tamarack

Multiple showers here but not enough to make puddles. Severe-warned TS arrived - and died - at 4 PM, distant rumble, couple of 20-mph gusts, 0.01". Act 2 at 10:30 was a bit better with 0.09", nearly all in a pair of 30-second downpours. Not much to show for the 20°+ drop in TD. Since June 1 we've had 3.28" RA. Average is 7.12". Would be nice to catch siggy RA on Sunday before the next coolish dry days.

Close. BDL forecast shows 84.

We're running +2.5 here, with minima closer to +5. If the month finishes +2.5 it will rank 4th, but only a 28-year POR. At the far longer Farmington co-op (RIP OCT 2022), +2.5 would not make top 20 (of 128). However, temps dropped when the obs site went to a new observer 1.5 miles north of town center in Sept 1966. For that spot, +2.5 would rank 7th of 56.

Given the numbers of mouse and vole species plus their huge populations, that seems like shoveling sand against the tide.

Might roll differently if one hid in your short hairs and gave you Lyme or anaplas. We're in the woods with forest close to 3 sides of the house, so the tactic below would likely be futile here: Years ago I read of using drier lint (or cotton) mixed with pyrethrin - safely, with gloves - and stuffed into TP rolls or the like. We call the main disease-carrying tick a deer tick, but small rodents - everywhere in the woods - are the main animal vectors and they love that stuffing for nests, thus eliminating the ticks. However, one must place rolls no more than 10 feet apart near the lawn edge and cover them to prevent rain from soaking them. A lawn with 100 yards of edge would require 30 rolls, and they would need to be replaced every few weeks.

My 2022 adventure with anaplasmosis came when a tick crawled into my crotch while I was on our woodlot unsuccessfully waiting for a deer to come by. A week later I picked off the fully engorged little monster but was already feeling awful. Tuesday before T-Day my vision went screwy - could not read the words on the desktop screen - then I staggered into the living room, nearly falling. Wife called 911 for my 2nd ambulance ride (1st was 2018 with A-fib), EMT couldn't puncture my dehydrated skin at first. Got to ER, wife spotted a fresh tick on my back, tests followed and then the doxy had me feeling much better within 24 hours of the first pill. I've had to pull off well-attached ticks many times (resulting in several weeks of itch but no diseases) but only that one got any of my blood. I have so many Lyme stories. Atrocious disease. 3 timer here. One time 105 fever, in the hospital for 3 days. A young man died from Lyme while I was there. I don't go in brush or the woods unless on a trail. Paranoid as fuck My forester job didn't allow that tactic, and I was very fortunate to find/remove hundreds of ticks safely over the past 30 years. Coworker wildlife biologist, who was doing as much or more bushwhacking than me, got Lyme - times 3. He's still going strong, will turn 84 in October.

This morning was the 4th in a row with a low of 61, and 9 of 14 this month have been 60+. Most 60+ minima in July is 15 and I think that's going down. The 17 such minima in August 2021 may be eclipsed as well. Thru the 13th, minima are running +4.6 while maxima are -0.1.

Deerflies can fly about as fast as Usain Bolt can run. We have a modest fleet of them here but the woods in NW Maine had far more when I worked there - dozens to hundreds circling for the kill. However, I once had to await a coworker while at a stream near Jackman and decided to feed deerflies to the trout. While standing still, I had almost no deerflies around. It's like they key on movement, like T-Rex in Jurassic Park. Their bite suggests similar dental equipment (smaller scale) as well.

Had anaplasmosis in November 2022, wife thought I was having a stroke, vision was messed up, 10 days of doxy did its work. Not trying to lower the danger, but I've found that ticks seem less prevalent here during the 2nd half of met summer. Whether they estivate then to avoid the heat, or some other phenomenon, they seem to disappear then. In mid-August 2019 our annual 2-day forest excursion was in southern Maine - Swan Island (huge deer population), Newcastle, Hebron (near LEW) and Skowhegan. 40+ people, not a single tick reported. 10 weeks later I picked up 26 deer ticks in a half-day visit to a state lot in Topsham, 6 miles south from Swan Island.

I'm happy for the unexpected 0.42" last night. That modest addition more than tripled July precip.

Our Lab mix, a rescue from TX who arrived on Feb 4, 2017, turned 10 yesterday. Her build, toe webs, inner hair, form says nearly all yellow Lab, but the DNA results had about 1/8 Lab plus a number of quite different breeds, so I wouldn't put a lot of weight on the test. "Retriever" didn't come with this super-sweet critter, and she doesn't like the water. (Our black Lab of 2003-16 would be in the water, any time, any temp, any conditions.) When our current friend first arrived, she had a habit of needing outside time about 3 AM, which could be a chore in Feb/Mar, but quickly changed for the better. She was somewhat tolerant of thunder until March 26, 2021, when a bolt destroyed a large fir 55 yards from the house. Now she's terrified by the least rumble. (That strike also wrecked the underground connection between our 13kw generator and its dedicated panel, making it no longer "on demand". It also took out a wire between the DirecTV dish and our set.)

That's the difference between the forest at Central Park and all the pavement at EWR. For the period 2000 to now, NYC has recorded 6 triple-digit days but only 3 that were 101+. EWR has 34 triples peaking at 108 and with 21 days 101+.

Days with thunder have been gradually declining here in recent years. The running 10-year avg was 16.1 after 2017, down to 12.7 after last year. And 2024 was a good year with 16, best since 2017 and adding 0.3 to the avg. Thru June 30 we're 4 days behind last year (2 vs. 6), and nothing yet in July.

It's amazing this summer how easily 70+ dews can leave our area with little/no precip to show for the CFs.

All true. but . . . My impressions came from the PoP being 70%, forecast precip .10-.25 and .25-.50 depending on location plus each amount included "more in thunderstorms". Only 5 of the 102 cocorahs reports had more than 0.41" while the median report was 0.11".