tamarack

I think we're close to schedule here. April is running about 2° AN but w/o real warmth, just no cold, though we had 22 this morning, tied for month's coldest. Coldest daily mean this month is 35 and if that stands (10-to-1 it will) it would be the least cold for April's coldest in 24 years here. (4/99 bottomed at 34.5 so it's close.) Just a mini record but shows the lack of cold. Quaking aspen male catkins are fully formed, red and silver maples blossomed last week and the petals now litter the ground. Willow buds are open with some bits of green. Oak, sugar maple, ash, basswood remain at midwinter form, which is normal for the date. It's been a windy month so far but I don't know whether/how that affects spring phenology.

How do your oaks look?

Temp in low 40s, gusts to low 30s, 70% cloud cover (and our downslope site usually clears out well) - not too a bad day, for mid March.

First week was nice, but 9 of the past 12 days have had measurable rain, 6 with more than 3/10" and most days have featured siggy wind. Despite the month temps running about +2.5, the mildest has been right at 60, only 4° milder than we reached in February. mehhhhhh.

We drove our 1971 Beetle from NNJ to Fort Kent that Sunday, about all that little air-cooled engine could handle - lots of metal pings when we turned off the engine. Stopped in Boston to visit my BIL and his Hawaiian wife - she had no issues with the heat but we were dying. As we approached their apartment steps a rat scuttled across in front of us but was too fat to fit down the rathole and had to keep running. Then we had a massive meat-and-potatoes dinner with the apt temp well into the 80s. Fort Kent never got much over 60 and that cool air was sooooo sweet.

Surprise for Maine outside of the mountains might be how little snow fell before the changeover.

Had the same here, about 2:1 ratio. Still some traces on the leaves despite 2:30 with mid-30s RA.

Two reasons for "cabbage" pine, full sun and white pine weevil, and the first reinforces the second as the insect prefers the thicker leaders of open-grown pines, more room for the babies. Weevils hit the young pines in thicker woods, too, but less frequently and usually those pines soon have a single side branch win the race upward, such that the tree has a small crook but is otherwise straight. In the open, most/all of the top whorl branches continue to grow, and get weeviled, and grow, and . . . (After white pine, Norway spruce is the weevil favorite due to that tree's thick leaders. The critter will also hit white spruce, though rarely. I've never noticed it on red pine.)

0.2" of 2:1 "stuff" fell 7:15-8:45 then cold rain. Had to call tech support who talked me thru rebooting the WiFi connection. She said they were having all kinds of issues, probably storm related. An hour-plus ago CMP was reporting over 20k w/o power. Little wind here, just RA- and mid 30s.

Short of pruning back lower branches, not much as most trees try to build their "factory" as big as conditions allow, so when standing alone, trees grow both out and up. I can't think of a way to prune for less width and retain a decent looking tree. If you try the side-branch pruning, always stop where a vigorous branchlet can be left or the branch will die and be an ugly stub. 23 years ago we transplanted a 2-foot tall fir onto our lawn. Fir naturally has a more narrow profile than hemlock, but even so the now 40-foot tall tree is at least 20 feet wide - would make a nice Christmas tree for PWM.

Running 3° AN thru yesterday.

Recorded RA on 6 straight days, though yesterday's ended shortly after midnight. Precip/temp both AN so far and tomorrow may push precip above the 4.10" average for all of April. Yesterday's -3 temp is the only BN greater than -0.5° this month. The 14 AN days included none greater than +8. Working on 2nd straight month of meh wx.

I recall that event well, as our area near Augusta was forecast for advisory or better snow. Things slowed down and by the time the CF reached us, after 1.85" RA, there was nothing left. We did get 1/2" of 25:1 fluff overnight, maybe the ULL. Saw flakes in Farmington about 1 PM but no sign that any fell around home, just a few house-creaker gusts.

Odd color. Most blue spruce I've seen, including the one in our front yard, have light green for the new shoots. Fortunately, those in the pic appear to retain turgor; if they'd been frostbit they would be hanging down.

Beautiful! Only 35 at our Sunrise Service, which is high end for those meetings for our church. Did not expect to see the sun but it was PC rather than the expected cloudy. Brisk little breeze at near 32 but wonderful just the same.

At best (or worst depending on one's viewpoint), cut amounts in half on the blue and by 1/4 for the higher numbers except maybe the reds - ain't gonna be 10:1 for most.

1st half yes, 2nd half naso much. Since the Farmington co-op moved to its current location (July 1966), April 1-15 has average 5.12" and 16-30 only 1.30". During that time there have been nearly 20 storms 6" for 1-15, topped by 20.0" on 3-5/75, while only 4 in 16-30, with 11.0" on 18-19/67 being tops and no others bigger than 7". In the 21st century (2001 on) the averages are 4.32" and 0.89" with just the 6.5" of 28-29/02 reaching the 6" mark.

Nice pics. Your dad's smallie is significantly bigger than any I've caught. Probably the biggest largemouth I've had on a line was near Pomleau Island on North - my small canoe stays near the north end of the pond. Fish took a Kelly Worm and was on for a couple minutes, made one jump about 30' away and looked at least 2 feet, but only a one-second look so who knows as it got off a few seconds later. Glad that I at least got to see it.

Siggy snow after 4/15 is a rare commodity and seems very capricious. The 2 biggest late April snowfalls, 13" on 22-23/86 and 11" on 19/83, were in NNJ while we were visiting there. Next was 8.0" on 4/16/88, which complicated the snowtreads-removed trip toward our DC excursion. Then 6.3" in the 28-29/87 storm and 5.9" on 17-18/92. All 3 of those came in Gardiner, mildest place (along with BGR) where we've lived in Maine. New Sharon comes in 6th with 4.2" on 28-29,02 then 3.6" on 17/10. Also had 3.2" on 5/9/20. Bangor had 3.5" on 23/74 after 2 days of 60s-70s. Fort Kent's only top 10 entry was 3.2" on 4/30-5/1/78. Averages for 4/16 on: (NNJ not shown as I wasn't keeping records for most of my years there.) BGR: 1.20" FK: 1.21" Gard.: 1.70" NS: 0.95"

An hour farther north puts the Belgrades in play, if pike are the object. State record 31-pounder came thru the ice on North Pond, though it was 25+ years ago. I did see a 20-pounder on that pond's ice about 10 years back. My biggest there is a bit over 8 pounds, fun on my light tackle.

I assume GYX is reporting Central Park.

GYX hourly readings have NYC only 61 at 4 PM, while BDL is 77 and PHI reporting 83, this latter from another source. Someone playing tricks on the Central Park instruments while LGA/JFK bake? Drizzly 45 here, April at its worst.

BD must be sneaking to NYC, as they had 62 at 3 PM. Maybe the Palisades blocking the cool air? They're cooler than anyplace within 100 miles that doesn't have toes in the ocean.

Google Earth has the base lodge at ~2,450', and 300' higher than where the lowest lift starts. Summit lift unloads right around 4000, at least in GE's 2018 imagery. I doubt the new owners' improvements have changed that.

I assume they go thru South Arm Camps. Disclosure: I worked as a forester for Public Lands for 33 years 1985-2021, with a 3-year gap in the 90s when I was with Maine Forest Service and have spent lots of time on BPL's Richardson Unit, which includes the east shore of Upper Richardson and much of Lower. (And staying in the Rangeley area, I'm very happy that Saddleback has come back to life though arthritic knees preclude my skiing. Its NW aspect should give it Maine's best upslope and retention.) Perhaps if we wish to continue this discussion, it should move to the banter thread?