tamarack

6 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Those days where it’s -20F in the mountain valleys up here in the morning and raining at 34F by dinner, lol.  Those are the memorable ones.

Fort Kent would do that sort of thing occasionally.  Jan 11, 1980 had 38/-21.  Day before that was 10/-30 and day after 44/4. 
Most spectacular, however, was Groundhog Day in 1976.  At 11 AM it was 46, pouring and screeching.  By 8 PM it was -11 with a 50° drop, 44 to -6, between 1 and 6 PM.  CAR had 49/-7 for the day (with 957 mb) and BGR 57/1 plus 200 flooded cars in Kenduskeag Plaza as strong southerlies (gust of 115 mph in Stonington) blew water up the Penobscot estuary, raising the water in BGR 15 feet in 15 minutes.

2 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

Prohibitive favorite for top diurnal spread today...

Bottomed out at 29 around 5:50 am just before the dimmer switch started elevating the light.  It is onw 56 already.  A 27 F correction thru 9:40 am.  

850 mb Ts mature to +3 by 21z ... I doubt the mixing hgt gets that tall but we'll see.  The sun is pretty ferocious now and sat and sky truth are both diamond clear with 0 inclusions.   So the super adiabatic layer at the bottom will be violently bouncing against the ceiling. It may be a late high ... between 4 and 5 pm.

Had a 39° diurnal range on Eclipse Day (62/23).  Forecast max is 59, which would be a 38° range so that 4/8 span is in play.  Greatest range here was 52° (29/-23) in Feb 2002.

3 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

This doesn’t count . Fake is not real 

Low of 21 here, tying 4/1 for coldest of the month.  Just as fake as forest-enhanced dewpoints.  

Numerous NNE sites with RH <20%.  At 4 PM, PSM was 55 with TD 7, RH 14%.  Chilly up in the County - FVE 32, west wind 20G35.  Rest of NNE is fairly close to 50.  If it were a Saturday and 10-15° milder with the breeze and low RH, we'd be reading about brushfires.  Might be having some in the NJ pine barrens even on Monday.

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

I think they have a pretty slick operation and the state has poured a bunch of money into it.   They had a decent expansion I think in the last decade or that might have been Gore?

Overall I think it’s just its location relative to population centers and while gnarly and good steep terrain, it’s just not enough to get folks to bypass all the other ski areas to get to Whiteface.

I hope it was Whiteface that got some improvement cash.  Back in the stone age (early '70s) I read an article about Whiteface in Ski Magazine, presumably compiled by an expert skier.  At the upper lift the attendant had to let a few chairs go by before seeing one fit for the writer to climb on.  The Ski guy said that the trail (Skyward?  It's been a long time) was obviously ungroomed and w/o any manmade snow, with numerous dark things sticking up thru the snow.  After several stump/rock near misses in 100 yards, the writer swallowed his pride, sidestepped up to the top and rode down on the lift.

Some forsythia starting to bloom next door in Farmington, but ours are still asleep.  Chilly in northern Maine - FVE 24 with WCI 9.  Nice day to summit MWN: 5F, wind 53G65, WCI -25.

9 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Fake cold though 

Not sure whether tomato plants can tell the difference.

13 hours ago, Typhoon Tip said:

Is it my mistake ( Tam'  ?  )  or isn't it early for even Norways?   Obviously they're the most eager every spring but I think they are also more variable of all big stem species and can be triggered by a season's 'climate personality.'  

My sister was telling me that Norways are actually invasive to N/A.      Either way, their florets give off a subtle sweet aroma that for me sparks a lot of nostalgia for some reason - ... I just can't remember her name   or if she ever existed.  LOL.  

Norway maple is native to Europe but is widely planted in urban settings, as it's relatively tolerant of conditions there.  It's also brittle and subject to frost cracks in cold climates.  It is very shade tolerant and an early-season seed producer, characteristics that give it an advantage over native species.  Since silver maples and red maples here have swelled buds, it's no surprise about the Norways being early.  The most recent month with BN temps here was November, so phenology is understandably early, which to me is suspect.  Somehow my apple trees dodged the killing frost last May 18 but many NNE orchardists were less fortunate.  We've had major damage from late frosts in 1999 and especially 2010; that one toasted all the ash and oak shoots and some on the maples, along with frying every apple blossom.

Partridge drumming nearby, using the horizontal fir left after Dec. 18.

