tamarack

Some cherrypicking (though the change was abrupt and lasting): 67 days Nov 8-Jan 13: Temp 8.2° AN, snow 11.0" 94 days Jan 14-Apr 17: Temp 5.1° BN, snow 84.3" (37.2" in April. Farmington's 36.1" was a foot more than the previous peak in 129 Aprils.)

Other than Monday's low-ratio (6.7-to-1 plus 0.10" ZR) storm, 2 weeks + of good pattern has produced midgets or whiffs. Month is still under 10" and average is 19.4.

Or Fisherman's wharf in SF. Their dunginess crab was low 50s when we were there in March 2016. We chose the $35 swordfish with a $10 crab appetizer, which was good but both wife and I preferred the fish.

In Fort Kent we'd hear the s drywall nails popping at -30 or colder as the wood behind them shrunk. Sometimes the nail heads would push out thru the spackle a bit. (Of course, modern drywall is usually fastened with screws.)

I've read that NYC had a January day that winter with a subzero max. Records only date back thru 1869 and their coldest max since then is 2° on Dec 30, 1917.

Woke up at 2:15 this morning, so I went out and started the pickup and let it run about 10 minutes. No problem starting it at 7:15 (-29 then) to go to the monthly men's fellowship breakfast.

January 18, 1982 in Fort Kent: -34, gusts above 35 mph, and 2 miles visibility in very light snow, WCI (old scale) -101. (About -72 on the new.) My Chevy Luv pickup would barely start despite being plugged in all night. The wind howled all day with an afternoon high of -14. Down to -29 here, coldest morning since Dec 29, 2017. Lots of tree-pops in the woods.

At this latitude, midwinter rain equals ice rink follow-up. No thanks.

Eastern Aroostook must have mixed a lot more, as CAR/PQI/FVE/HUL all bottomed out in the minus teens.

You just described 2007-08 here, though we did have some milder temps mixed in. 142.3" and 3,835 SDDs, and only 2 double-digit snowfalls, biggest a modest 12.5". And going to green grass a day after having a 40" pack might have a downside.

Hit -19 here, perhaps crack the -20s tomorrow?

The room is certainly odor free this morning, as it got down to -19.

The 13" pack here probably has almost 4" LE. The deer group that's been munching on apples under the nearest tree are only sinking in about 4".

Some of the worst I've experienced came with snow squalls, especially when the snow began with temps about 35 and ended with it at 23. The only real flash freeze I recall after a rain event came on 2/2/76 when a 1"+ RA was followed by a temp dive from 44 to -6 in 5 hours. BGR temps that day were 57/1.

Looks like something Mythbusters might have done. Lots of dry cold in our future here.

Mine was built in 1975 (we bought it in May 1998) and it was the builder's first house. Some things weren't done quite right. The V-match pine floors were face-nailed rather than toenailed on the tongue edge, and we had nails working up and snagging socks until we had laminate installed on much of the area. The plywood sheathing only reaches within 3/4" of the top plate on the back wall - why they didn't add the 4-inch strip to close off the opening I don't know, but that left a wide come-hither to small rodents. Th back bedroom (now our computer room) had an unpleasant aroma on warm days when the sun was shining on it, and when we re-did the room in fall 2018, we found the fiberglass insulation was chewed into small bits. Also, the bottom 3-4" of the cavities were accumulated mouse pee/poop with a reek that was staggering. We found a spray designed to kill the stench, and multiple applications followed by baking soda took away nearly all of the smell. We replaced the fiberglass with Rocksil, which is supposed to deter mice. No smell so far but only 3 summers. Our location in the woods is hard to beat, however.

This month has already had 7 daily highs at my 9 PM obs time and an 8th an hour later. Twice the 9 PM reading was the max for both the ending and beginning day and a 3rd time the consecutive-day highs were at 9 and 10. Afternoon highs on those 8 days ranged from 2 to 11 degrees colder than the recorded highs. It's currently 4°, up from a wee hours low of -7, and there's a non-zero chance today's high will be at 9 PM. Snow has increased from count-the-flakes to legitimate S-, my 19th event with measurable snow and maybe it will bring the total to over 23". On average, 88% of our average snowfall (89") comes Dec-Mar, our "snow months". The most recent snow month with AN snow was Feb 2019 - ten straight with BN snow, and we'll need another 10-11" this month to avoid making it 11. Edit: Or 12, given the 2 above posts.

Same with our heat pump - beats hauling window ACs around, probably more efficient and we don't have to block a window. We've wimped out on firewood, buying it cut and split, 5 cords per year. Oil-fired boiler for backup and domestic hot water. House is 1975 technology but the L.C. Andrews cedar log siding on a stick frame structure means walls 7-8" thick. Speaking of nickels and dimes (and pennies, this winter), I've recorded 18 events with measurable snow - average event is 1.26". Even the 6 with >1" only average 3". So far, it's the winter with an army of midgets.

After several hours under echoes but no flakes, we can now count them as they drift by. Since even one flake gets a "T", getting 20 flakes is the same.

Yesterday's event finished with 6.2" with 0.92" LE, nice 6.5-1 ratio, further thickened by 0.10" of marginally freezing rain that mostly soaked into the pack. Tough going for the snowblower. Had that 1"+ LE been 12" pow, the work would've been much easier. Probably enough now for the groomer to work the trail thru our woodlot without breaking things on the rocks. Sad when it's Jan 18 before there's enough snow to safely run that machine. Now only 13" BN here.

Measured 5.7" at 1 PM with gritty S-, but the rate/flakes have improved since then. Temp into the upper 20s, an 8° climb in the past 3 hours. Edit: Changed to light rain just before 2. The 6.2" final (unless the ULL produces later) had 0.92" LE. The 6.5-to-1 ratio fits right in with last year's lowest by far average ratio. Note: The "970mb" I posted earlier should've been 980. Lowest I've seen is 979 at St. Johnsbury and most sites outside N Maine are starting upward or will soon.

Measured 5.7" at 1 PM with gritty S-, but the rate/flakes have improved since then. Temp into the upper 20s, an 8° climb in the past 3 hours. Edit: Checked the offshore winds and Mount Desert Rock was 55/65 kt - Cat 1 gusts. Some VT/NH sites at 970 mb, still falling.

Decent. Snow began about 6 and by 9 we'd had only 1/2". By 10 it was about 2" - easily the heaviest rate this season. GYX overnight shift backed the yesterday afternoon forecast from 8-12 to 5-9. Some siggy forecast differences over relatively short distances: Farmington 7-11, Skowhegan 3-7 barely 20 miles distant and slightly farther north.

Broadleaf woody plants like those azaleas and hollies should sprout vigorously, unless they were looking sickly this past summer. If the critters eat your small arborvitae (if you have one) to below the lowest green branch, it's cooked.

Those would be my NNJ picks, though 2/61 would be first due to taller pack (thanks to the 1/19-20 storm and smaller events) and much more wind/drifting. Bangor: 4/3-5/75 Fort Kent: 4/7-8/82 2nd place: 3/14-15/84 Gardiner: No truly memorable snowstorms in 13 winters, so 1/8-10/98 instead, but with my 13kw Generac down there and ready to go. New Sharon: Actually experienced, 12/6-7/03. Missed it by one day, 1/27-28/15. Got home from SNJ ~12 hours after final flakes.