tamarack

Mild TS finishing here, no strikes within ~4 miles, mostly light RA.  Some 1" hail reported in N. Aroostook.

On 6/30/2025 at 10:57 PM, Boston Bulldog said:

What a bizarre winter that was, an incredble hot start wiped out by an insane cutter. The meltout in early March felt like armageddon for the ski season and then boom a huge finish with three high elevation bombs (and an eclipse). I don't think we do as well the next time we pull a +8.1, hopefully that's not for a very long time.

 

Snow season started great, with 8" paste T-Day night.  The 9.3" fell on 12/4-5, bring the pack to 15", tops here for the date.  Little did I know that the best was behind; that 4-5 event was the season's biggest and the remainder was mostly spent escaping from serious snowfalls.  After the nice 6.3" fluff on 12/24, we had only one event greater than 4".  No other winter here can claim that factiod.

16 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

So if I’m seeing hundreds or more of saplings in the woods , in the leaves… we are in trouble ?

We're already in trouble.     
But not because of a carpet of oak germinants - 99.9% will die due to insufficient sunlight.

3 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

A legit question/ concern.. last year being a huge mast year for acorns.. all along the edge of and even deep in the woods are new little Oak saplings. The kind you see in lawns that can be mowed. But I mean there’s hundreds, if not thousands in the woods.. way too many to pull . Will all of these become new Oak trees or will they die? I mean I’ve never seen this many before and it’s concerning 

Mature trees produce 100k's of seed in a good year.  Only takes one making it into the main crown canopy to sustain the species.

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

GYX, +1.1 departure, A real scorcher for June.

About +1.35 here.  We were +1.6 by 6/6 and the final 24 days were almost exactly average despite last week having days of +13, +12 and -13.  Whipsawn

In a few hours this month will be only the third June out of 28 to have zero thunder - others were in 2007 and 2014.  Also, this will be our only year in which the first half failed to produce a single calendar day with 1"+ precip.  The year of small storms.

2 hours ago, mreaves said:

A perfect 4th is anything without rain where you can be outside doing things. 

As long as the temps aren't heat-stroke threats.  59 years ago the 4th was a Monday and the 3-day period below shows the NYC-area highs:
NYC:  100, 103, 98
EWR:  102, 105, 100
LGA:   101, 107,  99
Dews were about 70 so no TD records, just head-cracking heat.

3 hours ago, Torch Tiger said:

Its a shit place. In general, Maine sucks. It is what it is

Keep telling folks that, so they won't move here and turn it into Massachusetts.  

QPF has slid from 1.5-2.0 down to 1.0-1.5, now 0.5-1.0.  Last time I saw that kind of trend we had 0.01".  Seems like once I put in the garden it stops raining (this year) or never stops (2023).

Low of 42 this morning, 52° lower than Tuesday's high.  (And possibly the coolest until September.)

GYX precip map has us at 1.5-2", though the AFD is only 0.75-1.25".  Either one would be welcomed, as we've had only 1/2" in the past 2.5 weeks and my current limited movement prevents watering.  Forecast high for Saturday is 58, cool but nothing special.

12 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

How was your snowfall?

AN, surprisingly.  Average is 88.5" and 2022-23 had 101.2", jump-started by the 22" dump in mid December.  Pack reached 36" after a 12.1" storm on March 4.  2023-24 was very different, well BN until we got 40.9" after the equinox, including another 22" storm on 3/23-24 then 13.9" in the April storm, for a total of 99".  The big March storm had 6" fall from 9 to 10:30 PM, the heaviest rate I've recorded.  Thanks to the warm temps, pack never got past 22" and SDDs were well below average.

DJF temps in 2024-25 were 0.7° BN, coldest since 2018-19, but we never had any strong storms, no double-digit snows, and finished with 75.6".

Not VT and thoroughly unofficially, but our place in the western Maine foothills had its mildest DJF in 23-24, with 5.4° AN.  The previous year was 2nd, only 0.2 less mild, with January at 9° AN.

Reached 94 yesterday, hottest I've had since July 4, 1983 in Fort Kent when it also was 94.  Hottest in FK was 95 on May 27, 1978 and we also had 95 on July 8, 1973 at BGR.  Of course, the big daddy was Hot Saturday when BGR hit 102, their hottest by 5°.  (They hit 103 in the 1930s but I've no idea where the site was.)

Monday's knee surgery went OK though the car was rather warm after sitting in the record heat yesterday for about 5 hours.  Today's PT was an adventure, with the therapist saying he was taking things easy on me.  Friday's session should be just peachy. 

12 hours ago, MJOatleast7 said:

8/2/75 is my #1…IIRC a couple of places in MA hit 107


.

