tamarack

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 . . .

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Seven days w/o measurable precip - last time that happened here was in January. June average rain is 5.11" (2nd only to OCT) but we're on a 2.5" pace so far. The month has often been tough on the garden, either a washout like 1998, 2009, 2023 or sun-baked Stein like 2004 and 2021. With 2 weeks left, June 2025 hasn't landed in either extreme - yet.

Hot spot. Over the last 20 years, the BDL average for year's hottest is 98.2. 15 years reached 97 or hotter, though only 5 set a year's hottest before July 1.

That direction is what makes records in Aroostook.

LGA hit that mark on 7/3/1966 but Central Park only reached a measly 103 and the trees there are even bigger now.

It's always surprising how few SDDs you accumulate, given the snowfall. My 75.6" produced 1,319 SDDs, 98% of your total, despite having only 37% of the snowfall. Days 1"+: 128, 127 cons. Days with 10"+: 57, 43 cons. Days with 20"+: only 3, deepest 22" on Feb. 16.

Mostly sunny 11 AM on.

Only a sprinkle here. First Saturday w/o measurable precip since March 22. Still cool (50s) but clouds are looking thinner.

While I was waiting to undergo pre-op tests, I watched nurses helping a surgery patient practicing on stairs, almost certainly on the day after his operation. I anticipate going thru the same, as there's 8 steps to enter our place - fortunately has rails on both sides. Hazy sun here, will be cooler than yesterday's 74. Fantastic evening. Warm, slight breeze. A few birds still calling and fireflies starting to come out. First firefly sighting here was June 3 and by the 5th (high was 86 that day) we had lots.

Hope it will free up time for doing things you love to do. It will be 4 years next month for me. Unfortunately, the arthritic knees that helped convince me to pull the pin have degraded enough since 2023 to limit my activities. Most recent fishing was March of 2024; last 12+ month period without wetting a line came in 1951. Left knee is much the poorer and it's getting replaced on the 23rd. Right knee is holding up better.

That car looks worse than one from which Customs dismantled to find all of the 100kg of meth.

Other places in New England may have had worse weather this spring, but the season here was rainier and cloudier than my average (and only 50% of avg snow). More days with measurable precip, more with at least 1/2" - only the big rain days were lacking, as no day this year has reached 1".

We're all different, of course. I'm more tolerant of cold than are normal people, and have had friends say to me, "Please put on a jacket. I'm cold."

Exact opposite here - short sleeves all year when inside and no shorts as we're in the midst of tick-y forest. Purchased some shorts recently, but that's for all the PT work following my knee replacement surgery on 6/23. Checked radar about 8:20 to see if putting the recycling down the road to the pickup spot and saw almost nothing. 10 minutes after I'd taken the stuff down, little showers popped up and have continued to do so, with low 50s. Soggy cardboard for the loss.

Lone Star tick - makes red meats produce the sickening, not sure about poultry/seafood. I don't know if all LS tick bites cause the change or, like deer ticks, only a (probably large) fraction carry the causal organism.

In April as bare spots began to appear, some folks in the St. John Valley would snowblow the plow piles onto the paved road so it would be gone soonest. Drivers there learned to be cautious.

Deer tick nymphs can be the size of a poppy seed. Picked a much bigger one from my ear this morning - either the biggest deer tick I've seen or the first dog tick I've ID'ed here in 10+ years. (But small for the latter species.) Last night's moon was on the orange side of yellow - odd, but kinda pretty. Thanks, Canada.

Only 0.24" as the best area remained south and the northerly one was losing its punch by the time it reached our longitude. With last evening, however, almost an inch - decent.

Hordes of mosquitos here, but one of the lightest black fly seasons we've had. (At least here. Makes me wonder if it was another 1996. On Friday June 7 I spent 5 hours at Oquossuc (Rangeley) Bald Mountain helping scope out a new snowsled trail and saw maybe 10 black flies. The next Monday our men's wilderness retreat reached Portage Lake about noon, and it seemed there were 10 of them per cubic inch. At Deboullie (25 miles SW from Fort Kent) where we camped, Ben's 100 lasted barely an hour. I'd never seen flies so thick before, and haven't since. Tuesday it was 91 at Fort Kent and blazing; black flies usually retreat to the cool woods when it's much over 80, but not that year. Even on Deboullie Pond a hundred yards from shore, they were thick. Maybe insufficient airspace over the land? Only place to hide (other than a steam bath inside a tent) was NW from the pond in hollows amid the spruce forest/boulder garden which still held ice and snow.)