tamarack

Wife loves having one in the Forester. I wouldn't dream of putting one in the 10-y/o Ranger, but then I don't mind being cold if I know warm is nearby (in distance or time.)

It's still like playing Russian roulette, though the cylinder has room for 100 bullets rather than 6. Had Moderna #2 about 8:45 this morning. Not even soreness at the stick site yet, though this strange lump is rising out of the middle of my skull.

Last evening's flurry brought a 0.1" dusting, meaning April has already matched the March total. March data: Avg temp: 30.1 2.8 AN Avg max: 42.4 3.9 AN Highest was 62 on 3/23 Over our 23 years here March has reached 60+ in 6. Avg min: 17.9 1.7 AN Lowest was -2 on 3/7 Only March 2010 (Min was 11) failed to have a subzero morning. Precip: 1.53" exactly 2" BN Wettest day was 0.82 on the 27th "Snow": Had 0.1" of slushy "dusting" on the 13th. At month's end the season total was 50.9", 32.8" BN. Pack was 19" on the 1st and was still 18" on the 9th when a core yielded 6.25" LE The 3/26 TS that blew apart a fir near the house was just the 3rd one in March and 1st since 2009.

AFAIK I've never had the flu. In 1993 I caught something that made me very fatigued on day 1 and achy all over on day 2, but symptoms gone by day 3 and I think flu lasts longer than that. The past 10-15 years I've gotten the flu shot almost every year - with age comes caution (usually) - and get Moderna #2 tomorrow morning. Will report on horn growth.

Even if 95% were to be the right number, 200 million vaccinated people in the US would mean about 10 million getting the disease. Surely in those millions there are some who probably should be in hospital before being infected and some just a hair's width from death, and COVID would just be the final straw (or dust mote) to push them over the edge. Followed by screaming headlines.

Farmers have been plowing some of their fields near the Sandy River, first I've seen it this early. Even in 2012 they didn't plow in March. Thin pack and little rain.

I don't, and we only got either the weak event a few hours ahead or the pre-bombing of the big system - 7.5" on about 18 hr of light-moderate SN, also the longest commute on my 45 miles Farmington to Gardiner. Your pics from the height of that event are among my favorite snow scenes.

That would be good. I think central Maine north of the 12/17 death band did worse compared to average than anywhere else in the Northeast. Guess it was our turn.

Thanks. Moderates had generally been good for Maine except for 1999-00, and 20-21 is now a 2nd stinker. Strong la ninas have generally been poor for here.

Was this winter a moderate la nina or strong? (I haven't kept track.)

Wife's Moderna #1 caused significant soreness after yesterday's shot, much better this morning.

Flood watch for most of CAR's forecast area. GYX is watching. Took a closer look at the near-road trees. 2 large fir (14" dia/70-75' tall) down or on the way - hung on another tree - plus a smaller fir also hung. The pine fork that broke was 55' long and been about 60' up the tree, total tree height 115'. Fairly good 1st-year conelet crop so maybe the other fork (assuming a SE wind doesn't take it down) and the other similar-size pines may have a nice cone crop this year. When things get less squishy I'll look at some big-fir areas away from the road to see what else is horizontal.

Oak Ridge Reservoir, about 10 miles west of where I grew up and 160' higher. Also had obs at 7 AM. 3/13/1956 9999 9999 0.06 0.5 1 3/14/1956 9999 9999 0.36 0.5 1 3/15/1956 9999 9999 0.5 0 0 3/16/1956 9999 9999 0 0 0 3/17/1956 9999 9999 1 7 7 3/18/1956 9999 9999 0 0 5 3/19/1956 9999 9999 1.35 16 21 3/20/1956 9999 9999 0.49 5 26 3/21/1956 9999 9999 0 0 20 3/22/1956 9999 9999 0 0 16 3/23/1956 9999 9999 0 0 9 3/24/1956 9999 9999 0.03 0.3 9 3/25/1956 9999 9999 0.2 2 10 3/26/1956 9999 9999 0 0 8 3/27/1956 9999 9999 0 0 7 3/28/1956 9999 9999 0 0 6 3/29/1956 9999 9999 0 0 6 3/30/1956 9999 9999 0.35 1 7 3/31/1956 9999 9999 0 0 0 4/1/1956 9999 9999 0 0 0 4/2/1956 9999 9999 0 0 0 4/3/1956 9999 9999 0.05 0 0 4/4/1956 9999 9999 0 0 0 4/5/1956 9999 9999 0 0 0 4/6/1956 9999 9999 0 0 0 4/7/1956 9999 9999 0.5 0 0 4/8/1956 9999 9999 1.6 12 12 6.49 44.3 I have no memory of the 3/17 storm but my dad measured 23.5" of new snow about 7:30 AM on the 19th with accum continuing. I call it a 24" storm. Morris Plains, 20 miles south and 300' lower, reported 23". The "sticky snow" on 4/8 brought another 12" and broke or bent some trees that had survived the Jan 1953 ice storm.