12 hours ago, mreaves said:

I’m in Lake Placid and I came into town past Whiteface. I know it’s the Olympic Mountain so I assume the terrain has to be decently challenging. I don’t much else about it though. Why isn’t it a “bigger” deal? Is it location or are there other reasons that bring it down a bit? Or am I just crazy and it is a big deal for skiers?

I think it's still the greatest vertical in the east.  When I saw it way back in 1971 (rode the lift* during our June honeymoon) it was state-owned and suffering from chronic underfunding.  It was spiffed up for 1980 but I've no idea what condition it is now.

*Only the Little Whiteface lift was running for sightseers, and it was the scariest one I've been on - no footrest, teeny (9") lap "bar", and the final span was the scariest of all:  About 2,000 feet between tower and summit so the catenary seemed almost straight up as we approached the top.  Also, no trail beneath that span, just a sidehill 40-60 feet down and covered with the criss-crossed spruce cut and left when the lift was built.

47 minutes ago, ineedsnow said:

April 29th  is the warmest day on the EPS through the 4th and its not a torch by any means 

Looks seasonal - average temp here on 4/29 is 58/34.

1 hour ago, Damage In Tolland said:

No surprise that forecasted by some folks record cold and freeze shot next week greatly modified today . Will end up a day of normal 

Some SN mix in the forecast for NW Maine, Wednesday night and Thursday.  No mention of accumulation and it's 5-6 days out.  However, a few late April flakes there isn't really news. 

1 hour ago, MJO812 said:

AN precip might mean that the AN temps would be mainly in the minima, 86/75 rather than 93/68.

1 hour ago, Angus said:

Easter Sunday was the 18th and remember being at my grandmother's house in Boston and the heat was intolerable inside. I remember talking about how the heat would affect the marathoners the next day. 

We were driving our 1971 Beetle from NNJ to northern Maine that day, stopping at my BIL's apartment in Boston for dinner (meat and potatoes - a salad would've been nice.)  and that little air-cooled engine was so hot that when we stopped, we could hear the pings as it tried to cool.  Outside the apartment a rat ran across in front of us and tried to go into a hole by the steps but was too fat and had to back out and go elsewhere.  (We were not impressed.)  When we arrived home in Fort Kent, it was 40° and cloudy.  After the sweaty marathon 16-hour trip, we loved it.
I'll be at Pittston Farm north of Moosehead next Thurs-Sat, in time for the cool down.  May see some flurries?

From the Franklin County Sheriff's weekly report on the Daily Bulldog.  It took me 2:20 to cover the 22 miles from Flagstaff Lake to Kingfield.  Without their work, it might've been more than twice as long. 

04/08/2024 1200hrs, all available Sheriff’s Deputies as well as the Sheriff participated in traffic control in the Rangeley area and from Kingfield to Coburn Gore.

3 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

What do you use for tick and flea prevention on your dog?

Frontline - the tick was on the outside of Buttercup's fur, which is the usual.  We tried the 12-week product, Bravecto, and 10 minutes later $60 was on the living room rug.

1 hour ago, Ginx snewx said:

4 years ago today. 

Nice!  Only a trace here from that one, but we had 3.2" three weeks later.

On a completely different subject, our dog brought in a deer tick Sunday evening, earliest I can recall.  

1 hour ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Only 12 was earlier. Junior has lived up to its name this spring .

2010 was the earliest here.  Unfortunately, 3 straight mid-20s mornings May 11-13 toasted the ash and oak leaves, along with every blossom on our apple trees.  Last year was early, too, and many NNE orchards got hammered by the May 18 freeze.

My numerical system lands in D+ territory, with temps approaching F-land.  However, the 22" overperformer in late March and the 13.9" dump earlier this month leave a better taste than the numbers, even though snowpack was BN.  Also, the flood/windstorm of December 18, while not wintry, was one of the most notable events of my experience, even if it butchered the fir on our woodlot.   C-
I've gone thru only 4 notable floods, August 1955 and May 1968 in NNJ, April 1987 when we lived in Gardiner, and last December.

1 hour ago, Typhoon Tip said:

Floods are interesting to observe first hand. 

Objects et al sticking out of water like they have no business being where they are. 

