tamarack

Guilford to Auburn? Hope you don't have a daily commute. Moderate RA here trying to scour out the CAD but still 8" and I think we keep about 4 after this mess.

Hope the worm turns like it did when I was much younger. We moved from uber-urban East Orange NJ (30k people, 4 sq.mi.) to a lake community in the Jersey Highlands in summer 1950. The first 5 winters there were all BN and with no storms of note. The next 6 winters, 55-56 thru 60-61, averaged more than 150% of climo and featured 7 storms of 18-24" and a depth into the mid 40s after the last of those 7 in early Feb 1961. Not impossible?

The year before. Some sites there had more snow in February than we saw for the whole winter.

We take. Those are the 2 snowiest Februarys I've experienced, each >45".

I'd leave out 'Northmost' NNE. We had lots of rad cold when we lived in the riverside area of Fort Kent, down to -41 at the apartment and -47 at our 1st house. When we moved to the back settlement, 450' higher than in town and on a slope, those 4 winters never got lower than -34 (and howling - lowest WCI I've experienced, abt -101 old scale, -70s new) but had 18 mornings -25 or colder, including 8 in the -30s. Places like Pittsburg and the Northeast Kingdom probably have similar temps at non-rad sites. Just being picky.

CAR was nearly +15 that month; the only New England month that comes close to that magnitude of departure, + or -, is Dec 1989. (2/15 is a contender at some sites.) Going into it, CAR's warmest Feb temp was 49. 2/81 tied that mark twice and topped it 7 times. The St. John ice ran, unheard of in midwinter, taking with it the logging bridge ~30 miles SW from Allagash. (Normally, that bridge would be disassembled in late March and reassembled in May.) This after the coldest of the 9 Decembers we lived there and 2nd coldest of 10 Januarys. 80-81 was also the least snowy (43") of the 130 winters at the Farmington co-op, 1" less than the previous winter.

One of my favorite snow trivia came in that period. New Jersey's greatest snowfall (34") came in its southernmost town. Cape May's average annual snow is the state's lowest; that 1899 dump was 2 years' usual production.

Would not mind a repeat of Feb-Mar 1899; Farmington co-op totaled 66" for those 2 months.

Today's prices boggle my mind, though it's almost 44 years since I last skied and almost 54 since I learned parallel during a ski week at Glen Ellen (now Sugarbush North). For $45 one would get 5 days' lift tickets and daily lessons plus 2 "parties" - spiced wine and ski films immediately after the lifts stopped. Except that year they cut the January price in half!

Living in Gardiner then, and 12/31/89 reached 38 after 32 days of highs 32 or lower (29 were 24 or lower). December's mean of 8.9° was 13.1° BN, then January came in at 17.4, which was +7.0. However, 12/89 brought 21.6" while Jan had 24.9. Lowest temp in Jan was -1, the same as December's average low, as that month featured 17 days at/under -1. The cold arrived with the Nov 21 thunderblizzard. I'd parked the ancient Subaru (2WD) pointing north, and the wind filled most of the space under the hood and froze the throttle cable, causing some "fun" as the battery was low - start/roar/shut down 3x before the cable ice shook off what I hadn't been able to scrape off. We were too far north for the T-Day storm but the max of 17 (with flurries) was easily the coldest in our 13 Novembers there. (Punched my deer tag that day as well. ) Next day's min of -1 was lowest by 6°.

We had 21" from that event and it arrived mere hours after 8" of 30:1 feathers. Feb 7-16 featured 45" from 3.83" LE and was quite a shock for the Lab mix from TX that we adopted on the 4th. We also had 21" on Dec 29-30 and that one was meatier, 10:1 compared to 12:1 in Feb, but the most powerful storm that 16-17 winter was the Pi Day blizzard.

