tamarack

Or the 25th - had 2.54" on the 12/25/20 Godzilla Grinch. Not only the biggest one-day rain in 24 Decembers here, but its 29° AN temp is the greatest positive departure for any day here. 2nd place is +27 on 3/22/12. Th morning warm front 7-10'ed us, the current storms are staying just north, and if the modeled precip verifies, another 7-10 later this afternoon. The Rt 2 corridor between Bethel and Newport seems to repel rain, also snow in some winters.

One more thing to harass the beech trees. It's only in coastal Maine at present. Beechnut crop size and bear cub numbers are closely linked in Maine.

Most of my bear sightings were also from a vehicle, especially when I worked in the Allagash-Estcourt-St.-Pamphile triangle. Peak time would be June, when the critters would take a dump in the middle of the road. IIRC, I only spotted bears 7-8 times while on foot, including bears in trees twice. First was Mama and a pair of 2nd-yearcubs munching on beechnuts, with one of the cubs in its own tree. After 10 minutes of looking/listening (they chomped like pigs and broke branches to access the treat), I moved slightly and mama saw it, then came out of that tree at top speed. She wanted OUT, and I could hear her crashing away for a couple minutes. It was early autumn, when sows abandon 2nd-year cubs ahead of bearing young during the coming winter, so that might've been her breakaway. Second was just the cubs, 1st-year critters, with mama not in sight - that was more nerve-wracking. Had a sizable grunting bull moose come at me one early October when I was in big spruce 1.5 miles from a road. When it got within 20 yards, I began hollering and tossing sticks - didn't want to deal with a disappointed thousand-plus-pound animal when he discovered I wasn't the cow of his dreams. He dropped his head to show off his antlers, big even in proportion to his size, waved them back and forth for a minute, then walked an equidistant quarter-circle around me, resumed grunting, and went about his business. A few minutes later after my pulse settled a bit, I did the same.

Most waters encountered in those states have decent (or better) fishing, and most offer temporary licenses, 1 day/3 day/7 day (some/all of those periods) that are lots cheaper than a full year non-resident license. Can't make more specific recommendations without knowing your itinerary.

The average warmest 31 days of the year here began yesterday - still lots of time.

October is usually* too late here but we've had notable heat in September - 1999, 2002 (9/02 tied for our hottest day here) and late month humid u80s in 2017. *Had very warm (near 80, 27° AN) and humid in late October 1979, in Fort Kent.

Some New England/Dacks ski areas will run a lift for summer tourism - easy way to get views. (Or at least they did 51 years ago. On our honeymoon excursion we rode the gondi at Stowe and the terrifying chairlift to Little Whiteface.)

Black gum, a species of tupelo, is moderately common in southern York County, just to the south of Mt. Agamenticus. (That area is Maine's example of Central Hardwood Forest, with abundant hickory and black birch plus the only natural origin chestnut oak in Maine. There used to be Maine's only sassafras and flowering dogwood there until the road and parking lot were built for the now defunct Big A ski area. The dogwood may still be there.) There's a handful of black gum on state land surrounding the old Pineland complex about 10 miles NW from PWM, and I spotted one as far north as Gardiner while deer hunting in 1993. (Date remembered because I had a nice 8-pointer walk within buckshot range the day before Thanksgiving.) The right-angle branching is diagnostic, especially on branches growing from larger branches. Its magenta color in the fall is also noteworthy. I don't think any of Maine's tree species can withstand 100 mph winds unless they're well sheltered (so the effective wind is much less) except possibly leaf-off sugar maple and beech on deep soils. On September 30, 1986 a straight-line wind flattened about 600 acres a few miles east from the town of Eagle Lake, half on state land and half on private. It hit so hard that defect-free sugar maples were snapped off before they could uproot. I don't know if the folks from the Caribou WSO ever evaluated this event; the 20"+ snowfall on Nov. 20-21 ended the opportunity. Given the extent and degree of damage, my estimate would be 90-100 mph.

Is that a Japanese cherry or another exotic? Sure doesn't look like the native ones. (Or it's the biggest chokecherry ever.) I'd never encountered the term "southwest injury", but it makes sense if there's a very mild and sunny day ahead of the growing season - bark gets scalded and dies. "Sunscald" is one I've known about since forestry school, usually an issue when formerly shaded trees get exposed to sun by a thinning. It's particularly an issue when thinning young white pine.

Can't tell if that was a physical injury - tree got whacked by something during bark-peeling season (May-June) or whether it's a fungal infection, though I suspect the latter. Have you had any falling limbs, or anything, that could've caused the wound? If it's fungus, there are fungicides available at nurseries and other places like Agway. One would apply the chemical now, and perhaps wait until after several hard freezes this fall and then (carefully) scrape it down to healthy wood. Waiting for the freezes ensures that ambient fungal spore levels are low to nil, and the wood will dry over the winter, leaving a hostile substrate for next year's spores. Experienced nursery staff would be good people to consult. Edit: And/or what Dendrite posted.

