tamarack

Since I became old enough to remember wx events - earliest one was the Nov. 1950 Apps gale - I've been present to observe just one significant hail event. It came about 2000, when I was working out of our regional office in Farmington, and nickels and quarters nearly covered the parking lot while the street in back became a river riddled with enormous splashes. The one severe hailstorm affecting my at-that-time residence was 5/25/1977, a late morning TS that marked the end of Aroostook's all time record heat in May - CAR had recorded 96/95/94 on 5/22-24, their 3 hottest May days with that 96 tied for their hottest for any date. My wife moved our almost-5 son out of the windward bedroom, fearing the abundant mothball-sized hail on strong winds would break the window. That early in spring, our garden had nothing much above 6" before the storm. After it there was just nothing - no evidence that I'd even planted anything. The soil looked like it had been rototilled. (Of course, I was in the woods west of Allagash, where a gust front took down the odd snag but with only a sprinkle and no thunder.)

Come to my place, where all the hail that's fallen in my dooryard in the past 19 years would fit into a one-pound coffee can. While I was enjoying my 0.01" with a few rumbles yesterday, a co-worker had to pull over during a hail-studded downpour less than 20 miles east and multiple hail pics from 30 miles south made the news. I've seen (or been told about) significant hail within 10 miles more than a dozen times, including 2 miles away in town, plus the August 2007 tree killer that accumulated 4" on the flat 6-8 miles to my southeast. Water-piled hail piles were still over a foot deep 24 hours later.

They did well to not get chopped up even worse, considering the amount/size of those chunks. As is often the case, the storms avoided my place except for a 6 PM "fringing" that barely got the ground wet, while sites 20-30 miles east and south had downpours with hail. As of 5 minutes ago, of the 135+ listed cocorahs observers in Maine/NH, only a handful right next to New Brunswick (Eastport/Pembroke/Lubec, all with zero) reported less than my 0.01".

Have to agree about April, though if I still lived in Ft. Kent I might argue a bit. However, where I am now April snow is hit or miss, mostly the latter. In 19 years I've measured only 4 April snows greater than 4", one in 2011 (15.1") and 3 in 2007 (18.5", 11.2", and 5.2" with 5" RA in the Patriot's Day storm.) Those two Aprils brought more snow than the other 17 combined. Kind of like 1982 and 1996 farther south. November is similar for large snowfalls, though a bit less stochastic for monthly totals.

I'm sure you're right. I just remembered all the different colors in narrow stripes on that winter's map. 15" around BDR to 100"+ once in NNE, 140 at dendrite's (and my) yards, just shy of 200 at CAR. And I don't think anyone in the region had a really big storm, though CAR measured 17.2" on Dec. 16-17. Probably doesn't crack their top 20, however.

Days with some rain this month: 15. Days washed out: zero.

Years ago my wife visited family in Arizona during May - only reached 108 - and talked with a Flagstaff resident while at the South Rim. He said he never again went to PHX during the summer after he'd left his Kodak instamatic on the dash while mall shopping. When he returned, the camera case was dripping onto the floor.

In 19 Decembers here, I've had snow-melting warm rains 12 years during the period Dec. 20-28. Dropping the post-Christmas events still leaves 9, pretty bad for late Dec. And those do not count 3 years with the requisite warm rains Dec. 20-25 but with the ground already bare - Grinch can't steal Christmas if there are no presents to steal. Nearest winter to an end-to-ender here was 2007-08, though the shoulder months (Nov/Apr) were poor and the many many snowstorms included none larger than 12.5". That winter also resulted in the most latitudinally stratified snow map of all that Will has prepared - SNE had average to awful snow, north to south.

Great link, thanks.

The 3 big January rainstorms sort of spoiled that winter for me. Farmington snowpack just shouldn't drop from 40" to 8" in January! However, that winter included my largest and 3rd largest snowfalls in my 13 winters in Gardiner, 17.5" on Dec. 20-21 and 15.8" on March 7-8. (#2 was 16.0" on Jan. 2-3, 1987.) Pretty sad that we couldn't produce even one 18"+ event in that long a period.

Makes me wonder how long the snow remained in 1969, when depth at Pinkham topped out at 164" after the 77" dump in late Feb. Folks there were joking about the Mt. Washington glacier.

That's really front loaded. I'd go with all of that fantasy, except that my more northerly location allows for a kinder view of March as a winter month. What I'd especially like is a non-Grinch Christmas with significant snow on the 25th. In 19 years, that date has accumulated a total of 1.7", the least (by 1") for any date in Dec. Furthermore, the 23rd and 24th are milder than any date after 12/12, and 5-6F milder than the 20th. The 19-year cumulative snow depth days, which should ascend almost continuously thru Dec, actually decrease by 14% from the 23rd to the 25th. Small sample size, but the temp "reversal", at least, will take some serious cold to level out.

After 8 straight months of near- to above-average precip (including 4.97" last month), June has seen the serious rain skip past my area - 1.57" to date, so no way we approach the month's average of 5.50" unless a couple TS park overhead between now and Saturday. Biggest one-day rain this month has been 0.42".

Those pointy trees kind of spoil the effect. Wiz, I feel your pain. Thru dint of hard work, I managed to cram a 4-year degree into just 11 years. (At least I graduated a few months before turning 30; my son got his Bachelor's just after that milestone - apples falling close to the tree?)

Same place as mine? Have not looked at the gauge, but I'm guessing about 0.2" in this morning's shower. That would bring my June total to 1.57", or about 0.10" less than pf reported for just yesterday. Steamy dews that the skeeters love, though my dog and I avoided them by having her morning constitutional during the heaviest shower.