tamarack

Only 8" here, 7" SN from 0.75" LE, pounded down to 5" by 1.10" LE of sleet (3" worth, most coming at sub-20 temps.) Without that warm nose that storm might've been even better than the one 18 days later - April 4-5 had all snow: 18.5" from 1.63" LE. Then a week later another 11.2"/1.15" LE, also all snow, on the way to a ridiculous 37.2" in April.

The conversation about information and things like Twitter reminds me of reading about the difference (in a medical context) between a specialist and a generalist. The specialist knows more and more about less and less, finally knowing everything about nothing. The generalist knows less and less about more and more, finally knowing nothing about everything. The internet and social media are making mostly "generalists" of a lot of us - real knowledge about a few things and very superficial knowledge (and a nice anonymous forum) about many many things.

Similar here, though we had a 3" event. (And zero upslope, as always.) The only system during that time with some meat was 2/16, and our 8" snow came down as 2" sleet. If models after Feb 2 had looked like they do for the 1st half of March, it would've been disappointing, but instead we watched juicy system after system either go OTS or die. Not sure which is worse.

Our record was a few hours shy of 4 full days in the 1998 ice storm. Had anything on our 400' cul-de-sac road with 6 houses coming off Brunswick Avenue's main line, it would've been closer to 2 weeks. (Our phone line was ripped off the nearest pole and it was 13 days before service was restored, and due to damage at the pole end the tech had to install a junction box on a front lawn pine. For more than a month we had a tree phone.) Less than a mile south of our road, a stretch of 9 poles along Brunswick Ave had only one left standing. The vice-president of Central Maine Power waited nearly 3 weeks for his lights to come on. Several thousand more CMP customers were blacked out by the 2017 October gale than in 1998 but 90% of them had the lights on within 2-3 days. The infrastructure damage in 1998 was far worse; probably more than half the CMP customers waited over a week for power and a quarter 2 weeks or more. In our near-23 years here, longest was 36 hours and last April's snowstorm almost matched it. That fall-winter had 6-7 other outages ranging from an hour or two to overnight. We (wife especially) were getting tired of camping out in our own home.

Also, Maine's lower population density means more miles of line per customer. It also has the highest percentage of its land in forests of any state, with only NH even close. (VT and WV compete for the bronze.) Edit: Doublechecked and the gap from 2 to 3 is less than I thought. Top 5: Maine: 89.5 NH: 84.3 WV: 79.0 VT: 77.8 AL: 70.6 No others reach 70. ND has only 1.7% forests.

After 3 late-winter excursions in 1970 put the bug in my mind, I bought a night ski season pass at Great Gorge in NNJ for 70-71. That, plus the Jan ski week at the old Glen Ellen, changed me from a scared snowplower to a low-intermediate parallel skier. Easy to see the bumps at night - no such thing a flat light then.

12" less here going into this month, and current models point downhill from there. Last season finished at C- with its mild wx after Nov and mediocre storms thru met winter. The 2 biggest snowfalls came after the equinox. After 3 straight cold Aprils maybe we get some nice early spring wx?

13kw Generac. Machine was 3 grand but with base, hookup and buying/filling a couple of 100-gal propane tanks it was a 10k install.

Rt 2 was blocked by fallen trees and lines down both east (Rome) and west (Dixfield) but power only blinked briefly here. Had we not had the on-demand gennie put in last spring, we'd probably would've been lights out all day.

12.5" here, season's biggest.

Reached 14° yesterday afternoon, tied with 12/17 for the season's coolest max. Too bad it was spoiled by the cheap 25° high at my 9 PM obs the evening before. Only 5 of 23 winters have failed to post a <10 max. Five have had at least one subzero high.

Certainly was roaring like a lion.

FVE finally got above zero. 1 PM obs: 1°, NW38G53, light snow. WCI -27. (Up from -38 at 7 AM) Glad I'm not trying to drive between PQI and CAR.

