain for a few hours. Little to no icing. It doesn't appear there was any additional snow overnight. Tomorrow's event looks well south and minimal impact this far north.

I've been back in Maine for Christmastime. This was a very rare year where there wasn't a grinch storm for Christmas. Instead there was a snow event on Christmas day as well as a few minor events in the preceding week. It does seem very difficult to keep rain at bay for the Christmas to New Year stretch, and sure enough there were some rain events the week after Christmas as well as New Years day. In the meantime, back in AZ the same time period had a very gloomy, chilly and damp stretch which rivaled the typical late May pattern in Maine. The Phoenix area even got down near freezing last weekend. Today's event has begun as snow with those anomalously large flakes that warn of warming in the upper levels and imply an imminent switch to sleet and freezing rain. Heading back to AZ tomorrow, where the pattern has greatly improved to clear skies with highs in the lower 70s. Someone at the NWS there sounds like springtime powderfreak, focusing on the large diurnal spreads: I've never seen anything which has topped that Jan 1994 arctic outbreak. We had a solid week of single digit highs in southwest CT at the time, while I believe the Burlington VT area couldn't get above zero for that duration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv0ovzETWug?&t=84s

Today's highs ended up being: KIZG: 79 KFFZ: 77 Tomorrow's forecast calls for mid 80s at FFZ and mid 60s at IZG, so this stretch looks like it's over.

These past three days, IZG has been warmer than the Phoenix AZ area: 10/12 KIZG: 78 KFFZ: 68 10/13 KIZG: 81 KFFZ: 74 10/14 so far KIZG: 78 KFFZ: 72

FFW out for nw cumberland and se oxford ME counties. It's pouring like the monsoon storms in AZ right now.

A surprisingly nice day today in western ME after it looked to be wall to wall gloom through the weekend. Upper 70s and very breezy. The low marine crap cleared out around noon and the dewpoints mixed down once the wind came up. It's oddly reminiscent of a cold frontal passage even though we're supposed to be in the warm sector. As for the July laments, I have to say that southern AZ went through similar times that month with much above normal precip and well below normal highs.

oops. For some reason I thought it was you.

Yea that's what I figured but was motivated to take a look after seeing tamarack's pictures

I'm back in western ME for a few weeks, very close to Waterford. I drove around there yesterday in the midpoint of the TOR polygon looking for any signs of damage and came up empty for the most part. Chances are it's pretty localized and I just didn't run across anything. I don't know if GYX is planning a survey of the area.

If it weren't for these interruptions from the tropical systems, this could have been an impressive stretch for duration. BTV and Montreal both hit 90s yesterday away from all the clouds.

Don't forget the heat event in September 2002 which had some upper 90s days, at least in western ME.

IZG managed 89.6 today. P&C says it won't get that warm again through the end of the period. Henri is probably going to be a nonevent up that way.

Semi-retired, still work on some projects here and there. After my first experience living in the southwest for a few years, I never wanted to go back to the New England climate, so I knew this was always going to be my home eventually. I wonder if it will be something that at least tries to salvage the small remainder of summer, or if it ends up more like that horrid July period where NE gets hosed.

Just checked the P&C for my former western ME location: 60s and low 70s for the entire period. Yeesh. Yea this summer is beyond shot back that way, though that writing was on the wall once July began. I didn't think that that first June heat event would be as hot as it ever got for the season, though some previous seasons in the past have behaved similarly enough that it's by no means unprecedented at this point. I recall getting groceries in North Conway during the warmest day in June and it was pretty legit heat, to the point of me noticing the similarity to my daily experiences in AZ.

I began noticing that trend in the summer of 2013. That year there was early heat and humidity, then lights out around mid July and the season was finished. Ever since then it seems NE (more so our favorite labradorian portion) has been struggling almost every summer to get sustained heat, and then once August hits it's over. It's even been an unusual year out this way, the monsoon is going gangbusters. Today's been overcast and intermittent light rain and we're going to be some 30 degrees below normal for highs, only mid 70s when our typical high is around 105.

Another hallmark of a summer that's gone well beyond salvageable. I've seen it before, the ridge sets up in a strategic position upstream (usually somewhere in Canada) and those places bake with true summer conditions for weeks while NE is plagued with constant wet, cool, damp conditions. Then when NE finally catches a break and gets a chance at real summer weather, it gets scuttled by smoke thanks to that persistent upstream ridge that's made things ripe for wildfires.

I didn't realize there had been five in the last three weeks, insane especially for July. It never ceases to amaze me the numerous ways summer can be thwarted in the northeastern part of NE, and even in the situation where there are no foreseeable ways, a phantom one will be invented.