tamarack

Spring break surge? Should know by late month.

I'd never try to defend firebombing, whether in Japan or Germany or anywhere. However, "innocent" has gradations. On another forum a former missionary to Japan (early 1980s thru late 2010s) met elderly men who when 10-12 y.o. were being trained (with wooden "practice" weapons) to help defend against the expected Allied invasion of the Home Islands. Forced by leaders of the (then) militaristic society, of course. Again, that's a topic that could generate forum-busting volumes of comments.

Since Feb 2 here. After that both precip and cold consistently failed to reach forecast levels.

Lower Ammonoosuc probably has bass as the CT River holds plenty. For trout only, try the Wild Ammonoosuc? (Probably won't be big ones in that high gradient/low nutrient river, unless they're stocked.)

Red maples may blossom next week - buds are getting bigger by the day. Male aspen catkins ready to look like worms. Heard a single peeper night before last, joined by many friends last evening. Songbirds rebuilding their nests under the eaves. Seems about 2 weeks ahead of the average. Back of my mind recalls May 11-13, 2010 with lows 22/26/25, after an even earlier spring awakening.

Jackman, Maine - temporary population 40,000.

1st week of March 2012 had slightly BN temps, 10" SN and hit -10 on 3/6. Late month featured 30s each day 26-30 with 2.2" SN. In between was slightly different.

Late May 2005 at our place: 22 48 40 1.07 23 48 44 1.25 24 47 41 0.15 25 47 39 0.26 26 49 42 2.41 Also had measurable RA on 5/21 and 5/27-31, but lesser amounts and slightly milder.

Given some of his behavior in college, maybe his damage became serious even earlier.

Biggest difference I noted going from NNJ-BGR-Fort Kent was that storms hung around longer in the north while in NNJ they'd blow and go. Almost none had snow continuing 24 hours past first flakes while some in the north would taper off on a 3-4 day schedule. That said, big storms in NNJ looked like big ones in Ft. Kent, except possibly for colder temps north on average. (Not exclusively, however - most of the 15" on 2/7/67 came at 5-8° and 12/60 also 1/61 were in the 10-15° range.) In 9.7 winters in FK (moved there 1/1/76) I recorded 3 events of 20"+ and 5 more 15-18.5". In 60 (cherrypicked) NNJ months, 3/56-2/61, we had 4 storms of 20"+ and 3 more 15-18". Also had storms in the 15-18 range 1/64, 12/66, 2/67 and 2/69. The north country fills out their snow menu on lots of 4-10" events. As for the eclipse, Chain of Ponds FTW.

Or more. I think Pop Warner league starts before age 10. However, most publicized CTE cases are longer-term NFL players (which are more likely to be publicized because of career length/stardom.) Edit: Pop Warner league has many divisions, which start at age 5! Some systems go by weight and the "Mini-mite" division is ages 5-6-7 and check-in weights 35(!!!) to 75 lb, up to 84 by end of season. Makes me glad my organized football career was just 3 years in HS and 2 at Hopkins.

Relatively short career and 33 y.o. is young for CTE. However, DBs have some of the most violent high-speed collisions in the game and are usually smaller than the guys they're trying to tackle. Maybe Deion Sanders, famed for coverage and picks but sometimes ridiculed for avoiding hard tackles, had the right idea after all.

That describes my grade school experience, but it was about 65 years ago. Today's classroom is more likely to be tables with groups working together under the teacher's guidance rather than in tidy rows and staring at the chalkboard.

Fortunately I stepped away from recreational alcohol years ago. However, the day after Moderna #2 I became surprisingly fatigued while gardening and pruning the apple trees. Following day, a long and active Easter Sunday, no fatigue beyond the expected. I probably (and thankfully) had it easier than many.

IMO, the vaccine passport potentially becomes problematic when it's used to tell us where we can and cannot go - depending on the breadth of the no-go places. Edit: As noted right above, no one with real authority is moving to a broad-based V.P. requirement - yet.

1.9" from that event. The max of 14° that day was season's coldest. Afternoon of March 2 matched it but 25 at my obs time the previous evening spoiled it. Only 01-02 with coldest mx of 16° failed to record a colder afternoon. (3 others failed to have a max lower than 10 while 5 had subzero highs, 4 at 1° and 3 with 2°, making just over half of our 23 winters notching a max of 2° or colder.) I thought last winter was utter meh, at least until after the equinox. This one had exactly one non-meh event here, the super-Grinch.

We cracked 20" this past February though it was still below our average - 1st 20"+ month since Feb '19 (most recent "snow month" [DJFM] with AN snowfall.) Our current 51.0" is 2nd only to 15-16 (48.2") for low snow and dragged our average down to 88.9" from 90.6". 3rd worst was 05-06 with 52.8" (and 11" max pack, lowest of any winter) followed by 64.8" in 09-10. Doesn't look good or any additional snow thins month though surprises can happen. If the skunk prevails we'll have recorded 0.2" for March-April. Previous low was 21 times higher (4.2") in 09-10.

NYC had 25° at 1 PM with S+ and 5-6 new. Nothing else in their 150+ Aprils is anything like that middle-of-day powder. They've recorded 2 storms with more snow (1875 and 1915) but they were paste bombs.

Another stretch of boring wx in progress, though "boring" is a lot more pleasant in April than in January. Models point to another 2+ weeks with no real warmth or cold and very little precip. After 'watching-paint-dry' wx Dec 26-Jan 1/15 and Feb 28-Mar 19, this one looks to last well into the 2nd half of this month. The current snow season is 22nd of 23 and probably top 3 for frustrating verifications. At this point, seasonal temps and BN rain (e.g. boring) would be okay; what I don't want is early warmth followed inevitably by a May freeze that cooks the apple blossoms.

Those conditions were the main reason half of Maine was never settled, and is currently labeled "unorganized territory". Opening of the Erie Canal plus "1816-and-froze-to-death" encouraged a lot of NNE hardscrabble farmers to head west during the subsequent decades. Edit: After 1:15 in the blueberry patch and pruning apple trees, I felt like it had been 2-3 times that long. 2nd Moderda reaction? Don't know but there's lots of spring left so I quit. Concerning Biden's "optimism", his initial pledge was 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days. At the current rate of ~3 million/day, we'll be a lot closer to 200 million, with perhaps 80 million fully vaccinated - 30% of adults?

Potential ice jams.

14-15 this morning, might be same or even colder tomorrow. Need to dress warm for the sunrise service. (At least it'll be dry - last year's was a rainout.)

And the rest of NNE isn't far away. Distance from the Confederacy, infertile (or long-farmed) land while Ohio and points west beckoned, relatively few factory jobs that weren't already staffed by PQ immigrants a generation before the Civil War. Moderna #2 crated a bit more soreness at the injection site but so far nothing beyond that.

But no one seemed to flinch when the initial vaccines went to med staff, 1st responders and LTC residents. (As it should have, IMO.) Must be some caveats in CRA-1964 to cover things like that.

Staff at the vaccine site this AM said that laminating the vaccination records card would wreck it, black out the data. Maybe folks here already knew that.