tamarack

People diss the 80s, some for good reason (It's easily the least snowy decade at the Farmington co-op) but it had some great stuff if one was in the right place. 1981-82 in Fort Kent had 185.8" snow, capped by the April blizzard. 83-84 had a bit less snowfall (171") but it was much more dense than usual and SDDS and max depth are both tops in my experience. It also included the biggest snowfall I've recorded. January 1987 in Gardiner had 5 snowstorms totaling 49" and a long-lasting pack that was extinguished by a huge rainstorm that led to a major flood and Maine's greatest peak flow on record. And the decade ended with December 1989.

Bookmarked. Thanks to both you and Jeff.

Temps were weird during the past 12 hours. After a high of 42 yesterday it was down to 30 at 11 PM under clear skies. At 4:15 this morning it was upper 30s and breezy, and now it's mid 30s and holding with some gusts near 30 mph. Pre-CF shenanigans. Can you post the link for Maine? I tried changing "Vermont" to "Maine" on the earlier link and ended up in a maze of required actions/frustrations.

In some less-bad news, I heard on last night's news and just read on CNN that 8 people died at the candle factory. That's terrible but earlier guesses were that only 40 of the 110 workers in the shop when the tornado hit had survived. Would there have been fewer deaths had the boss released all 110 upon hearing the warning? Given the widespread destruction in town, one cannot know for sure.

The event that triggered my interest in both weather and trees came a few years earlier, a major ice storm for the hills west/north of NYC on January 8-9, 1953. Broken branches on essentially every tree more than 30 feet tall with some snapped off completely, lost power for 6 days. Fittingly, the 1998 ice storm was on the same dates.

Winters 55-56 thru 66-67 averaged nearly 60 inches. Of course, 50-51 thru 54-55 was closer to 25. Long term there is probably near 40 or a bit below.

Total ignorance of Jeff's preference, or more likely TT knows but only cares for his own opinions. ZR makes for crummy riding, or none at all until the trees get cut out of the trails. January 1998 pretty much ended sledding in central Maine.

Hanging close to 32 and the first bunch of rain is tapering off. Some accretion but not having much effect on trees except changing twig colors. If/when we get serious warming, the current 3" won't have much staying power as the last 2 events (3,2" total) were each 20:1. Maybe the older frozen stuff between the grass blades will persist a bit longer, but I think anything white on the ground on 12/25 will be new snow.

With some flavor of ORH, where the thick masonry buildings at Assumption College took heavy damage. The degree of damage is catastrophic, at least EF-4, and the areal extent is historic.

Our area gets small tornados, small hurricanes, small earthquakes and big snowstorms. That's a good portfolio. Yesterday's 17/1 was 14° BN, and the first double digit BN day since mid April. Currently ZR with about 0.1" accretion. Treated roads were fine but our 2,000-foot gravel road was not yet treated, and nasty, and the porch stairs were worse (until I sprinkled the wood ash).

I was born at Orange Memorial Hospital and we then lived in East Orange. IIRC, that town had 30,000 people in 4 square miles. Our 1950 move was to Kinnelon in northern Morris County, which then had about 1,500 people in 30 square miles. Our home there bordered on the undeveloped watershed of Butler Reservoir and we could walk 1/2 mile or more without hitting civilization. Slight difference.

Glove eater or glove polisher. When someone ahead was having issues, one needed to "slip the clutch" to avoid a collision and that polished all the grip from gloves. Happened often in Fort Kent before they added a chair (long after we moved south.) The other issue with that tow came when few were on the hill and snow was deep, so that the rope burrowed deep into its "notch". When the steep section flatted out near the top, the rope pulled above the snow about 5' from my ski tips and felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.

No problems with my desktop.

