tamarack

Clock is ticking for big ice - most have been within a month of the solstice. The 2 worst ice storms, by far, that I experienced both came on Jan 8-9, 1953 in NNJ and 1998 in Gardiner. Next 2 were Dec 11-12, 1970 in NNJ and 12/13-15, 1983 in Fort Kent. Those 4 are the only ones that had noticeable tree damage, though lesser ones, including 3/6-7, 1967 in NNJ, have bent the birches.

I don't think we'll gust past 40, if we even get that much - much different than 4 hours of 50+ gusts on 12/18. GYX has chopped the snowfall for here by 2" compared to that from the overnight crew, 6-10 down from 8-12, with change fully to RA by 5 AM. Six miles west the forecast is 9-14 with the change at 7. I think the 2 places will be closer together than that, but the big difference will likely come from the observer from Temple, 2 towns west but, more importantly, about 800' higher.

They're plenty sharp when green and near maturity. I needed leather gloves (which didn't always prevent getting stuck) to gather some mature nuts from a 1962 planting on a public lot. Wait a day or two and the squirrels would've dehusked all of them. Latest forecast here is 8-12 followed by 3/4-1" RA, for a juicy mess. Six miles west in Farmington, it's 10-15" plus the RA.

Average temp here on Jan 23 is 14°, so a few degrees AN doesn't preclude snow. Last January was 9° AN, easily the mildest of 25 Januarys here, and we only had 29.9" of white stuff.

My earliest wx memory. I was on our NNJ with Dad and older bro, watching the trees thrashing. When tops and limbs began flying around, Dad said it was time to go inside. Only competition for strongest wind experienced was on 12/31/62, the backside NW gales from the blizzard that ate BGR. Both gusted to near 70. Next tier is Hazel and Bob with G60+, then the April 1982 blizzard (in Fort Kent) along with 3 weeks ago, both with 50+ gusts for hours. And watching a "pure" cutter morph into a major front-end thump before changeover during the past 4 days has been entertaining. May it continue so the snow doesn't get soggified.

Just curious - which mountain? Big Moose, Coburn, the Spencers, somewhere else?

36" for LEW. 40 miles north, Farmington had 43", bringing the depth to 84". That was the state record for snowpack until 2017, when Chimney Pond (at 2,900') reached the 90s.

Unfortunately. 6-8" of increasingly wet snow topped by 1"+ RA would leave a chute-clogging mess. We had that (including the clogged chute) in Nov 2018, followed by cold, and for the next month our driveway was like driving across railroad iron.

We have 9" pack with ~1" LE and the current thoughts from GYX suggest that the first inch will be white. Thursday morning we might see about the same depth as before, but with twice the LE. Of course, if the snow was followed by 2-3" RA at 50°, everything goes downriver and we get another Dec 18, though with less wind. Highly unlikely.

5.8" from 0.47" LE, so 12.3-to-1 here, as it was all tiny flakes. 1st snowstorm this season that didn't flirt with 32° - max was 17. Snowblower likes it, even on places where we hadn't cleared the ~5" from 12/30. Wind had fun with the snow flying out the chute; my wool jacket went from Buffalo plaid to white several times.

Snow arrived about 2 AM and ended before midnight. 20 hours of mostly light snow, for 5.8" at 12:1, and daily high temp of 17. Evergreens nicely covered with blue sky above. (And the next storm has morphed per GYX from a bit of mix then deluge to 6-10" SN Tuesday before the changeover. Will probably start working back toward the earlier progs tomorrow.)

Very light snow with tiny flakes at 7 AM. 2.0" from 0.15" LE, temp mid teens. Not snowman material.

The northern fringes in Maine have some similar ranges. The Christmas night storm of 2002 dropped 18" on GYX and, 55 miles NNE, we got 1". It can happen.

12/18 had H9 winds to 90 kt. Every coastal county in the GYX CWA had gusts into the 60s, with Criehaven (Knox Cty) hitting 78 mph. Even inland, AUG reached 68. Highly doubt that 1/10 gets there.