IMO, a few spots 40+ aren't enough for the "B" - Both 12/20 and 3/23 had some 40s reported (and the Erie/Ontario LES bands several times) but of that lot, I'd only nominate the one that dumped 5-6 feet in the BUF area. 40" of 12:1 snow creates far more disruption than when it's 25:1 fluff. In Maine I'd say that only Feb 1969 passes the sniff test, with some western mountains and foothills locales hitting the 40 mark and with over 4" LE. We did have the Historic Feb 69 storm that a SLP did a fujiwara in the GOM for 3 days that dumped 36" here and i believe 40" in Farmington. 43", more than a foot bigger than any other one there. (The Dec 6-7, 2003 storm was reported as 40" but I think it was measured in one of the many drifts. We were at church, 1.3 miles SE from the co-op site and 110' higher, less than 2 hours after accum ended, and the snow there looked much like at my place 5.3 miles to the east. My 24" was 6" by my 9 PM obs time and 18" after. The Farmington co-op obs came at midnight and was 14" on the 6th and 26 the next day. Given conditions at 9 PM, a midnight obs at my place might've been 12/12, so 14 for 12/6 is reasonable but that 26 is not.)

-7 this morning, month's coldest. Last 5 days averaged -3. Without Christmas Eve it's -6 but the 6" of fluff that day was the best.

Wolfie quick to counter snowy, but what about RadarMan’s area? 30 burgers are tough. I think October 2011 in the northern Berks? I haven't seen one in the past 78 years. However, I've encountered 7 storms in the 24-26.5" range, starting with 3/56 and most recently 2/09.

Looks like a smashing CF after a cutter. Exciting but no thanks.

Last winter was a disaster, with blowdowns and flood damage from the Dec 18 storm and thaws/rains that followed, while the North had way BN snowfall. 22-23 was better, especially in Aroostook.

For some fortunate NNE peeps that have been on the good side of several events, claiming Dec was awful would be disingenuous. We'll finish the month BN for temps unless Mon-Tues come in at 50/35. And if we see nary a flake over the next 25 days, it would be mid-Jan before snowfall drops into the under. Of course, there's always a chance that the storm track moves way south, and we watch SNE/MA shoveling out while we enjoy the edges. (In 2021-22 some NNJ sites had Feb snow that equaled/exceeded our entire season's snow.) Only a few more months before we debate whether or not 60F dews are humid or COC. Depends on the date - on May 2 that's definitely humid; August 2 CoC (if dry).

Cloudy yesterday after a peek of sun early, temp was still 20 at 10 PM. Then the clouds departed and we were in the -5 vicinity 9 hours later.

He must be working his magic somewhere else. 6th non-Grinch in 27 Decembers, still a pitiful proportion.

Finished with 6.3" as the 8-10 AM period added nearly 2". Y&TD is 31.5", the most for pre-New Year's since 2018. Last tiny flakes at about 10:30 then noon -2:30 was sunny. Clouds rolling in now, probably with some breeze to unload the upper branches.

5th purchased cord is tarped near the driveway, March-May wood. The 3/4 cord from the arborist-felled basswood (plus some other stuff I cut) is long gone. About 5" new, 12" at the stake and light SN continuing. The rare non-Grinch!!!

3.8" of 15:1 fluff by 7 this morning, passing 5" now but probably won't quite get to 6. Forecast added up to 3-5 so a slight overperformer. If we get a calm clear Christmas night and/or the next night, this new stuff will make for super rad. Month is now above average, 2nd time in the last 3 following 4 straight far BN Decembers.

Two days ago, the Rt 2 corridor was looking at 2-3"; now that's doubled. 4-5" of 15-20 to 1 fluff would be very nice, just right to pack into the remaining ruts from the 2" RA on 12/11-12.

Lots of people watching their firewood piles shrinking faster than expected.

The 2 big storms of December 2003 had very different characteristics here, and I think that dendrite growth might've been why. Neither storm had any mixing. 12/6 20 5 0.43 6.0 12/7 22 18 1.20 18.0 Total: 1.63" 24.0" Ratio 14.7 Very windy (est 25G40), massive drifting 12/14 15 -15 0.02 0.2 12/15 22 11 1.53 13.0 Total: 1.55" 13.2" Ratio 8.5 Breezy (est 15-25), little drifting