tamarack

Morning low today was 55, which is +25 (though it will be eclipsed this evening). Most recent +25 low had been Christmas 2020. Most recent low of 25+ BN was Feb 4, 2023. I must've missed that volcano.

That triggers a memory of contrasting October days in the pads. 10/26/62 was the usual Friday walk-through rather than real work, and we'd had 0.7" snow overnight and the day never saw sun or rose above the mid 30s - too much standing around for those temps. Same date in 1963 was my first game playing both offense and defense - every play but kickoffs and the game's final snap when a 2nd-stringer came in. Temps were mid-upper 80s with humidity and I sweated off about 15 pounds - low 190s to high 170s. Also the 2nd of our rare victories in a 2-6-1 season. (Previous 3 years the team was 25-2; our senior class wasn't very good.) Numbers for last month: Avg max: 57.0 +1.4 Highest was 70, on the 21st and 31st Avg min: 35.5 +0.5 Lowest was 17, on the 29th Mean: 46.3 +1.0 Avg diurnal range of 21.5 was +0.9. After 15 straight months with BN ranges, now AN for both Sept/Oct. Precip: 1.89" -3.56" Wettest days, 0.61" on the 7th, 14th 2nd driest October of 27 and the driest Sept/Oct (3.40"), 0.70" less than S/O 2001. Total departure for the 2 months was 5.74" but the YTD is still 3" AN. No flakes were observed.

Only frostbit my cheeks once, in January 1988, Aroostook. That Wednesday morning the temp at the Forestry building on the east shore of Portage Lake read -32 and the anemometer needle was wiggling at 30 mph - CAR reported WCI at -85 (old scale, -50s with the new) and their max was -9. We'd driven 250 miles from AUG so out we went. Morning on the Oxbow Public Lot was reasonable as we were sheltered from the wind. Afternoon on the Bald Mountain (T12R8, 20 miles west of Ashland) we were facing the gales, and being about 1,000 feet higher than CAR, I doubt we had temps much above -15. Three cold hours on the lot (I had double gloves on, barely sufficient) and we headed out, our staff biologist on his Elan and 2 of us on a Tundra. We had to ride 2 miles on the plowed road as parking was limited, and when we hit that road on the way back - however fast a Tundra would go 2-up was our speed, and I was in the back trying to hide behind the 5'2" driver. Tried to protect my face with my hands, but when we reached the truck, I was told there were matching white hourglass patches on each cheek. 1st degree bite so no problems. Tickled 70 here today, not much WCI.

Seeing the procedure for thawing frostbite reminds me of my worst frostbite, in Feb 1976. A series of unfortunate events, starting with no heat at the camp on Big 20 leaving my only boot liners frozen, left me not able to feel my feet by the time we reached the boundary line we were refreshing. No worries, though, as I was breaking trail for the crew in deep snow and knew that within 15 minutes, I'd be taking off my gloves to avoid sweat-soaking them. Big toes were red and swollen that night and 6-7 days later the skin on the tips was blue-black, with skin almost 1/8" thick sloughing off a few days later to reveal nice new pink skin. Maybe thawing from within was the best procedure of all (though for the next 10-12 years those toes were quite sensitive to cold). "If ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." (Emerson?)

We had 13.0" of dry 10:1 snow on 26-27, the only 10"+ event I've seen in November. (13 months after our late October 1985 move south from Fort Kent, they had a 21" dump. Missed again.) In 27 Octobers, we've had 6 with measurable snow, 10 with a trace and now 11 with no frozen (assuming none will fall today while it's sunny and near 70). And mid November of ‘18 was so long ago too(very nice SWFE). It happens randomly every so often. 2018 was our snowiest November with 23.5", with 5 separate snow events. However, the most memorable event that month was the Arctic blast on T-Day. Temp was 11/-3 with gusts into the 40s. And that max was set at my 9 PM obs time the evening before; only got up to 9 in the afternoon. The high of 17 at PWM is 5° colder than any other November day, POR from 1920.

PWM temp shot up to 43 on the 24th while my pace topped out at 27. (Daily minimums almost certainly at the end of the obs periods.) Data: PWM MBY 11/22 49 36 2.39 0 39 30 1.99 0.2 11/23 36 22 0.04 1.0 31 18 0.01 0.2 11/24 43 19 0.40 1.0 27 14 0.39 3.7 Maybe whatever caused the temp jump also was a factor in the spinners?

