tamarack

Our 55 lb Lab mix wondering when I will clear the driveway. Still some light snow after 9.2" from 0.84" LE. After a trace of rain about 12:15 PM yesterday, it's been light/moderate since then.

Late in Q2 a graphic noted that NE was 1-2 when holding opponents to <10 points, while the rest of the NFL was 50-0. Now 1-3, having scored 19 points in their last 3 games. I'd say their play was offensive but they don't really have one. First inch down, light snow currently.

Last December's big dump here was 9:1 and came at temps 30-31. Don't need 10:1 to have fun. Current forecast for here is 7-12.

That 1960 event dumped 18" at our place and the heavy snow was tapering off as we ventured out on the opener of the 6-day firearm deer season. After my friend and I waded thru the powder for 90 minutes, we came back to find my dad standing over a nice little buck, maybe 250 yards from our home. That storm was also remarkable for the cold, as much of the snow fell while the temp was low teens. The January blizzard was even a bit colder, so the biggest dog of all (Feb 3-4) felt mild as temps were upper 20s. March 1956 thru Feb 1961 had the best run of big storms I'll ever see. Even our years in Fort Kent couldn't match that NNJ run. Edit: Averaging the low end/expected/high end for Farmington and Skowhegan, our forecast is currently 4"8"/11". Would be decent.

My memory for the 1950s, especially the first 5 years, was different so I "had" to check (using Oak Ridge Reservoir as my old records are long gone). They had first-week storms of 8.0" in 1952 and 1957, and nothing else in the 1st or 2nd week bigger than 3.5". The '60s were better, with 4 events from 5.0" to 14.0", but only that 5" was 1st week. (Nov 1968 had a 7.0" event on the 12th, well remembered as we were nailing felt to an under-construction house well past sunset the night before. The windows hadn't yet been installed, and next morning the howling wind had covered the entire floor with white, even the interior hallways. NYC had to close the Whitestone Bridge for a while as the 60+ gusts were causing too much sway.) GYX had us getting WSW criteria Sunday night into Monday; should be able to see their new AFD soon. Edit: They've just posted a WS Watch for possible 8"+.

Last winter was awful for temps but just fine for snow here, and thanks to the big dump in mid-December, was AN for SDDs as well. Could've done without the 2nd mega-Grinch in 3 years, however. A nice thump in early December and no Grinch would be an excellent start.

November numbers: Mean: 31.0 -2.4 Avg max: 39.8 -2.5 Mildest, 52 on the 7th Avg min: 22.2 -2.3 Coldest, 11 on the 30th Precip: 2.63" -1.58" Highest day, 1.03" on the 27th Snowfall: 4.9" +0.3" 4.6" fell on the 22nd. Some pleasant (but small-sample-size) November temp/snow trends: 2023 was the 12th with BN temps. The previous 11 had 114% of avg snow, 9 had AN snow and 7 of our 10 with triple-digit totals came with November having BN temps. October 2023 had well above average temps. The 5 years with Oct AN and Nov BN had 125% of avg snow and all 5 were AN, though 12-13 by less than 2". I certainly hope the trends continue.

Another 2017-18 for those dates? Would be tasty - 2 big snowstorms and cold worthy of Fort Kent. Even a modest resemblance would be nice.

Some sites are far from the named town. An example is NH-GR-47, Littleton 7.3 W, probably in the next town. The lack of elevation can be confusing. I wondered why the Temple observer always had much more snow in marginal events than next-town Farmington or at my place - until I found its elevation was 1,224', about 800' higher than its neighbor's site.

That's true for "chronic" back puffs. However, certain wx can cause them even with the proper height. At our first house in Fort Kent, a small (18'x20') 2-story with 12/12 roof, we had a Jotul 602 - their smallest stove at the time - hooked to the center chimney. It furnished for temps down to about -20F, below which we fired up the leaky* old $20 parlor stove in the basement. The Jotul's thimble was about 25' below the chimney's top and back puffs were uncommon but always came from the same conditions, a windy CF following a mild day. I think the 70' tall balsam poplars just NW from the house would create turbulence, downdrafts in their lee that were strong enough to reverse the smoke for a second or 2. * I referred to it as being as tight as a lobster trap.

