tamarack

Low 40s with light rain. Better to get this crud now than during fruit tree blossom time like last May - pollinators hiding and trying to stay warm.

Totally different subject - 4 days before the above, my supervisor when I began (Jan 5, 1976)as a forester was at the crew camp next to the Canadian border in far northwestern Maine. He woke up on the 17th to see 3" of snow.

No destructive sunshine here - blue skies, seasonal temps (high a couple degrees BN, low a couple AN) with a bit of breeze. Maple buds opening, along with black cherry.

April numbers: Avg max: 52.4 +0.3 Highest, 72 on the 27th Avg min: 30.4 +1.5 Lowest, 14 on the 8th Mean: 41.4 +0.9 Precip: 4.00" -0.06" Wettest day: 1.18" on the 30th. Storm tried hard to avoid the 7th consecutive BN month (10th of 11) but fell just short. Snow: 2.4" -2.5" (But right on the median) 2.0" of 22:1 fluff fell 9:15-10;45 PM on 4/7, reported on the 8th as my 4/7 obs came at 9 PM. SDDs: one, on the 1st. The 2" fluff was intact at 7 AM for 4/8 cocorahs, but was gone long before my obs. Very average month in many ways - temp within 1°, near avg precip and median snowfall. The warmest and the lowest were within 1° of the 28-year medians (both below). Available sunshine was 43%, on the average for April. We had no powerful storms, a tune that's played for quite a while, but did have a garden-variety TS late evening of the 16th. For 8-10 minutes there was about 2"/hr rate. Half of our Aprils have had at least one thunder day.

Spur. There were supposed to be all hens when a couple dozen was purchased 4-5 years back, but 2 were roosters, so the dominant one (Houdini) ruled the roost, frequently pounding the other rooster, Meriodoc (and other trespassers). Both are now deceased.

I still have a scar from a rooster attack in May of 2024. Was taking some veggie scraps to the grandkids' flock in SNJ, all the hens came as a swarm and "Houdini" (kids name all the birds, of course) wasn't tolerating competition for ruling the hens. Its 2nd attack was repelled when I (carefully) flipped the rooster onto its back, after which it scooted next to the pen and crowed a dozen times - "I won! I won!" Then I noticed the blood running into my shoe.

Exactly the same here, 0.40" thru 7 AM and 0.78" 7 AM thru 9 PM. (Another 0.01" of DZ overnight, but that goes in the May bucket.) Month finished at 4.00" - 7th consecutive BN month and 10th of 11, but only by a whisker. April average is 4.06".

In Maine we call those tiny screen-penetrators mingies. In local French it's 'bruleau' - 'burning'. One rarely feels single bites, but hundreds of teeny-tiny attacks earn that description.

March here was +1.8. April will finish at +1.1. Since 1999, April has averaged 44% of available sunshine. April 2026 will have exactly the same. Precip will finish about 1/2" BN - we're at 0.5"-0.6" from the current event and the best is past. Yesterday's forecast of 1-2" for today was optimistic. Month is finishing close to normal.

Why do I hate ticks? One mid-range (pinhead size) deer tick latched onto my right lower eyelid last evening, within 1/16" of the top edge. After numerous tries I extracted the little horror, but the eyelid is nicely puffed up. The bit of pain with each blink reminds me just how much I despise the critters.

Heading into our 29th summer here, all the hail that has landed in our yard (only 2,000 sq.ft., but still) wouldn't fill a one-gallon bucket. One storm might've dropped a flattened chunk 5/8" on its longest surface. (On August 30, 2007, nickels/quarters hail 6-8 miles southeast from from our place accumulated up to 4" and fully defoliated/partially debarked trees on about 2,000 acres, so that kind of excitement isn't impossible here.) Low 60s for the high here, about 10° above the forecast. 3 hours of midday PC did its work.

Since you noted the errors first (a triple play), I'm responding your way. Average: 88.4" 2025-26: 86.8" Deficit: 1.6"

Sunny 60s here with the trout lilies beginning to bloom. Snow total for 25-26 (barring something very unusual) is 6.8". That's 1.8" BN, currently the closest to my average in 28 snow seasons, with only 2012-13 (90.4", 2.0" AN) being close.

72/30 yesterday, back down to 30 this morning and cloudless. The best of mid-spring.

Sliced and diced from your post. (And I appreciate the info on climate and forecasting.) A friend was a train fan - I think there's a mag by that name - and he had multiple albums filled with various engines doing various things. Once he was a bit to close after a big snowfall and got sluiced as the plow-fronted engine roared by. When I was 5, I was headed toward train-fandom. I knew more about trains back then than now, 75 years later. Temp over 70 after a low of 30; another '40' diurnal. Cut/split some firewood and worked up a good sweat.