It's not unusual as your driving by, you look over your shoulder to see a playground swing set and its attached slide jutting out mid way up. A repurposed oil-drum painted green being used as a garbage can nearby. What is it about playgrounds and ball parks - they always seem to be laid out right next to some innocuous slow moving stream on the other side of a brambled row of shrubbery, just beyond the outfield's chain-link fence.  It's like the settlers might have surveyed the land back whence and realized a flood control issue and thought, 'Well, what the hell else are we gonna to do with the land?'   Typical white man ... instead of just leaving it be, they create a rec center out of the natural setting - 'cept... said Nature didn't get that memo during wet springs.

Scale that up and obviously we're talking about a whole different dimension of gawk affect. 

Like... the Merrimack River in May, 2005. Mother's Day weekend, in short order a stalled cut-off low pumped some 3 or 4 month's worth of rain into the head region up in the Whites after a respectably hefty snow year was still trying to unburden itself down the water shed.   Wow... arresting.  

The overflow at the Tyngsborough dam just up the way from UML has about a 20 ft draft over the crest to the crag rock below, that latter more typically dried out and exposed on a typical August afternoon.  It also demarcates the beginning of the aqueduct that runs immediately parallel to the original river basin from that point about a mile to a main gate that rejoins the river just east of the University Ave bridge - it's nearly 50 feet deep at that point.  It was originally used to power the Mill industry during the latter gilded era and early industrialization's invasion of the Merrimack Valley known as Lowell's Boote Cotton Mills.  

There was flood in ( I think 1937 ) ... The 2005 event may have come close to 90th percentile of that. I'm not sure... but both overwhelmed that control system.  The water in 2005 flowed over top the dam to such an astonishing altitude that it became nearly laminar over the top.   20 foot draft below that crest and the water above and below the dam became nearly not above nor below the dam.   After having been on or around the campus for 4 or 5 years through the late 1990s ... to then go back and see that sight was ... you just stood there wide eyed. 

The great New England-wide flood was in March, 1936.  The December flood on the Sandy pushed 1936 (38.6k cfs) down to 3rd greatest.
Perhaps the most striking debris left by the December event were the hay wraps - 500 pounds of hay wrapped in white plastic - that came floating down the river.  Along US Rt 2 there are dozens caught in the brush, and some wraps were ripped apart in the flow, leaving plastic "banners" waving from the trees.
 

20 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Just realizing we had a pretty big flood event the other night here.  Walking the dog from home I started noticing logs and trees out in the soccer fields.  The river here showing mud deposits like 4-8 feet above where the river is today.

We only got like an inch of rain but the river height looked like 4-6” of rain in major summer flows.  Shows how much the mountain snowpack can add to it.

The Dog Path goes through here but it’s now gone as like 40 feet of land disappeared from this field overnight two nights ago.

Sneaky flood - only 1.16" RA plus mountain snowmelt.  The Sandy River peaked at 20.9k cfs, which would rank 22nd of 96 water years but was a comparative nothingburger after the 42.7k last December.

13 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

 

The wettest last 2 years around NE in history. Hopefully Stein drops his sac right across Scooters face like a Roman helmet all summer. We need it 

SNE?  Wettest 2-year (calendar) period here was 122.15" in 2008-09.  The 2 years ending 3/31/24 is just over 114", more than 15" AN but still in 2nd place.  Without parsing all the data, I suspect NNE, especially Maine, would have similar peaks.

12 hours ago, ChangeofSeasonsWX said:

I forgot about that one. I wonder if we ever see something even more significant one day? May 1998 produced three F3's in NY and June 1953 produced three F3+ in New England. May 31, 1985 happened just outside of the northeast, as did the 1944 Appalachian tornado outbreak, so I suppose its possible.

6/9/53 in ORH was EF4 and there are arguments (from observed damage) that it was a 5.

Modest 1.16" yesterday but snowmelt and saturated ground allowed the Sandy River to reach 20,900 cfs, a bit under flood flow but in the top quartile of peaks since records began in 1929.  Also not quite half the peak on Dec 19 but high enough to further traumatize those suffering damage back then.
Wood frogs started "quacking" in the old stock pond last evening, appropriate as I flushed 2 hooded mergansers earlier in the day - first ducks I've ever seen on the small (30 ft diam) puddle.

1 hour ago, OceanStWx said:

Two feet after the equinox to claw my way to normal snowfall. Just how you draw it up in the pre-winter meetings.

Spring snow elevated my total from ratter to 110% of average.  Snowiest post-equinox years:
2024:  40.9"
1982:  38.6"   (Fort Kent)
2007:  37.9"
2001:  35.6"
No others approached 30".