tamarack

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

I'll soon challenge the snow by turning ash logs to firewood after their 2 winters of adding traction to the Ranger.

It was 6:15 PM before I cleared Kingfield, but south of there it was clear sailing. The road itself is much better than the twisting 142/156 and the latter goes near downtown Wilton, with stop signs, etc. Might've gotten some cars with folks who climbed Tumbledown, too. Of course, I ducked around Farmington and drove thru Industry instead. My wife and friend tried Town Farm Road rather than Main Street as they went back to the friend's house near the Fairbanks Bridge over the Sandy. Neither way was fun, as those coming down Rt 4 from Rangeley were diverted onto Town Farm while the "Loaf traffic went thru town. Decent article describing the event, and traffic, on the local online news: dailybulldog.com . Some nice pics, too, including one taken from the obs platform atop Oquossoc Bald, showing folks on the ground below. The article noted 2,500+ at Saddleback and 10k+ at Sugarloaf, where the access road was closed to additional cars by 8:30 Monday morning. re: aurora. We saw this several times when we lived in Fort Kent, usually when it was about -20.

40.9" after the equinox, most I've measured anywhere. Another 3-day rain incoming here, though next week has more promise.

We were there in August 2017 and never saw full sun. Never felt temps above 60 nor calm winds, and we never got more than 40 miles from Reykjavik. Up at 66 North it's likely to be colder and cloudier.

Moose tracks would be closer to round. That almost looks like a big male fisher's tracks. Most of the mustelids have that one-foot-forward tracks like the pic appears, but I don't know the exact scale.

As others mentioned, the comradeship was a bonus to the event. It started for me days earlier with the back-and-forth PMs to Angus - really pleased at how it worked out for their party. We were only 6 at our viewing spot and the younger couple stayed mostly to themselves. The other 3, a 40s-ish couple and the father of one of them, were eager to chat. In the 30-minute run-up to totality we found many commonalities. They were from New Gloucester, Maine, and noted the great X-C trails at Pineland Farms, where I used to do forest management on Parks and Lands ownership, and Opportunity Farms, where I helped take down the firetower, much of which is an observation tower on Oquossoc Bald, between Rangeley and Mooselook Lakes. They also had been to the Fort Kent/Madawaska area, where we lived 1976-85. We didn't note the sharp cooldown though there came a cool breeze during totality. I'd guess the temp drop was closer to 5°, perhaps due to the 2-foot pack remaining up there that tempered the 60+ warmth farther south.

Great report! What a wonderful 'Mainiac' deed having the almost 3 miles/1,800' gain packed out ahead of time (longer if the 0.8 miles of the county road from LFD wasn't plowed). In my PM I asked where you were at totality, here answered, as the noted road/locales made little sense to me - from my place in New Sharon I go 134 (Starks Road) to 16 to Long Falls Dam, as we're 2 towns west from Norridgewock. I guess you drove 295 to the Belgrade exit (112) then 27/back on US 2/201/16/LFD. I drove up some 10 miles beyond Eustis - actually more as I looked (5 more miles) for a safe place to turn around on the twisty highway with narrow shoulders - and parked at the mouth of a plowed gravel road 61 miles from home. On the 1:15-3:00 drive on 27, I encountered relatively few cars (most went long earlier, except for 2 places. The hill immediately north of the Sugarloaf entry had cars parked on both sides, though 2 semis were able to meet, carefully. Where the South Branch of the Dead River enters Flagstaff Lake there is a 1/3-mile stretch with long views both east and west, and for perhaps 1/2 mile both sides had cars. Here LEOs were keeping traffic moving slowly as there were many folks walking between the parked cars. At my stop (The "N Road"?) there were 2 other cars, 5 other people and I saw the show from about half obscured to perhaps 2:30 of totality - great show, with Venus and Jupiter in display, though the skies were still blue/gray. The only black was the moon. We also could detect the mountains and valleys of the moon, as the valleys allowed a bit brighter corona to be seen. Heading back, I knew the 2 choke points would slow things down, especially at Sugarloaf where deputies were alternating strings of cars on 27 with those exiting Sugarloaf. To my dismay, traffic remained slow for the 15 miles to Kingfield, then suddenly became wide open. 32 miles from viewpoint to Kingfield took 2.5 hours, then 29 from there to home, 45 minutes.

I may be looking there as well, but even though I'm familiar with the roads there, the paucity of off-road parking may be an issue. Maybe Natanis Point Camps (north end of Natanis Pond) opened early, but if so, they're probably filled up.

Will go to patches (trace) today, 14" gone in 4 days. Back in the '60s, crooner Johnny Mathis did a song with the line, "Melt my heart like April snow." Outside of my Fort Kent days, snow in April has had no staying power. Even April of 2007, with 37.2" and temps 6° BN thru the 17th, saw everything gone 5 days later.

The Kennebec drainage has had much if its top-5 peak flows in recent years, especially the 2 rivers from the mountains. All flow numbers are cfs. (Parentheses: sq. mi. watershed) Carrabassett 1926 on (373) Much the flashiest trib. 50,700 4/1/1987 39,000 12/18/2023* 35,500 5/1/2023 31,600 8/29/2011 Irene 30,800 3/19/1936 Sandy 1929 on (516) 51,100 4/1/1987 42,700 12/19/2023 38,600 3/19/1936 36,900 3/28/1953 31,300 5/1/2023 Kennebec 1979 on (5,403) 232,000 4/2/1987 ** 167,000 12/19/2023 113,000 6/1/1984 113,000 5/1/2023 111,000 4/28/1979 * Reached 39,000 while still rising, then went offline for 8 hours, by which time the flow was much lower. ** Greatest flow in Maine records. Comparison with Maine's other major rivers: Penobscot, 1902 on 153,000 on 5/1/1923 (6,6721) Saint John, 1927 on 183,000 on 4/30/2008 (5,680) Androscoggin, 1929 on 135,000 on 3/20/1936 (3,263)

Radar says it's raining here but the only drops I see are coming from the melting snow on the roof. Branches are dry as well. Upper 30s with high RH so evaporation shouldn't be eating all the rainfall.

The only quake I've felt was when we lived in Fort Kent. Epicenter was in New Brunswick, a couple dozen miles north from Fredericton, and had a 5.7 magnitude. 5+ effects were noted as far west as Allagash and to the southwest, Belfast. It was a sleep-in Saturday but at 7:41 we were rudely awakened. At 4:41 the following Monday there was a 5.4 aftershock. I was driving home from work and the bumpy roads prevented my noting it, but my wife had pots and pans rattling in our kitchen. We read of several fire depts being called for possible chimney fires on the 9th, as the quake's rumbling sounded something like well-established fire within the flue. We saw some cracks in our foundation ("daylight basement" with only the uphill section had full height concrete) but we weren't aware of the consequences until mid-April 1983. We were traveling out of state and had house-sitters, relatives of our off-grid friends, staying at our place. There was a 3.5" deluge plus snowmelt, and they ended up bailing water out the basement's back door.

I can't recall seeing another snowstorm that clobbered CHI, NYC and CAR. Must be a rare trifecta.

1983. NYC posted a WSW but had only 0.8" while across the Hudson EWR recorded 4.1". Some spots in NW NJ had nearly a foot.