Likely that way in population centers. The barbershop where I go (most recently last Friday) seems pretty laid back. It's appointment-only and the price has bumped up a bit to cover masks, cleaning supplies and stuff (and will undoubtedly not go back down) but beyond that it's business as usual in the big town of Farmington. (Biggest in Franklin County anyway - entire county pop is a bit under 30k spread over 1700+ square miles.)

We had 11" of mid-20s powder on 3/29 and 3" paste 2 days later. My (future - married June '71) wife was at a sunrise service at the Wanaque Reservoir dam in NNJ and recalls a cold gray windy time - snow started later that morning. I was just learning to ski and after a couple noisy scraping days at Great Gorge (staff had to shovel snow onto the lift exit so we could access the snowmaking trails), skiing on quiet powder on 3/30 was exquisite.

At our (then) Gardiner home the high was 55. We matched that in New Sharon on July 8, 2009, our chilliest max for the month of July. Stratiform RA both days. I hadn’t looked in a couple days, but that Friday cold shot moderated quite a bit. The extended isn’t looking quite as bad either. It’s like all of the cold went poof. Cold and snow forecasts have been going poof for the past 6 weeks, and not just the extended - we've had far more days warmer than the day-before forecast than cooler.

My site had one 80+ in both April and May of 2009 but didn't get there again until July 29 and it was August 14 before another one. That was our coolest JJA of 23 despite a slightly AN August. The 8 weeks June 9 thru August 3 included only 7 days w/o rain and totaled 17.54". Extending that rate to a full year would mean 114". The JJA total was 23.82", which was 10.63" AN and 4.72" more than #2. We got a few ripe cherry tomatoes that summer but no main crop fruit, as fungus slowly killed the vines from bottom to top.

That's a cool list, also surprising considering the rivers in NW Maine - guess none other than the Allagash were nominated for such designations. Also surprised that someplace in the Jersey pine barrens wasn't the darkest sky region.

Just read (dailybulldog.com) that a woman driving a secondary road in Farmington yesterday was killed when a large limb/fork from a white pine landed on the roof of her car. Pics show that what came down was about 12-14" diameter and 40-50 feet long. A similar limb/fork broke out of one of our 100-foot-tall pines but was well off the road. Also saw a large fir (bigger than the lightning-struck one) uprooted and several others tipped or broken, and that's just what I can see from the road. Likely there was more damage farther in.

So now the 0.1" line is only 20 miles to my west.

We saw how well the models at that range handled "popping a secondary" for this last event.

I don't know either. Would the drug companies be doing phase 3 testing with placebos as well? Might be superfluous - with about 10% of the US population fully vaccinated and a ~5% "failure" rate, that would mean a potential 1.6 million infections of vaccinated people. Even if it's much less so far, there should be enough to observe whether the vacc-then-COVID numbers are disproportionally of variants. Moderna #2 this Friday. #1 was a nothingburger, zero discomfort unless I intentionally pressed directly on the injection site, and even that was gone within 2 days.

Heard a tree go down on the lot across the road while I was getting the mail. I could see what looked like an upper part of a fir on the ground, but it was mostly screened by other (upright) trees, and no way was I venturing in to look with this wind thrashing things. Power has blinked several times here, messing with both my work and personal computers.

House-creaking gusts here, which means near 40 mph. Had 0.95" yesterday, streams high but well below flood. Still a tattered 2" at the stake this AM, probably down to T by tomorrow afternoon. 14 of our 22 previous winters had carried continuous snow cover into April. Unsurprisingly, this year will not be #15.

We get zero upslope here but great CAD. Unfortunately, that latter phenomenon was among the missing this winter.