tamarack

A day (actually, 2 days) to remember. Our staff biologist and I made a 3-day trip to see northern Maine sites with BPL's North region foresters. The afternoon of the 14th we were on the Soper Mountain public lot, next to Big Eagle Lake in Allagash country. It was mild - low 30s - when a snow squall arrived and the temp began to fall. We then drove to Portage Lake as we were staying at the Maine Forest Service building on the east shore of the lake. By the time we got back there from dinner it was -2 with howling wind. Next morning the temp was -32 there and the wind gauge was hovering above/below 30 mph. (MFS has quality instruments, important for fire control purposes.) CAR reported -20 with WCI -85 (old scale - probably near -60 on the new). When one drives 250 miles to see something, one goes out, or as one UM forestry professor used to say, "There's no such thing as inclement weather, only improper clothing." In the morning we were mostly sheltered from the wind. Not so after noon, at the Bald Mountain public lot about 20 miles west of Ashland and 800-1000 feet higher than CAR, where the max was -9. We were okay in the woods, but about 4 when we got back to the sleds, the wind was still roaring with the temp likely in the -15 range. The ride back included 2 miles on plowed road due to the only place we could park, and I was riding 2nd up on a tundra behind a regional forester about 5'1" tall - no place for me to hide. 1988 Tundras maxed out at maybe 45 mph and the quartering headwind probably meant an apparent speed closer to 60. I held my fists against my cheeks, which helped but left me with hourglass-shaped white spots, fortunately 1st degree frostbite with no lasting impact. Day 3, at Deboullie, was cold but not very windy, just another cold day in N. Maine.

This is what I've read for HWA but I'm less optimistic on EAB. Maine has two EAB invasions and the smaller one is in Northern Maine, having crossed the St. John from Edmundston, NB. Van Buren, one town east from the infestation, has gotten down to -38 in recent years and crosses the -30 threshold in about half its winters. Fort Kent, two towns west of the critters, generally runs 2-4° less cold than VB but has also been under -30 recently. It's essentially all brown ash up there. One of the auditors for our (Parks & Lands) forest certification lives in Sault S. Marie, ON, and 7-8 years ago he said that EAB had killed essentially all the ash in town. Mostly green ash out there, and that species has shown no resistance/tolerance to the beetle; some white ash - most common ash in the Northeast - have shown tolerance. Brown ash, a critically important tree to indigenous peoples in the Northeast, reacts like green ash. I will look into the linked research, but in the Northeast and adjacent CA at least, enough EAB seems to survive those colder temps to maintain a population.

Farmington co-op, with 7 AM obs at the time, had a max of 16 with winds gusting to near 50. Very short cold snap - highs on day before/after were 36/39. Only one other April max under 22 there since 1893, 18 on 4/8/82.

GYX latest temps for this area compared to this morning's numbers - Friday same or a bit colder, Friday night 1-2° less cold, Saturday and Sat night 6° less cold. Daytime forecast went from -2 to +4. Last subzero max here was Jan 6, 2018. In 24+ years (25 Januarys) we've only had 9 subzero highs plus 2 more at zero.

Also, January's average diurnal range was lowest by nearly 3°. Cloudy and mild. Lowest range of all came in Dec 2015 - same c & m pattern.

Agreed. After we moved west to the Jersey Highlands in 1950, we went 5 winters with no 10" storms and only one over 6". Then March 1956 happened.

January numbers here: Avg max: 31.3 +5.5 2nd mildest behind 2006. Mildest day, 46 on the 1st Avg min: 17.2 +12.7 Mildest by 4.1°!! Coldest morning, -8 on the 22nd. Only 2 subzero mornings; previous low was 4 in 2002 Mean: 24.2 +9.1 1.7° milder than 2006, and greatest positive departure of any month here. Next is 7.6° in March 2010. Precip: 5.26 +2.04 and 3rd most Biggest day, 1.25" on the 13th in a SN to yuck storm. Snow: 29.9" +9.9 and 3rd most. Biggest day, 8.8" on the 23rd. 22-23 totaled 10.1" and brought the pack to 24", tops for the month. Avg depth of 13:" was 1" AN. Dec-Jan cumulative: Temps were +7.1°, precip was +4.65" (160% of avg), snow was +14.2" (137% of avg).

Can't say what happened there, but 1st half Feb 2009 had nada here, except for a thaw. Then 19-23 had 2 storms totaling 33". We can dream.

I don't think last year's -30 on Jan 27 will be reached - colder H8s but poorer radiation this time. Best chance would be if things slow down a bit, so Saturday night gets the rad.

At least nothing will fly off with the peaches, except maybe some "finger blight" from the neighborhood kids. First double-digit subzero this morning, with -12. Saw PQI with -26.

One more little event like this past one and he'll be in 3rd place on the snow table, with #1 and #2 way out of reach.

Nice. Still 23" here and it's solid, at least 30% water content. Last 2 events totaled only 1.6", leaving the Jan total a mere tenth shy of 30", which is about 10" AN and 3rd most for January 1999-on, so no complaints here.

With only that 100+ we had no problem consuming them long before they would go by.