0.23" overnight, still a bit of mist. That downpour brings 2nd half of OCT to 0.24". Unless the clouds thin out some, we'll barely get over 50°.

Here it was 2005, a modest 3.7" but our daughter/SIL were visiting and their (then) home at GSP didn't offer much for snow. We had moderate SN without a breath of wind for most of the daylight hours. (Only later did we learn about the EF-1 and EF-0 tornados in the midcoast. First cold-air tors I'd ever heard of.)

We hit 11° on 10/31/2020 and 12° on the same dater in 2002. In the far north we had 7° on 10/30/1978, the year with 32 on 7/31 and 28 on 8/28. Lots of dry air that year - total precip was only 26.65". Both 1976 and 1983 had more than twice as much and the average was 40.28". Got down to 17 here but clouds arrived about 5 AM, otherwise we'd have been 14-15. Gray skies with light echoes overhead but nothing reaching the ground. Anything falling would be frozen.

Pretty weak Arctic airmass, but good radiating sites will be more like -8 to -10, then +15 on Thursday before dropping to near seasonal by the weekend.

90% of 'wildfires' (the accepted term in firefighter land) are started by human agency. That probably rises to near 100% in New England during October. Cloudless and a light breeze. At 2 PM SFM had a 14% RH. (47/-1)

On that day, 4/10/10, Portland's temp rose from 59 to 84 in 15 minutes, triggered when the warm SW wind overcame a light easterly breeze. I had a front row seat for the shift as I was in the waiting room at Mercy Hospital (wife had knee replacement) right on the Fore River.

No flakes (or raindrops) here as the echoes slid to our south. Good decoupling, however, for a low of 18, coldest of the season by 6°. Saw 14 at BML.

And we were about 130 miles east of Quebec City.

When we lived in Fort Kent, sunsets in December would be 3:45 at the minimum. On the rare Decembers with bare ground, headlights would come on by 2:30.

Folks in the eastern part of a time zone often prefer DST. Those in the west part don't like the idea of 8 AM (or later) sunrises in the dead of winter.

In the very dry October 1963, the NJ governor closed the woods completely, even for anglers fishing from boats. I suppose some angler driving to a favorite lake might toss a butt out the window. Late Oct, 80°, near calm - I just knew that the fish would be super hungry on the nearby NNJ lake. In his defense, there was a stubborn (only winter rain/snow killed it) 3,000-acre wildfire that month about 3 miles north of the HS. From some classrooms we could track the hot spots by watching where the smoke was heavy.

Low 20s progged here for both Monday and Tuesday mornings.

Not much elevation when we lived in town at Fort Kent, just some hills 6-700 feet above the flood plain, and in 1979 we had a range of 140°, with -47 on Jan 17 and 93 in both June and July. Just like at Mt. Tolland, our diurnal ranges dropped significantly after we moved to the back settlement 450' higher than in town.

A frozen dead garden isn't fake. Gorgeous out there, just saw a tiny cloud, only one so far today. Mid 50s off the frosty 28.

Maybe. October is our wettest month and is fairly consistent, with only 3 of 26 years having less than 3.46". Those years' precip and the following winter snow: 2001: 1.12" 72.7" 2004: 2.30" 94.3" 2013: 1.23" 101.3" Average snow is 89.4", almost identical for the 26-winter average of 89.0". Also, our wettest October (and wettest month), 14.09" was followed by 52.8" in my only winter w/o a 6" event since 1967-68 in NNJ. It’s the driest period of we lives Too young to have experienced 1963-66.

Snow data is missing for Jan-April 2002. Looking at temp/precip, I doubt BDL reached 20".

Mid-October is oak-spotting time here. Other deciduous trees are bare, and I sometimes spot smaller oaks whose existence had been hidden (including one less than 100 feet from where I sit). One can spot oaks even while driving, impossible when all is green. Pin oak, not native here but often planted in towns, usually offers a deep scarlet. White oak will sometimes have a purplish hue. Best of the rest is reddish-brown, like the 20-foot-tall N. red sapling outside of my window. A lot of Maine sites reported 0.01-0.04". Not a drop here in Franklin County.

We had 55 last December 18, but any awakened bugs quickly drowned or got blown to Canada. 50/50 day, with fog/cloud thru noon then a quick switch to sunny and mid 60s.

Dream on - west Pac has been well BN for ACE. (So far. Atlantic basin was significantly BN until this month.)