tamarack

As a pandemic measure, annual leave max for those with 20+ years was raised temporarily from 320 hours to 400. I'm up against that higher limit and having some hours swept ("accrual adjustment") as a result. Only 320 gets paid when I retire.

50s are AN now for SNE but BOX/BDL normal highs for today's date are in the 46-47 range. 50s are norms by late month. Decent, if there's sun and little wind.

Even with my 9.5" on 2/2 I'm nearly a foot below your total, mainly because 12/17 brought only 1.9 - inches, not feet.

Some years back the legislature limited such credits to 90 days added service time, only about 30% of my combined active and lapsed sick leave. Better than nothing. (And Absolutely! on the 2nd sentence.)

That's a blessing that I share. State employees here can only accrue 960 hours, with additional accrued time recorded as lapsed sick leave - I have 1400+ hours of that. Should one burn thru the whole 960, one can apply to have lapsed hours become "active". My only serious use of SL was the 140 hours after my fusion surgery at C-4; unable to drive due to the cervical collar (said collar was hw worst part of post-op) and ensuring no damage to the operation site before things fully fused - have had zero after effects. From what I've read, the tests of all 3 vaccines currently being used in the US indicate near complete protection from becoming seriously ill if they do get infected. Time will tell if that holds true for millions as it did for 10-20 thousand.

Most I saw on Maine cocorahs was 3" in Brighton, about 40 miles NNE from my place. Temple, 2 towns to my west, reported 1.4 but only a tenth here - 1st measurable this month. Lost 2" pack yesterday and the night before (high of 52 came in the pre-dawn) so down to 14".

Or on something?

I'd need another April 2007 plus the St. Pats storm that year to approach C level. Or 2 bombs like late March 2001. Currently a tenth away from 2 full feet BN for std. If this month continues like it's been so far, and we get an average April, it's a solid D here. At best. I add subjective thoughts and the Grinch plus all the Feb misses might drag the grade a bit lower.

Have only had 4 warned events so far, 2 verified and 2 came in low to very low. Since I began tracking GYX-warned events in winter 06-07, only 15-16 (2) had less. 09-10 also had 4 and so did 07-08 of all winters and that included the awful early March bust - 10-14" from the "Manitoba Mauler" barely reached 6. Lots of WWAs, however - between the warned storms of 12/16 and 2/27, we recorded 83.4" from 16 separate storms.

Beat me to it - heat waves take more lives than do snowstorms.

Should add fall mud season, an important facet in timber harvesting. It's usually centered on November but can start earlier and last later. I can recall only 2 years without a significant period when logging had to be shut down in late fall to avoid damage to the land and roads, 1976 and 2013. Pack lost one inch yesterday and another overnight, down to 15" but probably retains nearly all the 6.25" LE I measured earlier in the week.

Must be the drop in rh that allows that to happen. The path to compost was slush yesterday and despite temp U-30s and 40s since then, it's solid (and slippery) ice this morning.

Our pastor's cousin, also a pastor, had 2 weeks on a ventilator and 2 more on oxygen. He was able to return home late last month but as of a week ago couldn't go more than 2-3 steps without stopping to catch his breath. He's a cancer survivor in his 60s so a high-risk individual.

After my 2nd dose on April 2nd I'll post how a 75-yr-old did with Moderna #2.

Dry spring would reduce damage to white pine from the needlecast fungi. Lots of pines around here are sick from years of having half their factory lost during June.

That was a frequent phenomenon during the first warm and sunny days after the equinox when I was in the woods. The breeze would bring a blob of air from open hardwoods and it would be nice and warm, then the next blob would come from under the black growth and be very noticeably cooler. Late morning thru mid afternoon would have that back and forth, sometimes only seconds apart. Temp was upper 30s at 10 last evening and upper 40s at 5:30 this morning. Down 3-4° since then with some strong gusts. High of 54 yesterday tied 12/25 for mildest since 12/1.

I think not, same as almost any combustion except with hydrogen. Fluidized bed combustion lowers the particulates but wood is a very complex substance.

Probably cluster flies - in our 1st year at our present location we had so many that they totally covered 2 fly strips and most of a 3rd. Blecch!

Might have gotten to within 25° of that month's heat here. Very nice.

Being from Maine I wouldn't try to compare wind energy to fossil fuels - the numbers there are solid. I'd examine biomass, of which we have plenty and if harvested with proper silviculture can actually improve the state of the forest. I'd guess wind is still a better CO2 strategy than biomass, though maybe not with co-gen, where the low-pressure steam can be used to heat the plant and drive dry-kilns at sawmills and digesters at pulp mills. I've read the Manomet analysis on biomass, years ago so I may be fuzzy on the details. IIRC, the report said it would take something like 81 years for an acre cleared for biomass to sequester the amount of carbon that was removed. Of course, if one had 81 acres and harvested one per year, the equation would change. (Or if one conducted a light partial harvest and chipped only the tops and limbs that made to to the logyard.) This is in no wise a knock on wind power. I especially hope that turbines off the coast of Maine, where the wind is steadier, can be a big part of the energy future.

Sun finally emerged here, temp approaching 50. Amount of cloud from here on will determine how far into the 50s we get.

I'd put the figure at 4-5% (*) but that's still great efficiency. (*) "Please show your figures." A guess at electricity costs per household: $2,000 per year. (Ours is closer to one third that number but we're empty nesters.) That guess would put the annual production of one turbine at $3 million worth of power. I've read that the expected useful life of a commercial-size turbine is about 25 years (please correct as appropriate), thus about $75 million from that lone machine. A quick web search came up with $3-4 million per large turbine for construction and installation, thus around 4-5% of its lifetime production. (Note: I rarely make small errors in math. Ones of 10x or 100x are more common. )

My 1st, last Friday, was NBD - bit of short-lived soreness at the stick-point but only if I pressed on the spot. Farmington hospital has a smooth system, not super-huge but injecting 1-2 per minute with proper distancing in a relatively small space. Next is April 2 and I anticipate more aftereffects, per reports from others about Moderna #2.

Nearly 20 miles of them between Stratton and Rangeley - no frame-breakers but just constant fore-to-aft rocking the whole way. Couldn't affect the spectacular views along the way.

06z GFS had nice events at day 7 and day 9. Of course, we know how dependable models are at d7,d9. However, 2 days ago that model was showing zero snow for the next 16 days and I was possibly looking at my first "winter" (DJFM) month in Maine w/o measurable snowfall. Upper 20s launch point this AM with clouds, expect to be near 50 this afternoon and begin the melt. Last 2 days' low-mid 40s merely settled the snow a bit.