tamarack

Laptop went back to the state upon retirement and the desktop is too gormy, but otherwise exactly on target. (Will never reach the late Feb horror of 2010, however.)

2001 is top 5 here for SDDs and one of 3 to reach 48" (2008 and 2009 the others and Feb 2017 hit 47), but the lateness of the peak was the most anomalous. The 19" dump on 3/30-31 produced that 48" depth and it was still 47" on 4/1 (as the strongest storm of all slid east and ripped up Newfoundland). Even in Ft. Kent we never had that much pack on 4/1, though 1984 was only one inch away. 2002-03 was BN thanks to consistent suppression and 2010-11 only average thanks to several near misses. 2007-08 is the clear champ with 3,877 SDDs with 2018-19 (3,441) the only other season above 3K. That latter season was built on 162 days with 1"+, nearly 2 weeks longer than 2nd place nd based on both the snowy cold Novie and consistent if not heavy snowfalls and BN temps. Low ratio but cold storms made for a solid pack. Other big years were 2000-01, 13-14, 16-17 in the 2,800 range; 08-09 and 14-15 in the 2,400s and 17-18 riding a big March to clear 2,000. Nobody else reached 1,800 and 05-06 the clear bottom at 557.

Last Feb really cooked for the NYC area. Several sites in NW NJ recorded more snow that month than my Maine foothills locale had for the entire season.

Definitely true for here. So far I've recorded 7 sunny, 7 PC and 2 cloudy days this month and today will be PC (sun morn, clouds aft). Never have had more than 8 sunny days in any of our 23 Novembers; never had more sunny days than cloudy.

Latest in the snowblower saga - went out this morning, hit the primer once, critter started first pull. I have absolutely no explanation for why it seemed locked up last Monday. Not just the starter cord, but the electric starter couldn't crank it either, just a click and hum. I wonder if the super-fast crank of the earlier use of e-start, before I'd gotten the new primer in place, did something bad. Seemed to run all right after that start and shut off normally, but it was my next try that I couldn't pull the rope. Tried again, pulled one turn then it locked up again. Later Monday I could pull the starter cord but no joy from the engine, and today's experience confirmed (to me) that I'd flooded it with over-use of the primer. May or may not be relevant: Many years back (1974 or 75) I was delivering pizzas in BGR with my '69 Nova coupe, 230 cu straight 6. The gas pedal occasionally would stick, and that evening I started the car and it answered with a roar that became a scream - car had no tach but it would've been scary if there was one. Shut it off, tapped the pedal, and on the re-start no stuck gas but a deep-engine bang-bang-bang. Took the pizzas back in for someone else to deliver, thinking car was wrecked, but when I tried again at closing time all was fine. I ran the car 2 more years/10k miles (to 105k) before it rusted out and I sold it to a chopper for commuting to his logging chance. Dad said it sounded like I'd 'spun a bearing" (not sure exactly what that means) and somehow it fixed itself. Same general idea, if different phenomenon, as the snoblo?

Stayed south of here. We've seen frozen on the cars twice now (a few dippin' dots on 11/5 and slush on Monday) but have yet to see any in the air.

Mild, wet and 118th of 128 winters for snowfall up here. Like last winter only wetter. No thanks.

The angle of repose on the bench/table edges suggests sleet or at least heavily rimed flakes. Lots different than the bulbous edges when it's 32° fatties.

We average nearly 90"/year but in 23 Novembers here, 8 have produced less than 2", 5 less than 1", and only 4 have reached double digits. Average is 4.9" but 17 of 23 came in BN. (Balanced by months like the 23.4" of 11/18.)

We spent the winters of 2008-09 and 09-10 without a working snowblower and we paid for the absence. In Feb 2009 we had a 24.5" dump atop a 27" pack - was 49" total at my 9 PM obs time 10 hr after the storm ended, tallest I've measured here. Took two of us 6 hours to clear half the driveway so we could get out, had to start with a shovel to clear a spot to push the scoop, ended having to slide the loads up a 7-8' embankment. Part of the reason my son was eager to move back to southern Japan. A year later we had the great mashed potato storm, 10.7" on 2.67" LE with 1.14" cold RA mixed in. There was about 8" with nearly 3" LE when I ran the scoop and it was a lot harder to move than the 2-footer a year earlier. Trying to slide the loads on the bare gravel (had not snowed for nearly a month) was a chore, and considerable driveway material rode onto the lawn along with the snow.

Went back out later yesterday and was able to pull the cord but the machine wouldn't start. Might have flooded it, easily done in warm temps on this model. New primer was working at least. However, I'll b looking elsewhere as I don't see this one being dependable any more.