BGR reached 102, and even BHB had 100.  We picked blueberries in Gouldsboro that morning until we couldn't stand the heat, then drove to Acadia and found a place to swim just south of Otter Cliffs.  Only time I've encountered really warm seawater in Maine.
That day in 1966 saw NYC at 103 and LGA at 107.  I spent the day cooking dogs/burgers at a NNJ lake resort.  The temp in the 5 feet between grill and serving counter might've been 140; the coil thermometer 10 feet away was well past the 120 mark.

18 minutes ago, dendrite said:

MAV is going big. Close to the all-time record of 102F (done once) in CON.

7/3/66, hottest day I've experienced (8/2/75 the only day even close).  However, CON records begin in 1921 so no numbers for July 1911 when ASH hit 106.

6 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Picked up 0.54” of rain this morning to keep the swamps happy.

Picked up 0.01" here.  May overperformed forecasts, June nasomuch - running about 50% of average.  Not much sun though the humidity is here.

adam038:
I’m definitely curious as to what Tuesday’s high will be at ORH. If I’m not mistaken, 96 is the highest temp at the airport since that 99 degree high in 1953?
 

That's accurate according to my records.  From 1948 (1st year of record) thru 1953, they hit 97, 98(2) and then 99 on 9/2/53.  Not many sites have their all-time hottest in Sept.  (Only 27 years here, but 9/9/02 hit 93 and is tied with 7/3/02 for our hottest here.)  They've reached 96 five times, in '52, '75, '88, 2010 and 2022.

Despite a huge amount of blossoms, our 3 apple trees had a terrible fruit set.  The most prolific one, Haralred, will have a light crop, but the Ultramac will have very few and the Empire probably none.  The only worse seasons were 2008, as the deer browsed all the buds thanks to a tall and solid snowpack (and the neighbor's cedar harvest ending in early February), and 2010 when the very early spring led to 3 mid-May mornings in the low-mid 20s. 
I blame this year's trouble on awful weather during the pollination time.  We had 9 straight cloudy rainy days May 17-25 and the latter 7 days had average temps of 50/40 - maxima that week was 16° BN.  Almost no pollinating insects were out and about during that time and by the 26th the blossoms had mostly fallen apart.
There's always next year . . .

16 hours ago, moneypitmike said:

Iirc, stumbling out of one of the college bars at 2:00am in the Bronx, it was 88*.  Summer of ‘87 or 88

Likely 1988.  First 2 weeks of August were hot and super dewy - TD reached 77 at PWM.  I think that's still their highest.

GYX now has our town hitting 98 on Tuesday; can't recall ever seeing that hot a forecast here.  Since moving to Maine in 1973, I've seen only one day hotter than 95 - August 2, 1975 when BGR hit 102 - and haven't had anything above 93 since moving from Fort Kent in 1985.  Of course, both our Gardiner home and current place are in the trees and thus transpirationally cooled.

39 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

It is roaring here . Power out !

Wind is just beginning to pick up here.  1st strong wind after leaf-out, will find those trees weakened since last fall.

Gut 7-10ed twice last evening, with TS passing SE and NW simultaneously at 7-7:30 and 11-11:30.  Got 0.02" from the edge of the 1st pair though Farmington had some brief RA+ then, maybe 1-2 tenths while we were at a restaurant celebrating our anniversary - married exactly 106 years after Juneteenth.

1 hour ago, kdxken said:

One of my all-time favorite beaches. Except for the green heads.

Except when the sea breeze quits in late afternoon.
In my NNJ days, Dad would take us down to Tuckerton to fish for fluke (caught more blowfish, though) at Great Bay, and it always seemed that the breeze would quit while we were gutting our catch.  Hands full of fish guts, greenhead on the face - what next?

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

If you ever get the chance, go to the Bay side of the Cape in August. Especially Brewster to Welfleet. The water is so shallow that when the tide comes back in over those flats...it may as well be FL. It's pretty awesome. First Encounter beach in Eastham is one of my favorites. Nice lazy river there to go floating on as the tide comes in or out. 

Reid State Park (Maine midcoast) has a tidal pond that can reach 70+ on hot days, warmest just before the rising tide begins to mix in the 58° ocean water.

2 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

You were alive. You tell us !

So was I, but much too far south (and too young) to know anything about ORH.  That year has 2 wx memories:  The NNJ ice storm of Jan 8-9 that started my lifelong interest in trees and weather, and that NYC had 4 days with 100+, a feat only done twice (1966) since records began in 1869.

Still cloudy here, but muggy 70s.

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

You mean those who cheer for cold in the winter?

Guilty as charged, but I doubt it makes much difference in the electric bill.  Darkness is the same length whether it's warm or cold, though on average winter warmth tends to be cloudier.  Maybe the biggest advantage for the warm season is cooking on the grill instead of the stove.