tamarack

Sun did good work here, temp reached 31-32 from the morning low of -2. Bit of wind, though.

Agree. No matter how thick the ice, it's always cracking, which allows water to seep up into the snow layer when that snow is sufficiently heavy. Usually, the slush layer is only 1-2" but I've seen it change the entire snow layer when ice thickness is modest and snowfall is heavy. Then the re-freeze leaves the upper part of ice as less-rigid gray.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Groundhog Day Gale in Maine, not much snow but lots of drama: Southwest Harbor (on Penobscot Bay) recorded a gust at 115 MPH. --BGR had one at 83 MPH --The wind blew so much water up the Penobscot estuary that the tide at BGR rose 15 feet in 15 minutes, drowning over 200 cars in the Kenduskeag parking lots, as the temp dove from 57 to 1. --CAR temp dropped from 49 to -7 in about 8 hours, and the 957 mb there is the station's lowest, perhaps 2nd lowest (behind the 1978 Cleveland Crusher) for non-TC storms in eastern US. --At our place in Fort Kent, we had 1.5" RA (only 0.5" SN) with temp 46/-11. The CF drove the temp from 44 to -6 in 5 hours. --Roads had horrible ice holes (especially in the woods) until late March when temps got into the 50s.

We've reached the minus 30s 6 times. -36 Jan 16, 2009 (Big Black River in NW Maine sets a new statewide minimum with -50, eclipsing the -48 in Van Buren.) -34 Jan 17, 2009 -31 Jan 4, 2014 -31 Dec 29, 2017 -30 Jan 22, 2005 -30 Jan 27, 2022 We've also had 4 mornings at -29, 3 in Jan and one in Feb. Fort Kent had some impressive cold during our 10 years there. -41 in Jan 1976 (11 days after we moved there), -39, -42 and -47 in Jan 1979, also -42 in Dec 1980.

-51 in Franconia is impressive. -52 at tidewater in Bath is incredible (if real) - blows away the near-impossible -39 at PWM on 2/16/1943. Just missed a 40° diurnal span yesterday, 21/-18. Slightly below zero for today's low, while BML and HIE reached -19.

As long as it's not like CAR in 1980-81 - Dec -9, Jan -5, Feb +14. 2/81 tied the February record max twice and broke it 7 times.

Temp got over 20 today, first time since Jan 22nd. Nine straight maxima in the teens or singles - been a while since that happened.

Pure sun here today, 16/-21. January 2026 numbers: Avg max: 23.1 -2.6 Mildest: 42 10th Avg min: 4.0 -0.7 Coldest: -23 28th Mean: 13.5 -1.7 Mildest mean: 10th, coldest mean: -5.5 24th Precip: 2.23" -0.97" Greatest day: 0.55" 25th Snow: 30.1" +9.9" Greatest day: 17.0" 25th We had 19.6" from the 25-27th storm and 12 other distinct snow events, 0.1" to 3.0" - a dozen midgets plus a monster. Temperature had 4 distinct periods: 1-6, all BN: 18.0/1.7 -9.7 7-16, all AN: 35.0/19.8 +11.3 17-23: AN/BN: 23.7/4.3 0.0 (Rounded up from -0.04) 24-31, all BN: 11.5/-11.6 -14.2

Check around the bathroom stack. We had a leak from cracked tar around that pipe one snowy winter. Shoveling the snow away from the stack was a temporary fix and when things warmed up a quart can of tar made it permanent. Reached -21 this morning but the max will be well above yesterday's windy 9. Maybe another 40° diurnal range today; the 28th was 17/-23.

Certainly not me. Monday morning's 6.0" with only 0.08" LE (75:1, unbelievably) is 5" of settling all by itself, and the rest of the snow was near 20:1. Average depth here for Jan 30 over 28 years is 15".

Depth has receded from 29" to 22" in 4 days, but no melting (warmest since last Friday is 18) and probably little sublimation. 19.6" of 25:1 SN is apt to settle a bit. If the wind quits soon after dark, we'll have another dive thru the minus teens.

Or 1960s galvanized steel.

Central Park hit -8 that morning, 3rd lowest since 1869 there and 6° colder than anything since then. CON touched -37 on 2/16/43. It's a good radiating spot, much better (usually) than PWM where an incredible-39 was recorded. I'd guess that among US towns on salt water, one would need to go north of the Aleutian Peninsula to find a colder morning. 2nd coldest at PWM is -31, at 11:59 PM on the 15th. 3rd place is -26 in Jan 1971. Both the 15th and 16th were 40/41° BN, with temps -2/-31 and 7/-39. NYC's longest 32-or-lower run of 16 is the same Jan 19-Feb 3 timeframe as at Boston, but in NY the mildest max of the 16 days was 29. BOS' max in that run was 31, on Feb 3, but had maxima 28 or colder on the other 15 days. Modest -3 here this morning, after -23 and -18 the previous days. However, the 15-25 mph wind probably puts the WCI near those 2 calm mornings.