Can't argue about how bad last winter was for most of SNE, but your response to Ray, below, infers the same for this winter, with no evidence offered. Too early to throw in the towel. Posted 3 hours ago and the last 2 weeks and Jan and so on

Elmwood produces more warmth when one tries to split it than when it's in the stove. About the only wood worse is balsam poplar. In a lunchtime discussion about burning green wood among loggers long ago, one comment was, "You couldn't afford the oil it would take to burn Balm o' Gilead!" Two couplets from a poem about firewood: Elmwood reeks of muck and mold, Even the very coals are cold. Ash wood green or ash wood dry, A king shall warm his slippers by.

Gray birch, no strength at all. Mediocre firewood, too. The original "birch-bender" species - in the Jan 1953 ice storm in NNJ, my dad cut all the birch* tops from our road on the 8th, then had to do it again the next day as some additional trees had bent onto the road. Six days w/o power. * The "white birch" of NNJ were gray birch, except for the occasional planted paper birch.

We had close to 15" and mostly on the 24th. I'd gone partridge/squirrel hunting mid-morning in light snow, and when I got to the 345kv towers a mile south of the house, I could hear the flakes being vaporized by the lines. On the way home, game-less, the snow became heavy, and I heard a booming sound. While trying to guess what had caused it (because, of course, it can't thunder in a snowstorm), a second boom of obvious thunder corrected my assumption. That winter added up to about 100", the final 3 on April 27.

I don't recall that early Dec storm in 1957, though we must've gotten 8-10". It's the cold blizzard on Feb 15-16 and the paste bomb on March 20-21 that stick in my memory. The Dec storms I remember came in 1960 (of course), and the near-Christmas events in 61, 63, 66(!) and 69.

Had a sun-flurry for a few minutes before the clouds caught up to the windblown flakes. Dusted the leaves but no accum.

Today's 1.03" brings the month to 2.63", with another 0.90" coming last Wednesday. Novie averages 4.27" and the driest was 0.84" in 2012. (Maybe Sandy sucked all the storms away from here. Son of Sandy brought 2.4" SN from 0.56" LE and 0.24" RA fell on 11/13. Only 0.04" for the other 28 days.)

Had 0.86" with moderate RA at 7 AM, another 0.17" when it stopped about 8:45 and by 9:30 it was full sun and low 40s. Frozen, if any, was long gone by 6 AM, but road conditions in the Rangeley area were nasty.

1.03" here, and if there was any frozen at the start, it was long gone by when I looked out at 6 AM. Franklin County Roads FB site noted messy roads about 3 towns to the north and northwest, including a loaded log truck jackknifed and blocking a road west of Rangeley.

Bit of slush here, 10 miles west (and 825' higher), Temple might have 6-8".

Cracked 100" here, with 5 storms of 11" to 13.5", also Farmington's coldest March on record. Excellent pack retention and the near misses to the south in March were a couple of good dumps here.

Four century-plus co-ops winked out in the past 15 years - Bridgton (though 2 separate co-ops for different periods), Lewiston, Gardiner (only Maine co-op I've found with data for 3/1888) and Farmington most recently, in October 2022.

It's a desktop and thus would not fit. Sloppiest 10"+ event I ever hope to try getting off the driveway - 4:1 mashed potato globs that landed with splats, mixed with 1.14" of 33-36° RA, this after 3 whiffed KUs. And we were a mere 5° from repeating what had happened on the exact same dates in 1969. (Farmington had 43" from that one.)

Only 25-26 years here, and the most recent 10 are almost exactly on the full-period average, though month-to-month varies: Jan avg +1.20 to March -1.17. The much longer POR at CAR is probably more characteristic, with only March BN (-0.43) and 5 months at least +3. Though a decade is just a blink of time when evaluating climate, that points toward warming. However, that says little about the next few months. Wind never fully quit last night, and the temp stopped at 12°, tied with last Tuesday for the month's coldest.

You had to bring up that one again. Most frustrating winter in my memory, for many reasons, but worse up north - the idea that BWI could have 7" more snow than CAR was mind-blowing. Also, CAR's temp for Jan-April must be at least one SD beyond that for any other year. That period in 2010 was 8.7° AN while 2nd mildest (2021) was 5.3° AN. This map perfectly conveys the snowfall distribution that I had in mind doing my outlook. The Farmington co-op averaged 104% of average for those 6 winters, but 4 of the 6 were BN with 3 at the edge of ratter territory. The 173% of 1968-69 (their snowiest of 130) skews the average.