FVE reporting S+ at 1 PM. Hope the snow doesn't come too big too fast. I think my 11 y.o. snowblower had something serious break inside. Had to replace the primer (rubber had rotted) and ran the machine for a minute, tried to restart and can't pull the starter rope. Tried the electric start and it wouldn't crank either. When that happened (can't pull starter only, obviously) to my old Husky 53 chainsaw, it was dead, broken pieces in the cylinder. Will try to have the small engine place down the street look at it, but not ready to buy an expensive repair on a middle-aged machine so checking on new/used ones in the 8 hp range. Ideas?

Bit of slush on the windshield this morning, though none on the ground. Temple and Farmington northwest each reported 1.5" - little surprise for Temple at 1220' elev but the Farmington site is at 616'.

Lincolnville (midcoast Maine) reported 3.19" to cocorahs. Had 1.63" in my gauge in a bit less than 8 hours. Probably half came 4-6 PM just before rain ended. Wind was barely there. The big oak retains 1/4 of its leaves but smaller ones and the understory beech are nearly bare.

Until leaves and crud block the screens and water gushes over them and onto the ground. Or does that never happen? Some spells of mod-heavy RA here with gusts 3-5 mph (if that).

If pumpkin smashing = composting, that's a good thing. Most such smashing I've seen is low-grade vandalism by twerps on mischief night.

Wouldn't the pumpkins release the methane faster (but the same total in the end) when smashed? more surface area upon which the decay can get started. Related, a bit because it's organic material, to peat moss mining - check out all the "What do you do with all the leaves?" posts on the New England subforum. All those nutrients and organic matter freely available but getting blown into the woods where their main function is to make it hard for young trees to seed in, or riding to the landfill in plastic bags.

Ours end up rotting in the garden or compost. Any acidification is buffered by ashes from the wood stove.

Had almost that exact scenario in early February 1984 in Fort Kent. The 4th had been 25° AN and 2/5 was only a bit cooler, with the 6 PM forecast calling for colder wx and 1-3" for the overnight . At my 9 PM obs time it was 23 and puking snow, with 5.5" new. Storm was done before sunrise with 18.5" total; our 61" snow stake was covered though just barely - there was a bump showing its location. (By 9 on 2/6 it had settled to 59".) That surprise caused the only full-day snow closure of the Ft. Kent system in our 10 years there, as the plow operators hadn't been warned in time to clear the parking lots.

2020-21 redux for my area? Shows more to the north, east, south and west. Only CAR does worse. Glad it's only a clown map.

The article noted the anti-corridor campaign contributions of NextEra Energy and its fossil fuel station in Maine plus Seabrook Nuclear in NH, contributions which were highlighted in many of the endless "Vote No" ads. ("Yes" was to block the corridor, "no" to reject the blocking.) However, NextEra is also investing big in wind/solar, including a $110 million 77 megawatt solar array nearing completion in Farmington, the Shiretown of Franklin County, which voted about 70/30 against the NECEC corridor. In the minds of many, this was both a vote against the corridor and a vote against Central Maine Power. CMP was a real hero in the 1998 ice storm in the way it mobilized forces from all over in reaction to the intensive utility infrastucture catastrophe that's probably Maine's worst ever. During the most recent 5 or so years that good will has drained away thru increasing unreliability and some incredibly tone-deaf customer relations and billing processes. This ineptness seemed concurrent with CMP becoming a subsidiary of a Spanish multi-national, though correlation may/may not imply causation. 20 years ago CMP's public relations were among the nation's best. For the past several years they've ranked dead last.

Our place did its share to put Maine atop the frequency score. We also had significantly more hours than the Maine average, probably in the OK vicinity. And we did it with no hurricanes or siggy Tors, though the April 2020 snowstorm was a factor.

While we're choosing months, I'll take 11/83 (Fort Kent) with 28.6", 12/76 (FK) 61.5", 1/87 (Gardiner) 49.3", 2/17 (New Sharon) 46.9", 3/01 (NS) 55.5" and 4/82 (FK) 29.0". April 2007 in NS had 8" more snow but the 4/7/82 blizzard is a must-include. Nice 270" winter.

Though I report snow depth to cocorahs at 7 AM, I've been recording depth at 9 PM for the past 45 years, so that's my "official" measurement. Using that metric, we've had white ground on 19 of 23 Christmases here, with only 2" in 1998 but 3+ in the other 18. Max was 16" in 2017 thanks to the 8" dump that day. Misses came in 1999, 2006, 2015 and 2020. Last year was the only one of the 4 which had pack (4") on the 24th; the others had a long string of bare ground pre-Christmas. Average depth rises to 6"+ on 12/17 and with one exception stays above the half-foot mark thru 4/12. Last year's 12/25 deluge dragged the average for that date to 5.96". One hopes that blot on the 6"+ run can be erased this year.

Thanks once again. My log-in works fine but I've nothing yet to report.