"Why can't they be like we are, perfect in every way. Oh, what's the matter to kids today!" (from Bye Bye Birdie) IMO, it's more the lawyers that the kids.

The nearby Farmington co-op had -39/-38 in January 1994, their coldest mornings 1893 thru 2022. In 1994 they had 7 AM obs time so those 2 minima might've been registered 2 minutes apart. Other sites with midnight obs had the 2nd day 7-10° less cold. I looked into my Fort Kent records, and the longest run of subzero minima was 18 days, Jan 16 thru Feb 2, 1982. I'd expected a longer streak in that much colder climate; sometimes only a single-digit low would prevent a run of 25-30.

-15 at 7 AM, haven't checked the max-min yet. 6th straight minima below zero, will probably make 9 before next week's mild-up. Longest runs of subzero minima are 14 in January 2003 and 12 that February - a cold but dry (and BN snow) winter.

If we can get half of the big coastals, it's a win. March 2018 had 4 biggies; we had a trace from #1 and zero from #4, but the 2 middle ones brought 36.4". One could dream of catching all 4 but that merely spoils the pleasure of the ones that hit.

Was -2 at 10:15 last evening with some thin clouds. Temp then took a deep dive to -23 by 7 this morning. We're in a frost pocket but possibly being the coldest morning in NNE would be really weird.

Hit the rad pit jackpot this morning with -23, coldest since Jan. 2022. Temp wiggled between zero and -4 last evening with a very thin cloud layer. That cloud must've disappeared before midnight, and with fresh deep snow, dry air and no wind, the temp plunged nearly 20° between 11 PM and 7 AM.

Rare for sure. Closest I've come since 60-61 is 00-01 (3rd largest 16") and 16-17 (3rd largest 15.5). Our 10 winters in Fort Kent averaged 134", and 140" in our 4 winters at the back settlement, 450' higher than in town. We had 4 events of 18"+, one each in 76-77 and 80-81 and 2 in 83-84. T We now are up to a dozen 18"+ in 28 winters here, essentially the same rate as in FK. The difference between FK's 134" avg and ours near 90" is all the 5-10" storms in the north. Here the winters average 1.7 storms 10"+ and 5.8 of 5"+. Fort Kent's averages are 2.4 and 8.7.

19.6" here, but that pair of 18-inchers keeps you 3.1" ahead. I've seen 2 storms of 18+ in a winter only twice since moving to Maine, 83-84 (Fort Kent) and 16-17 here. Saw 2 such winters in a 4-year period in NNJ, 57-58 and 60-61 (had 18, 20 and 24 events that latter winter). Cat 3 KU? 10-20+ inches from NY metro to central Maine. Grandkids in SNJ had 6-7" with beaucoup IP and a thin ZR cap, so PHL likely didn't reach 10".

Finished with 19.6" with a mere 0.77" LE for ratio 25.5-to-1. Even without the freakish 6" of 75:1 superfluff yesterday morning, the remainder was near 20:1. It's by far the biggest snowfall with 25+ ratio; next biggest was Feb. 11-12, 2017, when a 1-3 forecast verified 8.0" feathers drifting on a steady light north wind, only 0.26" LE, 30.8-to-1. Nearest cocorahs (Farmington 4.2NNW, about 10 miles NW from here) reported 19.5".

The better echoes might stay south of here, unless the area expands to the north. Only traces here since 1:30. Easiest 15"+ snowfall to blow off the driveway that I can remember. 17.5" from 0.66" LE so far, a ratio of 26.5-to-1. Only 15"+ I've seen that's even close was Dec 19-20, 1981 in Fort Kent, with 15.5" from 0.68" LE, ratio 22.8-to-1.

If that were to validate, I'd be getting another 0.22" LE and probably another 3-5", eclipsing Jan 27-28, 2015 with a mere 0.88" LE compared to 2.17" LE from the 20" blizzard eleven years ago. (Another 0.05-0.10" is more likely IMO.)

Absolutely! We've had 6" of those kind of feathers in the 6.5 hours since clearing the board at 7 AM, with a microscopic LE of 0.08". Had only 0.01" from a 1.0" snow and two different times seeing 4.5" with 0.10", but 6" of 75:1 ratio is beyond what I thought possible. Very little wind and sub-10 temps were a big help. Hardly anything falling now, but the total now is 17.5" though the 13" pack of yesterday morning only gained 16". Given the fluff factor, unless we have several more inches of dendrites like the above pic (doubtful), the current 29" will probably be the stake's top reading.