tamarack

Norway maple bark tends to be darker than that of sugar maple, and on larger trees bears a resemblance to the bark of white ash - shape only, as ash bark is much lighter in color. Other differences include the sap during the growing season. Break a Norway maple leaf from the stem and the sap is white; sugar maple will be clear. (I recently learned that the opaque sap is only during the warm season, and Norways can be tapped for syrup.) The winter key is bud shape, sugar maple pointed and Norway rounded. Tough to see when the nearest buds are 50' off the ground.

This storm was odd, in that winds probably never gusted to 40 near my place and leaf drop was already well over 50% before the event started, yet we lost power for 29 hours. The unusual wind direction for peak velocity may have some validity, however. Looking back 2 years, when even fewer leaves remained on the trees (because it was nearly 2 weeks later), Maine was hammered and some think it was because our strongest gusts and most frequent strong winds are from the NW, so the SE winds of 2017 broke more trees than expected. Also, many observers report that all the damage occurred in a short period, 15-30 minutes at any particular location though different times as the storm moved northward. Resembled catching the edge of an eyewall or an extraordinarily widespread downburst.

GYX discussion this morning talked of some colder CWA sites flirting with 20, but P&C for my town says 34. I'll bid at 10° below that.

The large oak 100' behind the house retains half its leaves. All others are bare or have a few tatters hanging on.

Our mostly rural town of less than 1,500 has about 75 miles of roads. Spread that over Maine's nearly 500 municipalities, and probably double the total to account for towns/cities with far greater road/powerline density, and the total at $5 million/mile would cover the entire state budget into the 22nd century. Even as the wind was blowing water up my rain jacket as I was trying to pull the dead fir off our road and go to work, I didn't think it was all that strong, maybe into the mid 30s. Later in the morning we had gusts well into the 40s at 1,600' on Bigelow Mountain's lower slopes. The roar of that later wind was many decibels beyond the earlier wind plus rain. Lots of rain, though - 1.80", significantly more than the other 2 cocorahs reports from Franklin County. Despite the non-exceptional winds at home, our power was off 4 AM yesterday thru 9:15 AM today. Only the 30 hours in December 2000 lasted longer. That one was SW gusts ahead of a CF, took down a dry pine long enough to smack the wires and break about 8' from a utility pole. Both that tree and yesterday's fell out of our on woodlot - c'est la vie.

Very good month of winter here. No storms greater than 3.4" thru Feb. 9 then 60" in 31 days with 21" and some thunder on Feb. 10-11. Two 11" storms in early March and a 12-18" forecast for 11-12; verified at 5.5" and that was it for snow except for some dustings. The Nov. 2 I remember was in 2002, 1st day of deer season like this year, and temps teens/20s with strong NW winds. Wouldn't be terrible for mid January but sure felt cold that day.

Last winter's 14 events of 3"+ was my 2nd most at my current home. 2007-08 had 21. Average is 9.8 (206 in 21 winters.)

Fourth place for my 46.5 Maine winters with 142.3", and 1-3 are all in Fort Kent. Biggest event was a modest 12.5" but so, so many events. Last winter tried to duplicate but slid a few dozen miles north so we had lots of mix. In any case, weak ENSO has generally been nice to the foothills.

It was about this time in 1995 when the coastals began their endless parade. (A parade that sadly was contaminated by some truly destructive cutters in JFM.) 2 of the worst busts I've ever been apart of living in NE NJ. Such disappointment in 2001 when I was a kid expecting 2-3 feet of snow and barely ending up with 6 inches. I can still picture that Weather Channel graphic with a huge area of purple covering pretty much all of the Mid-Atlantic into SNE saying "widespread 2-3+ feet" and Paul Kocin honking hard. Jan 15' was like 50 miles too far west with the big snows but because it's one of the most populated 50 mile areas in the country, it was a big deal. I was fortunate enough to come of age during NNJ's snow bonanza of 1956-61, with 7 storms of 18"+ (though 2/58 might've been a bit less) and 3 of them reaching 24", possibly more. Feb. '61 records include the only 50"+ depths I've seen for NJ, though our place topped out closer to 45". However, I share your grief about Jan. '15 - was hoping the grandkids in SNJ would see their first ever 10"+ event. Forecast was 12-16 as we went to bed on the 26th, which verified as 1.5" during the mid morn, all melted by 2 PM; bleah!. They did get their snowcave-building crush job a year later.

Location, location, location. No bust at ACK (about 0.1% of Boston's wx bailiwick) - they've reported heavy rain in recent hours and winds 30sG50 since I first looked at 7 this morning. Maybe all that RA and many hours of sustained TS-force wind loosens a few tree roots?

Beautiful. Saw some electric reds and oranges the past 2 days, Monday driving to Orono and yesterday in the woods around Bigelow Mt.

Got nailed by one of those critter near the dam at Flagstaff Lake, where they probably had low 20s last week. Eleven of us standing near the shore in a fresh breeze, and the little beast hit and stung immediately. Saw a 2nd one crawling stupidly on the ground later. No one else had any issues.

Touched 25 yesterday, about the same this morning. High temp for Oct 1-5 is 56, average 53 - just right for cutting some firewood. Looks like a bit warmer next week, but no torch (which in Oct means 70s here.)

That offer (and it was a 10% rebate - typo) occurred at least 40 years ago, when pundits were (incorrectly, of course) worrying about a new ice age. And when I was still using a snow scoop to clear Fort Kent's average of 130" while we lived there.

Just don't be headed down the west side toward Lincoln when the leaf peeper chair is closing at Loon. Many years ago we hit that on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend and spent 2 hours coasting 7 miles until we passed the ski area. (A beautiful day in the 70s at full color, we had no time constraint, so just put the car in neutral and enjoyed the view.)