tamarack

94-95 was the first time I saw a foot of snow utterly disappear in a Maine January, thanks to the second mildest (daily mean) January day in the Farmington co-op's 129-year POR, though well behind the 1932 record. Jan '95 saw temps go from 27° BN to 32° AN in 5 days. 2-storm winter, and the first was a major bust - even at first flakes near sunrise on Jan 2 the forecast was 1-3" and 2 hours later we were getting 3"/hour and finished with 12.

Ike would stay at the camps there during his presidency and fish Little Boy Falls on the Parmachenee River below the lake.

Hope this year isn't like 1983 in Fort Kent - got nearly 2 weeks into Sept without going below 40 then pow! 25° on 9/14. (Forecast had been u30s.) Could've played bocce with the green tomatoes. (Then had measurable snow in 8 different months, my 61" snow stake was overtopped and had 5,715 SDDs, more than 1,300 above 2nd place.)

Parmachenee FTW.

Posted by Jeff not me, but very impressive.

Heard yesterday on Maine news that Augusta and some nearby towns have been kicked into the 2nd district by the 2020 census. Areas north of Rt 2 have been slowly but consistently losing population for the past 30+ years while York and Cumberland Counties gain.

Least snowy of my 23 winters here. In fact, least snowy since 1973-74 in BGR, my 1st full winter in Maine. And a December that might retain the #1 spot for mild temp for the rest of the century even if warming were to continue apace thru 2100. Wonder how many sites in NNE have had their first frost. Of the 107 sites with published frost/freeze probabilities, 33 of them have passed their average first frost date based on the 1981-2010 normals. Median date for 1st frost here is Sept. 19 and we haven't yet dipped below 40. Maybe we frost week after next - only 2011 made it thru Sept w/o a frost here.

That's an absolute monster of a timber rattler. I thought the 43" specimen a HS friend killed (this was about 1962) behind a NNJ Shop-Rite was big. And a slight correction to the article. While timber rattlers were once in all 6 New England states, the last in Maine - on Mt. Agamenticus - were extirpated about 1900 and I've not heard that they've returned.

From looking at major I-95 cities RIC north, the absolute monsters may disappear more slowly than big storm frequency or average snowfall. Below are the current numbers I have for 10 sites RIC to HUL, biggest on record with dates, and 15th biggest. The first column values are remarkably similar once north of Potomac (RIC shown for contrast) but significantly different for #15s. Site BIggest Date Fifteenth RIC 21.6" Jan. 1940 10.9" DC 28.0" Jan. 1922 12.4" "Knickerbocker storm" BWI 29.2" Jan. 2016 14.1" PHL 30.7" Jan. 1996 14.3" NYC 27.5" Jan. 2016 17.5" PVD 28.6" Feb. 1978 14.7" BOS 27.6 Feb. 2003 18.2" PWM 31.9" Feb. 2013 16.7" BGR 30.9" Feb. 1969 18.1" HUL 29.2" Mar. 1981 16.6" I'm not sure if the progressively later-in-season timing as one goes north is meaningful. 2nd biggest snowfalls are all over the place: DC thru NYC all Feb, PVD and PWM Jan, and BGR in Dec.

Why? It was CAR's 2nd warmest August and 2nd warmest September, and easily the warmest for the couplet. It's a psycho-babble support group in here, period. Deal with it - Rich irony there.

Thanks. Makes sense.

Fascinating series. The 2020 pic is surprising given the Sept temps. Did they have a big wind event shortly prior to Oct. 2? Photoperiod is definitely the basic driver of both leaf out and leaf color, though each process can be pushed earlier or later, by as much as 2 weeks in my experience. Timing of leaf drop is often storm-related. Color vibrancy is likely a result of multiple factors, rain, temps (and timing for each) and probably others. I've read explanatory articles that often conflict with each other - it's kind of like using the color scheme on woolly worms to predict winter severity. One study of the latter by a (now retired) Maine entomologist found a weak correlation but far from statistically robust given the sample size.

2019 at the Farmington co-op, almost as much BN as 2018.

Checked the Farmington co-op's last 10 years for each month, compared to the 1981-2010 norms. September indeed is 9/10 AN but it's the only such month, though Jan and May are 8/10. At the other end, April and Nov are 4/10. The 12-month avg is 6.6 AN, not surprising as the late 90s forward has definitely shown significant warming.

First 5 days this month were all BN and 7 of the first 8 and 9 of 12 going back thru 8/28. Then 5 of the most recent 7 were AN but that's becoming easier to do with the average dropping about 0.3° daily.