tamarack

My locale, especially the dooryard and surrounding woods, holds snow longer than most places in town, but 3/25 has had zero pack in 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2016. All four of those years saw the continuous cover end prior to the equinox, earliest being 3/14 in 2006. Latest loss of cover came on 4/24/01, one day later than in 2008.

Grew up in a NNJ lake community and there was always bragging rights for 1st guy (always a guy) taking a swim. [I chose not to compete. ] Usually would occur with the first 80+ afternoon in mid-late April, when the water temp was about 47°. In 1987 temps were warm to hot on Memorial Day weekend - PWM hit 94 on 5/31. Visited friends in Wells and went to Wells Beach. Fog had rolled in, cutting temps by 25°, but the kids wanted to swim in the (45-50°) ocean anyway. 9-year-old daughter slipped off a barnacled rock and scraped her leg, couldn't feel it until 10 minutes later when warmed up, and the salt water tested her nerve endings.

Maybe there. Here winter is longest though summer is catching up. The warm season may seem longer because the temp peak is a plateau, nearly constant here from about 7/10 thru 8/9. The bottom of winter is more steep-sided, with less than 3 weeks within 2° of the coldest average day. However, nearly 3 months here have average temps at least 10° below 32.

Clearance is key, usually. Outbacks/Foresters do a lot better in mud than Legacys/Imprezas (or Volvos). One spring years ago in Fort Kent, about 2000 feet of our back settlement road turned into mush. Our '83 Cavalier with aggressive snow treads went thru that mess while full size 2WD pickups could not, even though the car had 13" rims and the trucks 15 or 16".

It's been 3+ years here since we've had a decent after-dark light show. Last year might've been the worst for lightning in general, with only one event that even approached garden variety. Then there was the out-of-nowhere strike a year ago today that blew apart a nearby fir and toasted both a DirecTV cable and the genny-to-house connection. Not looking for a repeat but some storms with multiple hits within 2-3 seconds would be appreciated.

Since moving to Maine in 1973 I can recall only one HHH Memorial Day, and that was in 2015 while visiting the kids in, yes, SNJ. Only high 80s but 4-5 days of super sticky. We headed north in a deluge on 5/31 (EWR suburb had carp on some roads) and by the time we got to the Charlton rest area on the Mass Pike it was upper 40s with windy dz - actually felt almost good, though having the next 2 days at home with wind-driven mid-40s RA was less so. (Contrast that with Memorial Day 1969 when we drove to Ringwood Manor in SNY in my '62 Beetle - NYC hit 97 and the heater control on the Bug was stuck wide open.)

3/25/2022 6:00 AM ME-AR-18 New Sweden 4.9 NNW 0.02 0.3 NA NA 30.0 NA NA ME Aroostook Cocorahs 11 miles NW from CAR, at 845 ft, still a pretty good pack, with today's snow just beginning.

Great storm, 0.67" total with 0.2" SN to start, most precip at 32-34°. Again

Especially WCI.

Much better retention than 20-21 though still below average. We're at 76% of my average for total snowfall, while last year finished just under 60%. My worst 3-year period for snow was 01-02 thru 03-04 with 213.0". Winter 19-20 thru now totals 204.3". Average snow after 3/25 is 7.1" though it's extremely variable, ranging from zero (twice) to 37.2" in 2007. SDDs: 20-21: 1,166 21-22: 1,457 thru yesterday Average: 1,771 Median: 1,444 Highest: 3,835 in 07-08 Lowest: 557 in 05-06

Winter 21-22: "Not as horrible as 20-21, as D+ beats F."

Had some huge aggregates and IP at the same time between 9 and 10 this AM, always light, then RA-/dz since about 10:15. 0.2" frozen, mostly gone now. Two years ago on this date I was looking at 10" new, snow season's biggest event. ((2nd biggest would come 16 days later.)

After 90 minutes of here-and-there flakes, it's still S- but with the occasional silver-dollar aggregates mixed in. P-type change coming soon? Maybe 0.1" dusting so far.

One of the few storms to pound CHI, NYC and CAR. 2 out of 3 is common but hitting all 3 much less so. It was the strongest blizzard of my experience with gusts well into the 50s in Fort Kent, and by far the most wintry April storm in NYC's 150+ years of record.

Weird in many ways. However, during the past 10 years SNE has done better in April, 120% of long-term April average, than my area (plus PWM) with 69% of the April L-T. Still clearly recall the final kick in the gut of 2015-16 when SNE was getting 5-10" of April powder while we rotted in useless cloudy cold.

That's about your average low for the date, maybe even 1-2° AN. We've gotten used to milder mornings after a week of 10-15° AN minima. Be glad it's not a 3/2014 repeat; on 24-25 that month I had lows of -15/-17. Farmington co-op hit -12 on the 25th, tied with 3/24/1906 for coldest they've recorded after the equinox.

Turn MWN into Katahdin southwest?

Mid teens here with all the wind, but milded up quickly the next day. Places like Jackman barely made it out of the singles.

The 1998 event was elevational in that part of NH. While Gorham had mostly rain and MWN had rainy 40s (at the time their mildest Jan temp), forests between 1500 and 2500 got crushed. In Maine that 1500-2500' area got mainly IP; the real damage was in central Maine/Downeast under 1000'. Meanwhile Aroostook had temps mostly in the teens with ~20-25" of 8:1 snow over a 5-day period.

Then went home had changed their undies.

Here it was 2010. Jan 1 thru May 5 averaged +6.2, capped by those first 5 May days with highs averaging 78°. Leaf out was at least 3 weeks ahead of usual, then May 11-13 had lows of 22/26/25. I'd not planted anything yet, so the garden was safe, but new growth on ash, oak, apple and some maples was fried - trees had to set new buds and start over. It was the 2nd year in 3 that we had about zero from our 3 apple trees. (In 2008 a cedar harvest across the road had attracted dozens of deer. When that cafeteria closed in late Feb, all the critters came to my place and with 40"+ of solid pack to elevate them, they trimmed essentially every bud.)

I count exactly one from New England at present, the fellow from Monson (Maine) who occasionally chips in on snowmobile discussions. Northern NNE may bag a foot of paste between now and Monday, but I anticipate mostly cold rain with catpaws for here.

Probably the latter at my locale. Yay

There's some gravel roads in town that look like that. Fortunately the 2000' of gravel between pavement and home is good material and just slimes the top inch or two until the frost is melted out of the top 6". Fit for light traffic only - a loaded log truck would quickly make a our road look like PF's pics.

Or 2016. Our pack went to "T" on 3/17 that year, 2 days earlier than in 2012. (And 3 days later than 2006, our earliest melt-off.)