Wind is roaring but so far the generator hasn't been needed. Spreading ashes on the icy driveway (ice plus a bit of snow from an overnight flurry) was an adventure - probably 2/3 was blown to who knows where. Gusts probably near 40, twigs scattered about, thin clouds and -1 at 7 AM. Makes 22 of 23 years March has had a subzero morning. In 2010, my warmest March, the low was 11.

Including today, as nothing will melt and the top is solid enough to withstand the wind that's making the house creak, we've accumulated 824 SDDs. Average for the date is 1135.

Flurries/squalls mostly sliding to my south though I might see some flakes (a few) in the next hour. Some stronger gusts but still <30. Temps mid 30s.

It is a good spot for retention, for sure, in part because we're in the woods - stake gets full sun about half the day but no big openings. Also, CAD often keeps us 10-15° less mild than Belgrade/Augusta in SE thaws. 23-year average for today is 21" and tomorrow its 22, tops for the season. Average for peak depth is 29.7" and the median is 27. Tops is 49 in Feb 2009 and 05-06 never got past 11. Only 4 of 23 failed to reach 20".

Looks like that took some siggy ruts on the warmer days last week. Our 2000' of gravel has a good base. We'll get 1-2" of slime before the defrost gets deep enough and some potholes, but no car catchers.

Lots of blue sky opening during the past 10 minutes. Drizzle ended enough earlier to limit rainbow potential. Trees starting to sway a bit with initial CAA gusts, <20 mph.

19". Only lost one inch since Saturday's mushy 2.4". If it's not frigid I hope to be on the ice a few hundred yards north of there on Saturday, by the small island with a nice old cabin sitting on the rocky center.

We live on a gravel road at the end of town maintenance. Paving our driveway would be like putting lipstick on a pig. (Expensive lipstick!)

That's why they invented wood ashes. Of course, they might all blow away. Our area is under a high wind warning for 5A-3P tomorrow, first HW warning I've seen for our zone since Oct. 2017. Maybe the gennie gets a workout (and our 70' fir trees may get more than that.)

Variance as % of average is less here than in most of SNE, so anything <70% is a ratter unless there's extenuating circumstances, like a lifetime-best blizzard. Since the Farmington co-op has been under 50% only twice in 128 winters (79-80 and 80-81), that level would require a more emphatic label. My suggested terminology: <50%: @%#&*#!!! 50-70% Ratter 70-95%: Below normal 95-105%: Near normal 105-125% Above normal 125-150%: Great winter >150%: Epicosity (Ginx trademarked)

90" and 51" here. If March continues the way the models are showing the first half, "F" would not be low enough for the month. Maybe a "J" and instead of a zero score for the month, a -2? Normally, I give points for cold wx, but this year, this late, snowless cold becomes a negative. And the massive cheap evening high coming for tomorrow adds disappointment. 7A-7A obs times will likely be something like 13/-1 here but the records will instead show something like 37/-1 as the CAA may not get working until late evening. Winter thru Feb is running D+, so only way I'd get below D/D- would be to allow subjective frustration to pull the formulaic numbers downward. Edit: Cold RA here, fortunately light (0.11" thru 7 AM). Started as IP. Nice

Agreed. He's at 51.1" to date, plus 2/27 stuff if any. His annual is probably like Jeff's, 72-75". My current 50.8" is 16.2" BN to date and 39" below full season average. If GFS is to be believed, we get nada or nearly so thru 3/16, wasting this week's cold then watching the pack shrink next week. Maybe we "eclipse" 2010's March (0.6") for low snow? Hope not. Club trail thru our woodlot was open but scratchy in late January, but the 2/2 event brought the sleds out in force, making up for lost time. Edit: Noted for envy - My county of residence 1950-72 (Morris, north central NJ) did pretty well in Feb, with many sites recording mid-upper 40s and Mine Hill Twp getting 55". Similar totals for Sussex and Warren, counties NW and W from Morris, though only one in Warren reached the half-century mark. We had numerous 30"+ months when I lived there but only 3/56 might have reached 40.