Forecast from GYX has retreated on the most recent periods - Farmington "most likely" yesterday dropped from 5" to 4, and this morning's 3" is now 2. The range is greater than usual, with the 90%/most likely/10% being zero/2"/12". Seems to indicate continued movement from models.

Less destructive than 50s and 5" rain, like 12/18. The 2.3" rain at mid 30s on 12/11-12 only solidified what snow was left.

GYX "most likely" for here is 4", more than most of the clown maps. If we see 3-4 while SNE has lots of 10"+, good for them. Looking back to when MA points saw 10-20"+ on 12/19-20/2009, I thought the same way. However, come February when KUs #2 and #3 also whiffed here, the fun was gone.

Took a walk out the club snomo trail thru our woodlot to see how much damage was done by the Dec. 18 gales. At least half of the fir 10" diameter or larger were toppled where I could see from the trail and from a short bushwhack, while most of the smaller fir escaped destruction. Pines on that side of our land were fine, but some of the taller (100-120') pines near the road suffered - 2 were turned into 60-70' flagpoles/masts when the 2nd half of forks broke off, and 2 others lost first halves, making them vulnerable to NW wind. By far the most tree damage in our 25+ years here.

Or 8:1 cornmeal as dry air shrinks already poor dendrites. All snow is good snow.

Thanks - worked fine today.

16" at our Gardiner home, 2nd biggest of our 13 winters there. The event had 2 quirks: --PWM reported SN about 4 AM but it was shortly after noon before I saw flakes outside my August Eastside workplace. --It took only about 60 seconds for the rate to go from 1st flakes to 1/8 mile visibility. Other than Fort Kent snow squalls, I've never again seen such a wall of snow. GYX morning AFD was a downer for next week - hinting at whiff then deluge. Given the consistency [sarcasm] of the model runs, there will probably be more flipflops in prognoses.

December numbers: Avg. max: 34.5 +3.5 Avg. min: 20.03 +6.3 Only the 2nd Dec at 20°+ Avg. mean: 27.3 +4.9 3rd mildest. The 3 weeks 12/10-30 was +8.9° Precip: 9.35" +4.61" Wettest Dec by 1.50". Wettest for any month since June 2009. The 4.08" on 12/18 trails only Irene's 4.25" on 8/28/11 for wettest day. Snow: 17.3" -1.6" Snowiest day, 7.7" on 12/4. The 12.4" of 3-5 and the surprise 4.8" on the 30th were separated by 24 days with just a 0.1" flurry. Avg. depth: 3.0" -1.7" Peak was 10" on 12/5, 17 days with 1"+ The storm of 12/17-18 caused major tree damage on our woodlot and cut power for 101 hours, slightly more than the 1998 ice storm when we lived in Gardiner. Only the 6 days w/o power from the Jan 1953 ice storm at our NNJ home was longer. The Kennebec, Sandy and Carrabassett Rivers all recorded their 2nd greatest peak flows, trailing only April 1987. Some 2023 numbers: Avg. temp: 44.06" +1.81" Only 2010 with 44.25" was milder. Precip: 59.33" 3rd behind 2005 and 2008.

The spot cleared for the above measurement had 0.9" when I took a core on the undisturbed part of the board about 3:30, but that area topped out at 4.8" due to settling, with 0.59" LE. Had very light stuff, mostly frozen, after that. When the SNJ part of the family was getting unstuck in Jay, they were advised to not take Rt 133 but go a slightly longer way Rt 2 to Rt 4. Good thing, as 133 had several accidents, from tractor-trailers in the ditch to car rollovers. Last we heard, 2 hours ago, they were in CT so well into NJ by now.

Measured 4.5" from 0.46" LE at 12:45, though I didn't clear the whole board due to wanting a full-storm measurement. Steady SN continues, and echoes upstream suggest continuation beyond sunset. Now <2" from Dec average, thanks to bookend storms. From 12/6 thru yesterday only 0.1" fell.

Nice that the "3 best places" for Maine are far from the Rangeley area. Maybe that will temper the hordes heading that way.