tamarack

I certainly don't like black flies - some years ago I tripped in the woods north from Flagstaff Lake and cut my palm. The little horrors thought "It's a buffet!" and landed by the dozen. However, I despise deerflies even more, especially in the far north of Maine. Imagine 50 of them swarming around, accompanied by 100+ similarly sized but non-biting "sweat lickers" on a hot day. One cannot tell which of the little bombers carry knives, nor can one run fast enough to escape. I've never been chased out of the woods by bugs, but that scenario has come the closest. Sun! (peeks only)

That's deerfly behavior. Black flies scrape down to capillary level and lap up their dinner while the dainty mosquitos take their nourishment thru a straw. Leaves emerging all over. The various pastels of different trees aren't as spectacular as autumn, but the muted colors have their own charm.

Probably rained (with skips) 48 hours this month, and we're up to about 1.25". Keeps the fire danger low, if nothing else.

It's 9 years since our Japan trip to see our son and DIL. United works with ANA but the service quality between the 2 airlines was enormously different - the Japanese attendants were far more polite and helpful.

May 22, 1977. The day I chose to add 6" fiberglass insulation to the attic of our first house in Fort Kent. Fortunately, it was a small house - 2-story 18x20 - and I was done by 11 AM. Temp was probably 120+ up there by then. CAR temps 22-24 were 96, 95, 94 and the low on the 23rd was 69; that 82° is just 0.5° below their hottest mean.

Thanks, Dendrite. All 3 NNE states set their all-time highest in July 1911. ASH hit 106, the other 2 105.

CAR's hottest is 96, reached once in May and twice in June. Modest dews, a bit of downsloping from west wind (not SW, too much water to heat), heat records.

Light (mostly) rain and low 50s all day.

Growth rings usually get thinner as the tree gets bigger, in part because adding diameter on big trees adds more basal area than the same diameter growth on smaller trees. Forest researchers I respect have stated that some white ash can tolerate EAB and the western blue ash has even more tolerance, but green and black ("brown" in Maine) apparently have almost no tolerance.

Case in point: EWR. Consistently voted the least pleasant major US airport and now it can't even accomplish some of the routine AP activities.

Barely over 50 here; I think the warm-up is cooked for today.

About 6 weeks later (Mid-July) we were visiting family at DEC and near sunset on Saturday a storm passed maybe 6-8 miles to our south. Most frequent flashes I ever hope to see - 100/minute plus - and the thunder was like a drum roll thanks to distance/frequency. Later that evening another storm dumped 3" at the kids' place in 90 minutes; lots of thunder but nothing like the earlier one. Next morning at church folks were exclaiming about the light show - impressed even the locals.

No thunder here, reported 0.17" at 7 AM. Currently in a small patch of moderate RA and upper 40s. Spring signs - inch-long sugar maple and hophornbeam leaves though oak/ash still asleep. Less pleasant - fetched 2 deer ticks day before yesterday as I was measuring the trees I've tracked biweekly May-Sept since 2012.

About 28 this morning, same as IZG. Makes 26 of 28 for May having 20s. Last year's low was 30 and 1998 had 32. However, we moved here from Gardiner on 5/15/98 so records here began on 5/17. Gardiner had lows of 33, 32 on 13th, 14th and mornings are several degrees here. April numbers: Avg max: 52.0 -0.1 Warmest, 77 on the 29th Avg min: 30.9 +2.1 Coldest, 14 on the 10th Mean: 41.4 +1.0 Precip: 3.39" -0.68" Wettest day, 0.89" on the 26th. Last year we had 1"+ days on 10 of 12 months, 17 overall. Thru today, 2025 has had none. Snowfall: 2.4" -2.6" Greatest, 1.6" on the 8th April 2025 switched gears on the 14th. Thru the 13th temps averaged 41/27, 3.0 BN, and had flakes on 6 days. Highest in that span was 52. The final 17 days averaged 60/34, 3.8 AN, and was flake free. Lowest max was a modest 47 and 11 days were 60+.

Anyone old enough to have been wx-aware in the 1960s just snickers at the ongoing recent drought talk. 77/32 yesterday, biggest diurnal span here since 2020 (but puny compared to BML/SLK). Worked up a decent sweat while splitting wood. Gusts well into the 30s here this morning, red maple flowers from somewhere littering the porch steps.

52° is the greatest diurnal range I've recorded here, in Feb 2000 (29/-23). That month also had spreads of 49, 42 and 40. Fort Kent is the champ for my records, 38/-21 in Jan 1980 thanks to a strong (and wet) warm front. However, 2/2/76 was more spectacular, dropping 57° (46/-11) between noon and 8 PM, also 44 to -6 between 1 and 6 PM, on howling NW winds.

After stopping at 70 yesterday the temp dropped to 34 again, and we're in the mid-upper 70s - first 'forty' since last April and first 41+ since June of 2023. Bit of a breeze but we're well into a 2nd cloudless day - not a common thing in April.

Maine Med is highly regarded, especially their cardio team and the Barbara Bush children's center. PWM and nearby aren't the cheapest places to live, however.

Nearly a "forty", low of 34 and high into the low 70s.

Assuming we get nothing tomorrow night, May '24-April '25 is 92% of average. BN but not Stein-worthy.

Red and silver maples in full flower, also elms, and long catkins on the aspen. Otherwise, it's stick season still. Another 0.21" overnight, will report multi-day total of 1.10" for 25-27 after 2 days at Pittston Farm (where there were still patches of snow in the woods, not unusual for late April).

Same ecosystem as the barrens, though not quite as extensive. As for no New England urban fires, I'd recommend "Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned", about the fires of October 1947. Excellent recounting (especially about BHB) but, unfortunately, no maps. 200k burned, 15 fatalities, 2 small communities in SW Maine mostly obliterated.

The Scouts rented from Rands! I'm sure they had modernized prior to Sandy - those exposed driveshafts would've had to go. My dad, older brother and I also went down there a couple times, too. We learned about greenheads the hard way. We'd come in about when the sea breeze quit and would have hands covered in fish guts while those demons took advantage of the calm.

When I was in scouting - late '50s - we stayed in Tuckerton at a camping place called Chip's Folly (and caught fluke and blowfish in Great Bay). The camp was next to an Atlantic white cedar swamp, with water that looked like very dark tea. I've since read that cedar logs from 1,000 years ago have been dredged from similar bogs and in totally sound condition, being "pickled" for a millennium.

I grew up in northern Morris County and was 17 at that fire's date. The following super-dry and warm October, a fire on state land covered ~3,000 acres and persisted thru October and into November. The land was mostly loose rockpiles and the fire would follow roots under the stuff, often popping up behind the firefighters. The fire was only 3-4 miles from my HS, and each morning we'd look north to see where the smoke was most dense that day. Our grandkids live in Gloucester County farm country, a few miles west (thankfully) of the barrens. Southern Maine has a limited but significant acreage in pitch pine barrens. The climate is booth cooler (natch) and wetter than NJ and the soils, though not especially fertile, are a lot better was well. Therefore, the pines tend to be taller and crown fires in Maine barrens very rarely reach the crowns; frequent ground fires have sustained the ecotype, though the State Tree, Eastern white pine, is a problematic invasive there.