tamarack

I grew up in Kinnelon, the next town south, but I went to Butler HS. If I'd been a year younger, I'd have been in the first graduating class of Kinnelon HS. Most of Butler is 200-400 feet lower than where we lived, and that difference occasionally was dramatic. The ice storm of Jan 8-9, 1953 ripped trees apart near home and took out our power for 6 days. Most of Butler had cold RA. In late March 1961 we had a paste bomb to cap our 100"+ winter, 5-6 sloppy inches outside the HS, most coming in 4 hours. School closed at noon but no buses heading south so a bunch of us walked the 5 miles, finding 12" at home. Cut the Christmas tree, now waiting for the water in the stand to freeze before I try to do anything else with it.

Looks like 2.1" (NNJ along Rt 23) near where I grew up. Cloudy with an occasional flake and low 20s. One noon news station has us at 5-9. Might reach the low end.

That's a new one for me. The single full day's closing in FK was due to a busted forecast. Folks went to bed that February evening expecting the 1-3" that was forecast and they wouldn't even bother running the plows for that. Then we got 18" in 9 hours and by the time roads and especially parking lots were cleared, the day would be shot anyway. The half day came 6 week later, March 14-15, 1984. Forecast was 6-12", the 6" new had fallen by sunrise with moderate snow - no cancelling for that. By late morning the new snow was 14" with 3"/hr rate, so the buses loaded up at noon and all of them made their runs with little problem. You've probably been on Rt 11 between Portage and FK so you're familiar with the hills. CAR recorded 29.0", I had 26.5" (Biggest I've seen) and FK 24", but they measure 1/day at 7 AM, 6-8 hours after accum ended.

Back in the stone age (50s-60s) NNJ schools would schedule a few "snow days" to avoid early summer classes. (No schools had AC then.) I think only 60-61 required the extended days, as we lost 6 days to snow. Fortunately, the Feb 3-4 bomb was Fri-Sat. If mid-week it would've closed 3 days instead of one. I'm sure that Fort Kent has been lawyered away from the 70s-80s when our 9.7 years there included only 1.5 days of closes, all in 1984. Based on the 12z runs, I'd bump Jeff's hood up. He's close to the Pike, so already in the 8-12 color.

Between the increasing snow forecasts for our area and the kids running thru norovirus (some at peak, some all better), the trip will be on Wednesday. Dealing with Christmas Eve traffic seemed the better choice. GYX afternoon added an inch to the above 3-5. Hoping for nice dendrites and 12-15:1 ratios rather than crummy flakes and 8-9:1.

Feb. 17 was a wonderful month, but if the event you've noted was the storm of 15-16, it was one of the most disappointed 6"+ snowfall in my memory, as it had been forecast as a much bigger dump. On Feb 11 a forecast 1-3 turned into 8" of 30:1 feathers with single-digit temps. Then 12-13 brought 21", bringing the pack to 47". The morning of the 15th, with depth at 44", our forecast was 12-18 - I thought "easy 50s pack, maybe even 60". As flakes began that afternoon, GYX chopped our forecast to 6-10, with the jack moving to west of Sebago. That 6.2 was heavier, temps were milder, and it only raised the pack to 46". My area (wherever I've lived) has been good at dodging IVT. We did get a surprise 2.4" on 3/21/92, but PWM had 11.4" and parts of Kennebunkport 2 feet.

GYX has a watch for the counties just to our south, advisory level here, about 3-5 with high ratio. Family in SNJ is planning to head up tomorrow and can't start before noon, so may be driving their 15-passenger van in snow from Hartford north. Last time they were here for Christmas was 2 years ago, and they didn't see a flake, not even a dirty snow pile (4"+ RA at 50-55° wiped everything), until the day they headed south. Assuming they don't have any "adventures" tomorrow, they'll see fresh white this year.

At least it appears to be solidly lodged in other trees so not about to fall soon. We still have several tall (60+) roadside fir trees lodged since 12/18/23. Finished with 1.26". Gusts at home got into the 30s, but we were in WVL about 5:30 PM when a blast of RA+ was accompanied by gusts that had to be well into the 40s. By the time we left Governor's at 6:20, the wind was less, and the rain was nearly done. Nothing frozen here, beginning or end. Still have a white lawn, 2" of armorplate, but the nearby fields are almost all brown.

Wind arrived about 1 PM, not too strong so far, gusts 30+ but nowhere near the 40-45 forecast for the general area. And not even close to 2 years and one day ago. BTV had 44 at 1 PM, down 18 in 2 hours.

Was even sharper about 9 AM, with some 70 dbz pixels. I'm guessing it will be more d9iffuse before it reaches our longitude. Little wind here so far. Fog rolled in and the temp jumped 5° (35 to 40) in about 30 minutes. 10 AM at IZG was 36, inversion holding there but it can't last.

Always tough to get blamed for someone else's actions. I enjoy both his AFD's and his posts here.

Not even close to a major city, but Machias Maine, at 20' elev, had 106.3" from Jan 25-Feb 23, 2015. Meanwhile in the (usually) snowier foothills, we had 52.5" during the same period. We had 60.1" in 31 days, Feb 10-Mar 12, 2005. In Fort Kent, tops was 63.0" from Dec 7, 1976 thru Jan 6, 1977. December alone had 61.5".

Exactly the same 14.6" here in the western Maine foothills, but with 6" depth and about 0.8" LE.

One site, only 27 winters, percentage of total winter snow: n Oct-Dec Oct-Jan El Nino (8) 24% 51% La Nina (7) 25% 48% La Nada (12) 37% 59% SSS, but the outlier seems obvious.