Close to home (Chic Chocs) or way up by Ungava where July flakes are no big thing?

And central Mass as well. It's well described in Stephen Long's "Thirty Eight - The Hurricane that Transformed New England", though the serious tree damage in western Maine wasn't noted. There's a lot of Maine acres west of Rangeley on which the current stands of trees were established by that storm. As for making a tree species extinct, I thought of the holly groves on Fire Island, but I think there are some remaining there. We lived in Gardiner, Maine when Bob came through. It produced the greatest calendar day rainfall I've recorded, 6.41", and was the only TC which had backside NW winds as strong as the frontside SE, though 95% of RA came before the shift. (Tops for 24 hr is 8.90" on 8/27-28/1971 in NNJ, 3.80" from a PRE on 8/27 and 5.10" from TS "Doria", most falling midnight-5 AM. Fortunately, only about 1/2" RA had fallen during the previous 3 weeks, so flooding of major rivers was minor though small/midsized watercourses went wild.)

Read an article about the incident that was posted on FB. The explosion was recorded on the family's security cam, the security company then contacted the homeowner to check that folks were all right, a neighbor (?) picked up the video and put on Twitter and away we go! Turns out there were thankfully no injuries and amazingly, that car wasn't damaged

Only seen it once, in 1966 when I worked at Curtiss-Wright's lake resort in NNJ. It had been hot, like all of summer '66, but dry with little wind. Mid-afternoon a north wind suddenly turned the north-south lake into whitecaps, probably approaching 40 mph. I heard a crash at the south end of the clubhouse where I was short-order cooking, then saw sand and stuff flying around the north end and ran to that end to watch. There were hardwood chaise-lounges with thick cushions on the beach, and the wind tossed one of the 25-lb lounges down to water's edge and left the cushion stuck 50 feet up in an oak tree. The spinner flipped over the aluminum rescue boat FAST, barely missing a nearby lifeguard, then headed across the lake with one of those 30" tall "pipe" ashtrays whirling around a few yards above the water. The lake was less than 500' wide and the cliff on the far side quickly ended the drama. I'm guessing the sudden gust created a bit of low pressure at the south end of the building and air rushed in from the west to fill in, triggering the fun.

Also 99 on 9/11/83, and 97 on 9/20(!)/83, 9/11/2013 and 9/6/2018. These last 2, at least, were out in the bay.

Doesn't take much sun to bring the metal surface to 100°, even in early September. (Ambiguous pronoun reference ftw)

Dews might not be high enough - need to be in IA/IL for those corn-fed mid-80s TD.

I never checked in on that furniture offer - we're not in need of new stuff - and wondered whether "sweep" meant that another 2004 or 2007 would count but 2013 and 2018 would not.

My garden is dry but that's only the top 8" of soil. I started keeping wx records in the early 1960s in NNJ, so while the current deficiency of RA is irritating, it's far from a real drought.

Maine vies with twice-as-large Washington for having the most bears of any state in the lower 48, estimated at more than 30,000. We also probably have the most liberal hunting regs of the 48 for bear hunters, allowing bait and use of hounds during the early season and having no cap on the number of hunters - anyone qualified to hunt in Maine can buy the modestly priced permit for the bait-dog seasons, and those licensed to hunt deer can also take bear during the 4-week firearms deer season. Despite that, the wildlife branch of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife say that the bear kill is 30-40% too low to keep the population from increasing. I'm very pleased that the referendum to prohibit bait/dogs/traps several years back was voted down, though not by all that much. It's also amazing how few bear incidents occur in this state, with most (other than vehicle collisions) resulting from dumb human behavior. (In 1977 I was scoping out roads and harvest areas about 10 miles west of Allagash Village during deer season, carrying the old 7x57 Mauser in case one was numb enough to let me have a shot. On a low hardwood ridge a large bear - looked 9 feet long but I'll only claim "200+ lb" - which let me approach within 25 yards thanks to its love of beechnuts. Rifle went up, I had the beast in the sights, not a particularly difficult shot, but my brain asked, "Do you really want to kill a bear?" To this day I've never eaten bear meat. I'm confident I'll like it a lot, but until/unless that gets confirmed, I'll not shoot a bear unless it's me or it, about a billion-to-one chance. After that bear had departed, I remembered that I was 3/4 mile from the nearest woods road, about half thru a recently harvested slash-tangled cedar swamp. Might still be trying to drag it today!)

New record for New England's hottest day, topping Hot Saturday 1975 by one degree. Lock it.

Over the past 2 days of forecasts, PoP has descended 70-60-50 and now 30%. GYX generally doesn't make qpf calls beyond 3rd period, so tomorrow jut came in range and it's <0.10".

Just a light breeze here in the woods. Glad I'm not on North Pond in my small canoe.

Had 0.30" in the Stratus this morning, right within the 1/4-1/2" forecast. Would've preferred 2-3 times as much. Over the last 6-7 years, May-Sept precip has been significantly lower than in previous years - garden not like.

Probably moved the obs location a few dozen yards due to development - building? Parking?