tamarack

Good friends got married on July 20, 1996 in South Gardiner, Maine. Ceremony was inside the church while the reception was in a 3-pole tent on the adjacent lawn, with sprinkles and howling wind all afternoon Tent stakes were 4 feet long steel bars that the wind kept working upward, such that every 5-10 minutes we were pounding them back down. 70 miles west and 6,250 feet higher, MWN recorded a 24-hour average windspeed of 99 mph, strongest measured there in met summer, with a 154 mph gust. We'll never know how close it came to launching the tent into the nearby Kennebec.

Doesn't look all that different than up here. Leaf-out went from <5% to well over 50% in about 5 days - quickest I've seen it. Maples are almost fully out, oaks 50%, ash still lagging as always. Yesterday's 60° RA probably didn't slow the process much. Only 0.24" thru this morning, needed 4-5 times that much.

for you. Overcast with light RA here - knew last week we wouldn't see it. Last full lunar eclipse here came Jan. 20, 2019, during the end of that winter's biggest snowfall. We've fared quite poorly here on recent lunar eclipses.

Earliest in the year. We hit 89 on April 28, 2009 and May 3, 2001, but yesterday was the first 90. Next in line is 91 on May 18, 2017 then 90 on June 7 last year. Looks like about 0.15" in the gauge, barely enough to wet the ground. Hoping for more before the CF and dry air arrive.

How about the one 4 years later, Boundary Waters to Bangor?

F irst cloudy sky here since May 6, quite the run. Yesterday's 90/52 eclipsed the 91 on 5/18/2017 for earliest 90+. Dews were moderate - upper 50s - and the leaves are bursting out.

Recent flow on the Carrabassett River at North Anson (near where it empties into the Kennebec.) Discharge, cubic feet per second Most recent instantaneous value: 639 05-14-2022 13:00 EDT No precip at all, and those "bumps" resemble diurnal snowmelt surges. From Sugarloaf snowmaking trails? (Gauge is 30 river miles downstream from "Loaf trails, no other snow in 'Bassett watershed. Saddleback drains into the Androscoggin system.)

87 for IZG at 11, though TD has mixed down to 56 while most spots are low 60s. Maybe a mini-door in Aroostook? N winds, temps low 70s, dews +/- 50. Yesterday they were about the hottest in the Northeast.

Of course. It's a female white ash.

Northern Maine on late-spring west winds, some of their hottest days on record. The 3 days 96/95/94 on 5/22-24/77 is unmatched at CAR, with only the 95/96/93 of 6/18-20/2020 close to it. CAR has recorded 12 official heatwaves since records began in 1939, two of which lasted 4 days - 6/15-18/1949 and 8/29-9/1/2010. Hottest 3-day averages: 95.0 for 5/22-24/1977; 94.7 for 6/18-20/2020; 93.0 for 8/3-5/1944.

Scads of bumblebees working the blossoms here, an order of magnitude more than last spring. Love to see it.

Add NJ to the dreary May. A number of popular beach areas are struggling to repair damage from last weekend's extended gales before Memorial Day weekend. Saw some dramatic pics of once-sloping beaches now almost level and backed by "cliffs" 5-6 feet (up to 15) where waves had cut into the dunes behind. 85/43 yesterday, 18° AN and 6th straight with diurnal range 40+. Hope today breaks that run, as morning low was 52. Up to 80 by 10 AM so "10 after 10" might make it close.

At NYC the mark is 99 (5/19/1962) - friends and I were playing baseball in NNJ, and when the noon 89 became the 1 PM 95 we went inside. Fairly low dews, temp only fell to 62 next morning. May's top at CAR is 96 (5/22/1977) as I was insulating the attic of our tiny 2-story in Fort Kent. Finished by 11 AM, thankfully, and we "only" got to 93. The 21st was 86/30, widest diurnal range I've recorded that didn't include a sharp frontal passage. The WSO only dropped to 69 on the 23rd, and that day's mean of 82 (95/69) is their 3rd hottest mean, topped only by 2 July days at 82.5.

