tamarack

Might consider adding some mulch so they don't get toasted tomorrow night.

Was cloudy here thru 2 PM, PC since with a west breeze as the 1st bit of CAA arrives - temp down 3-4° from the upper 40s max.

March snowstorms loom large in my memory, starting with 18-19, 1956, 24" of powder and the first storm of 10"+ I'd experienced. (The 12/26-27/1947 dump doesn't count - I was 21 months old.) Two years and 2 months after that 2-footer we had another one, this time a paste bomb, then 18" of cold (mid-teens) pow on 3/3/1960. Biggest snowfall I've seen is 26.5" on 3/14-15/1984 in Fort Kent. Three years earlier, with ground nearly bare following the record thaw in February, a 1-3" forecast for 3/17 turned into 21" over some 48 hours with blizzard conditions and singles-teens cold. Our total from the 1993 Superstorm was among the lowest in New England, 10.3" of heavily rimed 6:1 grit, though it built the peak to 31", tops for our 13 winters in Gardiner. Our 1st winter here in the foothills was pure meh until the two 14" dumps in March, then 2 years later March had 55.5" with 2 storms totaling 35" in the month's final 10 days, building the pack to 48" on 3/31. (Farmington's 58.3" that month is their 4th largest on record, and most for any month not starting with "F".) Pi Day 2017 was the most recent of our 4 events here meeting blizzard criteria and probably the fiercest of the 4. Then the next year featured 2 storms totaling 36.4" in the 7th-14th period. Of course, March is often either great or awful, with 3/2010 bringing only 0.6" (and milder than even 3/2012) and last year one slushy 0.1".

For sure. Last 3 days here were 38/24, 39/13 and 41/19. The rain after snow on 2/8 left the pack at 24" and 3 days near 40 with considerable sun haven't been able to dent the mass. Late next week may be a different scenario.

Had a very enjoyable late morning walk today. The club's big groomer had run the snomo trail thru our woodlot yesterday and with this morning's 19° it was still firm - much easier walking than on bare ground with the rocks, mush and puddles. Zero animal tracks since Tuesday's 3.5" (lots of deer tracks closer to the house, though), no deer, no coyotes, no bunnies, no partridge - though I did flush 2 birds from a hemlock as I passed by.Still 24" at the stake. That 3.5" had it momentarily up to 27", then the rain packed it to 25 and 3 days of near 40 could only push it down another inch. Probably 6-6.5" LE in that pack.

Climo asserted itself the next year, especially in March when we had 2 major snowfalls while points only 30-40 miles to the SE had mainly rain. Latitude giveth and it taketh away.

A gentle whack here, nice 11" event while 25-30 miles away AUG/LEW each had 25". March 19-20/2013 was bigger.

Like 2001 up here, when 19" on March 30-31 brought the pack to 48" - had 55.5" that month.

RA- and dz since about 8 AM. Had to shovel the plow pile so the mail can get to the box. 3.5" has settled to 2-2.5 and where the plow scraped it all off the base is very slick, so I plan to just pack things down with the pickup. We'll need another cord for late March onward, so I need to snowblow a landing pad, though we won't order for another couple weeks. I've found that green wood is nicely dried by ~3 days stacked on the hearth about 12" from the stove - 120°+ dry air works just like the dry kilns at the sawmills. Also, our recent loads have had a good proportion of white ash. "Ash wood green or ash wood dry, a king shall warm his slippers by."

The 64% average in a different post assumes zero for the rest of your snow season, while a 65" average would probably have 25" or so coming after Feb 8. Using, say, 40" ytd rather than the full 65 for 21-22 would add about 10% for your average. Maybe the seasonal progression is different here, where we average another 37", about 41% of the 89" average, coming after 2/8. Using the ytd average, we've run 93% of average for the 3+ winters 18-19 on. The 25.4" for Jan 29 thru today boosted the average by 8%.

Somewhat different at our latitude, at least through the first half of the month. The 23-year average for snowpack here currently peaks at 21.6" on 3/2 and is still at 12.0" on the 31st. It was up to 27" this morning but the present light rain may push it down a bit during the day.

3.5" of 8:1 snow before changing to ZR about 5A, and then RA 3 hours later. Mild enough (33-34) that the snow is beginning to fall from the fir trees.