January 1-15, 2014 was an incredibly frustrating paradox. Despite the temp average of 11.6° (4.6 BN) we had 2.1" snow and 3.46" total precip. Then the rest of the month was near normal temps but dry - only 0.31" that brought the month's snow to 5.1", least of our 23 Januarys here. Anyone who lived through the late 1980s/early 1990s as a kid should be a grizzled veteran sledding on 2” of snow. When I was 4 we moved in 1950 from NJ city life to a lake community in the Jersey Highlands, and the winters 1950-51 thru 54-55 were all well BN for snow, the biggest storm was about 8" (on 12/2-3 and gone by the 5th) and #3 was only 4 or 5. Learning to run a sled in that kind of winter was a form of torture, and 55-56 was on the same track thru March 15 before 16-19 brought storms of 6" and 24", beginning the incredible 5-year run of big storms.

For many folks, Jersey means NYC metro plus the corridor to Philly, period. West of there, the Jersey Highlands (where I grew up) are totally different, and to the south there's the Jersey Shore, pine barrens and farm country. When family moved from central Illinois to SNJ farm country, they found the land just as flat but instead of corn, beans and a few oil wells they saw trees and farm fields. Much nicer.

It's silly to include as MA "Upstate" NY, basically everything north of Yonkers (or maybe north/west of the Tappan Zee). Also, all of NJ from the terminal moraine northward and PA north/west of Harrisburg, aren't really MA either, but political boundaries trump geography.

Northern part of the MA did pretty well last winter, though it was February and little else. There were some NNJ stations that recorded more snow that month than my Maine foothills site had all winter.

Nasty Especially after last winter when central/southern Maine snowfall compared to norms was the lowest in New England. 16 hours of near-constant S- produced 2.8" of 20:1 fluff. Loaded firs against the bright blue sky is a welcome sight; hope this low-density stuff can survive next week.

Finished with 2.8", about twice what I'd expected thanks to tall ratio - 20:1. The 2.5" measured at 9 last evening had 0.11" LE and the overnight 0.3" another 0.03". Still had some teeny snowdust in the air at 7 this morning despite few/no clouds. Very pretty outside but this snow has little staying power. Getting 1/4" LE of frozen/freezing tomorrow and early Saturday would bulk up the pack, maybe enough to survive next week's 40+ temps.

Had some dim sun about 1 PM but now the rays have more clouds to penetrate. Flake size has gone between fine and feathers several times in the 5 hours of snowfall, 1.3" so far, temp 20-21.

Of course, it has. Since my birth in March 1946 there have been 8 storms of 24"+ at places where I was then living and 3 came in a 5-year period in NNJ. The eight: 12/26-27/1947 NNJ 3/18-19/1956 NNJ 3/20-21/1958 NNJ 2/3-4/1961 NNJ 12/26-27/1976 Fort Kent, but I as visiting family in NNJ that Christmas week. 3/14-15/1984 Fort Kent 12/6-7/2003 New Sharon 2/22-23/2009 New Sharon That NNJ run of 2-footers also included another 4 storms of 18"+, 2/15-16/58, 3/3-4/60, 12/12-13/60 and 1/19-20/61. It would be another 8 years before the Mayor Lindsey storm hit that mark and 9 more before 2/78 reached it. Nothing in my Maine experience (49 years on Jan 23) comes close, for 18"+ or 24"+. From Jan 2015 thru March 2018 we had 4 storms of 20-21" but that big storm period is well isolated before and (so far) after.

Or not. The first of those no-12"+ seasons, 2018-19, set the standard for days with snow cover, reached 41" in early March and ranks behind only 07-08 for SDDs. Approaching a full inch here, so the season's biggest snowfall.

Agree completely, especially what I bolded. We've not had a 12" storm since March of 2018 and in the period 98-99 thru 17-18 we never went 2 years without a snowfall of that size. Also, we've not had a "snow month" (DJFM) with AN snow since February 2019 - 9 consecutive BN snow months, and this December is another slow starter.

Farmington co-op is only one site, but next month will begin its 130th year of data so not a tiny sample size. At that location, temps BN in October and AN for November have been the worst for snow, and the AN/BN sequence has been best. Both months BN is a good sign while both months AN (like this year) runs very close to average for snow. Currently some pretty feathers drifting slowly down, but not all that many.

First teeny flakes seen a bit after 10, now some nice feathers drifting down but not all that many. Temp about 23.