PQI at 91. Forecast for my area from GYX has tomorrow at 92, up 4° from the morning number. Black flies and mosquitos arrived here in force yesterday, and no messing around looking at the menu this time - they had the knives (straws for skeeters) out and sharpened from the start. I had some outdoor tasks that occupied both hands yesterday and the little fiends took advantage.

By 2 PM, CAR, PQI and FVE had all reached 89. Also IZG but no surprise there. Still 99% stick season in Aroostook, so no tree-moisture to suck away heat, no shade to keep the old leaves from cooking.

When CAR tied its record high of 96 on May 22, 1977, it was reported as the highest temp in the US that day. I don't know if that was actually the case, but if it was even close, "not often" would be a gross understatement.

IIRC, the reservoirs supplying NYC were under 20% and aurhorities were talking weeks remaining, not months. Driest 5 years in NYC: 1963 34.29" (Only a 4.25" storm in November, then that month's biggest RA event on record, prevented a new #1 at that time.) 1935 33.84" 1910 33.72" 1964 32.99" 1965 26.10" (How many SDs below 1964? Below average?) Thru August, '65 had recorded 19.05" and '66 had 19.80", looking like a new #2 and maybe catching the year before. 1966 set new Central Park records for both the driest and hottest met summer, so that year might've created more stress on water supply than 1965. (2010 took away the heat record.) One oddity for the 1960s drought is that it ended in a single day, though no one knew it at the time. The drought area had a nice RA event on 9/13-14 - 2.18" for NYC, but 63-65 had also featured 2" storms. On 9/21/66, NYC had 5.54", my NNJ home a similar amount and the overall region had a good drenching. From then on, precip ran average to AN for years and the reservoirs were refilled.

Especially ones measured in weeks. I came of age in the 1960s, probably the Northeast's worst drought on record, and it was fascinating - if slow-motion disaster qualifies.

Sunday night. (Though once again it's likely to be spoiled here by clouds.)

Dews still low here, though probably near 40 compared to yesterday's 20s. Upper 70s now so a 4th straight day with diurnal range 40 or more. May diurnal averages 24.8°, tops by 1.4° over 2nd place April. Lowest is Dec with 17.4°. Twice May had 29.9° average range; it's 31.0° thru yesterday but next week will shrink it some.

You need to think of midsummer when it's 96/76 on the Boston Common and 72 (both air and water) at your place, with a nice sea breeze. Had 73/30 yesterday. This morning's low of 37 ends a six-day run of sub-freezing minima. Forecast contrast not often seen: Maine foothills, sunny and 85. Inland SNJ, sunny and 69. Only in late spring NNE.

66/26 Monday, 69/29 yesterday, 30 to low 70s today and not a cloud for days - 8 of the month's 1st 11 days have been sunny. 180° from the rhea sector of the wheel, but Sun-Wed looks less benign.

Near 70 here after yesterday's 66, and pure sun. Amazing run of sun for early May, will change for the weekend and spoil yet another total lunar eclipse - would be the 4th in a row clouded out here. If 4/8/24 is socked in, the frustration would boil over - first lifetime chance to view a total solar eclipse wrecked by the atmosphere, not good.

Only 24 years of record here, but there's a distinct difference for the period 12/21-28 (centered on 24/25) compared to the 8-day periods before and after. Numbers are temp departure, daily snow and number of 10"+ storms for each period. 12/13-20: -0.9° 0.74" 2 12/21-28: +1.5° 0.49" 1 (on 21-22/2008) 12/29-1/5: -0.5° 0.94" 5 Looking just at 12/23-25, it's even worse, temp avg +3.7°, daily snow only 0.34" and apart from the 8" on Christmas 2017 there's no storms reaching 5".

66/26 yesterday, first "forty" of the spring. The entire month of April only spanned 39° - highest 60, lowest 21. Low of 29 this morning, decent chance of another 40+ range as it's already past 60.