tamarack

Kennebec still in the parking lots in Augusta, St. John a bit above flood in Fort Kent, probably isolating a few places east of where the Fish River enters.

There's a mud-season tale about a fellow on his front porch watching a hat go past, stop, and return. The hat raised up a bit and the man wearing it said, "Good morning." Guy on the porch replied, "Tough walking in that mud, ain't it?" "Who's walking? I'm on horseback!"

We're getting into "scruffy season" when moose begin shedding winter hair ahead of the thinner summer coat. Have not seen this process on the deer yet. In some better news about winter ticks on moose, the survival of radio-collared calves in Maine is much improved in the past year-plus compared to the unsustainable 60% mortality a couple years back.

Watched a short video on FB of Small's Falls, headwaters of the Sandy River, up towards Rangeley. Roaring in good shape, and still a significant amount of snowpack there. Going fast, but should keep waters fairly high for a few more days.

Some near-green on the south-facing field across from the house. Our lawn was fully snow-covered 3 days ago, so still brown (with about 99% fewer molehills than last year - yay.) Aspen catkins full length - at a distance look like mud-colored foliage. Wood frogs began "quacking" last evening, along with a few peepers.

Nope - I'd have been in a canoe! (2 men from our church entered Saturday's Kenduskeag race, which they've done before. This time the high water was too much - after 5 dumps, they were so cold that they had to look to know the paddles were in their hands; feeling was gone. They wisely pulled out of the race at the 1st mandatory portage.) River reached 14.1' (2.1' over flood), which does little beyond watering those parking lots. Still over 13' this morning. Long Pond in Belgrade still more than 1/2 ice-covered, which surprised me as I thought the warm RA would've finished ice on that pond. Still some snow on our garden, but stake at "T" last evening, after 162 consecutive days with at least 1".

Beautiful. We chose not to challenge drizzle and dense fog, only the 2nd time in over 30 years that the sunrise service was inside.

Could have been lots worse - only 0.8" RA here and most places didn't vary far from 1". Front Street parking in Augusta got its annual washing, but not much else in the Kennebec drainage. Jury is still out for the St. John, however.

I'm surprised they didn't have 60+ minima in the mid-April heat of 1976 and 2002. NYC had 70+ lows in each of those periods, maybe BOS as well. Went from 61 to 45 in just a few minutes as I drove north of Augusta. Sounds about right - we've been mid 40s all day though the 51 last evening will stand for the high. Mostly light rain here with a couple brief heavy showers and a rumble (1) of thunder.

Hasn't reached our garden, which still had 10" snow this morning. Hope that's all gone by sometime Sunday. This afternoon's map from GYX bumped up total RA by 1/2-1", and the heaviest pretty much coincides with the Kennebec watershed.

But it's a dry cold. The town's major "industry" has been fox farming - good market for fur in that climate. They may have the greatest temperature span of anywhere on the planet, as they approach 90 in the summer. I don't think the southern cold pole, where it's approached -130F, ever gets much above freezing (if at all.) One might expect that the record temp span would be in an inland location within the largest continent.

Start with Ojmjakon, where temps have plunged to near -100F and hit -70 just about every winter.

Anticipate being able to make the same comment Sunday morning, after 162 consecutive days with snow cover, Nov 10-April 20.

Typical as one moves north, though respectable for low elevation near salt water. Farmington co-op is 13° colder in Dec than Nov, and 36° colder than Sept. High plains temp descent is much steeper still, and Siberia probably leads the northern hemisphere in that department.

Might get some good flood pics. Earlier this week the ice-jammed Aroostook closed Rt 1 just north of downtown PQI, and that general area looks to get more rain than farther south.