Strike before the iron is cold (to mangle the old proverb.) We bought our heat pump in November of 2020 even though it was almost entirely for AC - didn't know how long the 1k rebate would stay in effect.

Last winter my place wasn't within 3 dozen of climo, and prior to Jan 29 we were running a bit behind 20-21. (Of course, 18-19 was AN, 19-20 was 95% of avg and both seasons had long snow cover due to early Novie snow that stayed.) Now only 1.6" BN thanks to 22" in the past 8 days. And now a possible out-of-nowhere event?

MLK 2010 was just one more facet for the ugliest late winter I can remember. We were progged for something like 4-7 as I headed out on the Flying Pond ice to see if any large and unruly bass were hungry. I figured the clouds would protect my face from frying and a little snow would keep the hole from freezing and messing up my topwater traps. Watched the clouds advance during the forenoon to cover about half the sky, then watched them slide back to where they were barely visible on the horizon. And the month only got worse from there. GYX was bearish for Tuesday on their morning AFD, though they did pump the PoP to 60% from the earlier 30. Still, they were talking about 1-2 max. Something changing?

Finished at 12.4" after nearly 30 hours of snowfall. The first 11" had 1.28" LE for the 8.6 ratio, and when I was clearing it yesterday afternoon the snowblower revealed Thursday's slop. I thought that it would freeze and make for an icy driveway. Then the 4-11 PM feathers added 1.4" with 23.3 ratio to cover the mess. First 12"+ in almost 4 years, pack at 26" and the views are lovely. In Allagash the folks would say the woods were "filthy". We found these conditions great when leading the crew, kick the sapling and dump its load on our chums.

Aroostook was in the teens (singles at FVE) when the significant precip arrived there. In fact, they were already in the 20s yesterday afternoon. Nuthin' but flakes.

Took this a couple days ago - five critters cleaning up the apple drops. (Plus reducing this coming season's crop thru improper pruning.) Earlier this afternoon

Looking toward the road. Between the birches the trees across the field are visible as a dark are. That's my 1/4-mile view for judging whether the rate reaches S+. It was merely S when the pic was taken but we had maybe 15 minutes around 11 AM when those trees disappeared.

Out the back window

In Jeff's hood too, but I've not seen anything bigger than 1/4" here. However, we're 16 hours since the changeover and counting, with about 10.5" of 8-9 to 1 stuff, nice and dry except for the bottom inch, which needed to be bounced off the shovel occasionally when I was measuring at 7.

7.5" at 7 this morning with 0.90" LE and 2.5-3" since. RA changed to snow about 7 last evening and it's been constant moderate snow since then. Temp is mid-teens so the snow is dry, but I've not seen anything bigger than 1/4" coming down and the ratio is 8.3. Most of the snowiest reports on cocorahs show similar ratios. Farmington 4.8 NW reported 10.5" on 1.96" LE; the total looks reasonable as it was a 9 AM measurement but the LE is off the wall - 0.78" more than any other Maine report and 0.88" above any of the snowy places. Just had a short period with the rate almost to S+ but it's back to the usual, which is fine when it continues for 15+ hours. Back end looks to be just this side of the CT River so probably several more inches to come. May make 12"+ for the first time since March 2018. Trees are full of snow, but the later dry stuff isn't adding much weight so no danger, just beauty.

March 1936 brought the Sandy River to its 2nd greatest flood flow, trailing only 1987. Some Kennebec sites below Augusta had 1936 peaks higher than 1987 despite a lesser flow, due to an ice jam at the Richmond bridge and Swan Island. In the 1987 flood the ice had already run on most streams 4th order or bigger.

Though a very different setup, this event has a faint aroma of Dec 7-9, 2014. That storm was forecast at 10-16" here, basically our current forecast for tonight/tomorrow. The 2014 thing brought 1.3" snow and 2"+ of 33-35° RA. Meanwhile, western Maine mountains above about 1800' had 18-30" of tree-wrecking paste. (It was the 2nd of that season's mega-busts, storms that brought only 1/8 the snow needed for the forecast to verify.) I remain optimistic about this one, for now.

34 and breezy, first day above 31 since Jan 6. Five deer cleaned up the drops under the most prolific of our 3 apple trees this morning, so I knocked down the last 30-40 hangers-on. Looked like 3 adult deer and 2 fawns from last spring. Dog nibbled at some deer poop.