Along with blueberries, my favorite fruit. Our NNJ home was within 10 miles of (and about 500' higher than) several peach orchards. We'd buy a peck and I'd eat 6 or more every day.

I planted a Reliance peach within days of moving to my present location in mid-May 1998. For its first 3 year it would triple in size then bottom-of-winter temps of -24 or -25 would kill the top half, followed by super growth (but no blossoms) the next summer. Winter 2001-02 never dropped below -12, there was no dieback and we picked 100+ sweet fruit of about tennis ball size in August. Jan-Feb-Mar 2003 included 12 days with minima between -20 and -29, a few of those with significant wind, and the tree was essentially dead. A small sprout appeared from below the graft in summer '03 but all was still after 03-04 (Jan 04 would've killed the tree just as thoroughly as winter 02-03. I just said thank you Lord for giving me one crop before demonstrating that our frost-pocket microclimate was too cold (on the cusp between 4A and 4B) for peaches. Median for winter's coldest is -25 and we may approach that Saturday morning, maybe Sunday as well but without the breeze.

Old scale. Though -84 on the current scale is awesome anyway. The -34/35mph at our Fort Kent home at sunrise on Jan 18, 1982 was -101 on the old, -72 on the new. The -29/40mph at 9 the previous evening felt even worse. worst part of the 94 cold snap was it flipped warm. -25 at dinner to rain the next day and 40s then back below zero. Allagash went from -45 early on 1/27 up to 44 about 48 hours later. Brain-cracking numbers for CAR below: Jan 26 -13 -32 0 0 5th coldest max and tied for 2nd coldest mean. Jan 27 5 -23 0 0 Jan 28 45 -1 0.69 3.3 Jan 29 43 -3 0.30 0 Jan 30 -2 -20 0 0

Other than at Fort Kent, where we had 3 wire-to-wires in 9 full winters, I can recall only 2, lifetime - 1960-61 in NNJ and 2007-08 here in the foothills. (1947-48 probably qualifies but I was too young to understand.) 1975-76 only misses because March had snow 1" BN.

On Jan 17, 1982, the WCI was -70s, about -100 on the old scale. Probably will remain 10-20° above that mark up there.

Month's high was 46 on the first. Since then, only the 41 on the 18th has gotten past the 30s. Currently maxima are running 5.7° AN and minima are 12.8° AN. Clouds

Minus 60s? Saddleback may be the worst because it faces NW. Sugarloaf is NE to E, SR NE.

Fort Kent is a different world from any other place I've lived. Five coldest mornings: -47 Jan 17, 1979 ("Only" -40 on the border next to St-Pamphile, PQ.) -42 Jan 12, 1979 -42 Dec 22, 1980 -41 Jan 12, 1976 11 days after we'd moved up from BGR. Welcome to the St. John Valley! 9-13 lows: -33/-24/-36/-41/-37. Only 1/13 got above zero. -39 Jan 11, 1979 In the 10 Januarys we were in FK, there were 5 days with minima >32. Ironically, all 5 came in the month noted thrice, above.

Jan 1994 was the coldest month on record for a number of northern Maine sites. CAR had 10.3/-11.7 for their only subzero month and Allagash had 9.7/-19.9, average -5.1. Only made it down to -25 at my (then) Gardiner home while the Farmington co-op hit -39 for their coldest temp in their 130-year POR. The quick thaw late that month also produced the greatest diurnal temp range I've seen in the Northeast - 66° as Clayton Lake went from -24 up to 42.

In January 2009 our frost pocket got down to -36 (dwarfed by Big Black River, of course) and needing to be in Augusta the next morning, I ran the Ranger (and the Subaru for good measure) for 10-15 minutes at 11 PM and again at 2:30 AM. No problem starting at 6 AM for my commute - money for gas was well spent. Learned that trick from my first supervisor for Seven Islands' Fort Kent district. His scout troop, along with numerous fathers, had a January campout at Dickwood Lake, SW from FK and a couple miles from power. He did the multiple warmup act and when the morning dawned at -37, he was able to jump vehicles off his easily started pickup. I think the coldest temp here with significant wind was -23 in Jan 2004 - the day with an afternoon high of -11. (In Fort Kent, we had -34 with gusts 35-40 in Jan 1982. I had a company-owned Chevy Luv pickup, and even with a good heater hose warmer, the critter barely started. Had 2-mile visibility in tiny grain snow that morning, too. Wind blew all day and the max was -14.)

Fortunately for the deer, they had mostly wide open access to food and travel thru 40% of the critical period. Stake is at 23" here after yesterday's not-quite-an-inch, and there's probably 7"+ SWE, so the sinking depth for little hooves is less than with a usual pack of that depth but with half the water. Some big fluffy storms next month and the deer would be in big trouble. Had maybe an hour of sun early then the clouds rolled in. This month will easily be our warmest January and may be the cloudiest as well.

It was - the Big Black River site is in a valley (duh!) a bit downstream from the South Road bridge about 5 miles from St-Pamphile, PQ. Lots of fake cold -40s along N. Maine rivers, also at K40B. Made it to -36 at my frost pocket locale.