tamarack

Working on it. (Though I'm surprised that debit cards re a no-go.) The new Kennebunk plaza has high-speed lanes for EZ-pass. The one in Gray on the Turnpike has been there for maybe 10 years, so it was past time for the big one at the south end.

That nice looking band of precip yesterday brought only 0.06". June will finish with 3.33", while the avg thru last year is 5.08". May/June totaled 4.87" compared to an average of 8.92". After the 1.14" on 6/12, this month has had only 0.45". Those 2 months have been dry over the past 7 years. In the 17 previous years they averaged 9.93" compared to 6.10" over the most recent 7. The other 10 months 2016-on have been 99% of the 1998-2015 average, essentially normal.

Not even that much here, look like about 0.05" at best, not enough to create a puddle. Looks like a split in the good stuff went overhead.

A bit different here - last 6 weeks have been almost exactly average, 0.3° AN. Yesterday's 84 was the warmest in that period. The real May heat was the 90 on 5/14.

Then yesterday he need only 7 pitches to lose out the win. Relief pitchers are an odd breed.

Then the adrenaline continued as Tanner Houck flirted with disaster in the bottom of the 9th. How many long-tern Sox fans thought that Ramirez, leading the AL in RBI, would hit a walk-off slam?

I still have bad memories of the early 1980s. We were taking the kids to an allergy specialist in Lawrence, Mass, about 400 miles from our home in Fort Kent, and we'd combine the trip with a visit to my parents in Woodsville, NH the day before. Next morning we'd drive thru Kinsman Gap to reach I-93 in Lincoln, and from about CON south it as an increasing disaster. Below MHT it was "winter", even the pines and hemlocks were stripped. Most pines were able to set buds the following year but for hemlock it was one and done.

Maybe - see my above post. Probably 95% of the homes in the lake community where I grew up were in place by 1965, and were occupied by pretty much the same socio-economic strata that live there today, though probably somewhat more diverse now.

Avg low at NYC for July 2013 was 73.3, 2nd only to 1908, but 7/13 ranks only 9th for hottest July, as the avg max was barely +1.

When I lived in NNJ (moved to Maine in 1973), bears were a myth except in Stokes State Forest in the NW corner of the state. A friend of my dad saw one crossing the road about a mile from our place, and almost no one believed him. Now I see FB pics of big bears along the route I took walking to my lifeguard job on the local beach (and for 10+ years before that, starting at age 6 when I gained deep water solo privileges.)

The 4 weeks from late June thru about July 20, 2013 were one long super-dewy run, with TDs frequently 70+, not all that common here. Then there was a brief cameo in early Sept. Temps never got past 86 that summer - takes a lot of energy to heat all that water.

1.6 BN thru yesterday, due mainly to last weekend. Month should finish very close to my average.

Black bears are classic omnivores. As PF noted, they eat almost anything. That's true of most North American bears, with the obvious exception of the polar bear. Even the salmon-gorging monsters of the Alaskan coast spend much of the summer chowing down on fruit and veggies.

The boldface isn't totally true. During the most recent (unsuccessful) attempt to reintroduce caribou to Maine, bear kills trailed only the brainworm in dooming the project. There were a number of cow-calf double kills, as these non-migratory animals from Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula had learned that they could stand their ground and save their calf against a single wolf. Didn't work for bears. The bruin's incredible sense of smell also enables them to occasionally find deer fawns as well. Old saying: An Indian shot an arrow into the air. The eagle saw it fall, the deer heard it fall, the bear smelled it fall.

Depends on location, of course. Today's sunny 70 with a breeze sure beats 45 with windblown RA.

We reached 80+ during May 4 times, including 90° on the 14th, but only the 81 on the 12th has been above 78 so far this month.

Yesterday's 50/44 was 1.5° cooler than 12/25/20. The 24 hours ending at 7 this morning had a high of 47 and low at 40. That would've been 5° below Christmas 2020. Yesterday's 0.25" RA and gusts 25+ added to the cheer. AFD from GYX hinted at possible frost for northern valleys in its CWA. CAR has a frost advisory for the NW part of the state. On the shortest night of the year!

Our neighbor congratulated us for having our anniversary made a federal holiday.

Had 47 at 7 AM and it's down a couple degrees from that, with lgt rain and stiff breeze. High was 50 last evening. Christmas 2020 temps were 54/43, so I think today will finish a degree cooler than that.

What lake is that. My dad's parents had a house on Rock Ridge Lake, part of Denville, for their final 30+ years and as a summer place before that. (They each lived to 90-91, passing in the early '70s.) At one time my grandfather held the record for NJ's biggest bass, caught from that lake. I lived in Kinnelon, actually a lake community within that township, from 1950 thru our marriage (51 years ago today), then moved to Parsippany - Knoll Gardens apartments - before moving to BGR in January 1973.

There are varieties of hydrangea doing just fine in town here, where most winters bottom out near -20 (colder last winter).

Only missed by 25 miles. Have not been there in about 60 years, once my maternal grandparents sold their summer place there.

27 and fog on MWN at 7 AM, WCI 6° with winds 50s/G60s. GYX noted danger for hikers at elevation.

Haven't seen the brontosaurus in decades. I've mentioned lots of NNJ towns, I'll guess it's Butler or Kinnelon - used to be a Sinclair near the town line.

I've been driving 2WD (rear) Rangers/Mazda since 1994 and haven't gotten stuck anywhere but our driveway and once when I tried driving down our road with 6" of SN/IP - lots of shoveling, and of course the plow truck arrived as I digging.