tamarack

Nice! In our experience, deer love to browse chestnut so we put wire cages around the ones we planted.

Were those trees developed thru crossbreeding with Chinese chestnut or by lab work? (Just curious, and hoping the resistance is permanent and many get planted.) If American chestnuts can avoid all wounds they are fairly resistant. Unfortunately, wounds are part of every tree's life. There used to be a very attractive grove next to the Maine Forest Service entomology lab in Augusta. Planted in 1969, by the mid 1990s they were 65' tall and arrow straight - oldtimers said they were the best representatives of pre-blight chestnuts they'd seen. Then came Jan. 1998 and many broken branches; all those trees were dead 2 years later. I see a lot of the chestnut when I inspect older houses, great versatile wood, was great for building and burning. Would love to see it make a comeback. The NNJ lake community where I lived 1950-71 began in 1930 as a seasonal place, and the first dozen or so cabins were built from American chestnut hulks remaining from when the blight had gone thru there in the teens. Most of those cabins remain and are lived in, but the one where my (future) wife lived was several owners later remodeled with contemporary siding. Booo!

Glad you added the lol to that hyperbole, as this past May was the first time here with 1"+ pack. Latest I've gone with continuous cover was 4/23 in 2001; that month had 47" on the 1st but had only 0.6" for April as the big dog went east and hammered NFLD on 4/1-2. Max pack for 3 sites: Season Randolph J.Spin Tam 09-10 59 21 20 10-11 40 40 28 11-12 26 16 19 12-13 36 19 20 13-14 42 25 43 14-15 42 25 31 (The Farmington co-op reached 48" while the New Sharon co-op only hit 23".) 15-16 17 11 14 16-17 54 27 47 17-18 47 26 34 18-19 60 33 41 19-20 39 20 21 Average 42.0 23.9 28.9

No sweat. CAR had 70.3" in 09-10, their 3rd lowest snow season in their 80 year POR. 61-62 is 2nd lowest at 68.5" and 43-44 is lowest, though a bit uncertain because March data is missing. Using Fort Kent's 3/44 snow would give a CAR total of 59.5".

Signal seems weak for NNE, at least at CAR, PWM and my much shorter record. Ninas with BN December snow finished at 87% for both CAR and me while it was 94% at PWM. However, much of that BN winter comes directly from the BN DEC. If one looks only at winter apart from December, CAR is at 97%, I'm 99% and PWM is 101%.

I didn't bother with the pain killers. Some bourbon was good enough without the constipation I was given an Rx for oxycodone after my C-4 fusion surgery in 2011. Went home after one overnight and took one pill the next evening. Woke up 2 AM salivating such that I had to swallow 5-6 times/minute, with each swallow dragging part of the cervical collar back and forth across the lightly-bandaged incision site - pain 10+ times worse than anything else from that episode so I was one and done. Cloudy and upper 20s at 11 AM, with a raw SW wind. Low was about 7, making it 15 of 23 Novembers with at least one sub-10° morning, including 9 of the last 10.

So you had to trigger my PTSD from 2009-10, didn't you? And that winter's BWI vs. CAR snowfall comparison is probably a 200-year event, maybe 500.

Our white Thanksgiving are 9 of 22, 41%, so the median is zero. Pack for those 9 years totals 43" with both 2014 and 2018 tops with 11".

I don't bet but IMO that's hyperbole (as per your sig. ) Topped out at 27 today. That was the coldest max in Dec 2001, but that month went subzero 3 times. 12/06 had one day with max 21 but never got below 6 all month. All other Decembers here had month mini-maxes ranging from 20 down to -3.

from the link: Scott explained that 71% of outbreaks reported from Oct. 1 to Nov. 13 were linked to “social events, parties and people hanging out at home or bars and clubs.” He added Vermont has not seen the virus spread widely at schools, restaurants or other businesses. Dr. Mark Levine, the state health commissioner, said those parties came in a variety of sizes of parties — Halloween gatherings large and small, dinner parties, baby showers, “people in the high single numbers at a deer camp.” Color me skeptical on the bolded; perhaps it's a like-kind assumption but I doubt it's based on actual numbers at those locations. Vermont's firearms season only opened a week ago and I'd guess there are far more occupied deer camps in that season than for the archery season that began on October 5.

Right. It's not apples to oranges - maybe apples to anteaters.

Airplanes yes, terminals not so much, especially if waits/lines are long.

We've had 3, but way too early - Sept 30, Oct 13 and 16-17. As J.Spin had no idea he was moving into a low-elevation snow paradise, I was clueless in 1998 that we were moving to one of the best low-elevation pack retention locations in the Maine foothills. Some interesting (to me at least) comparisons of my site with the 2 nearby co-ops. Farmington is 6 miles to my west and 420' (I'm at 395), New Sharon 3 lies miles SSE at 485'. Averages, 1998-99 on: Site Snow Max depth Days 1"+ SDDs SDDS/snow NS co-op 81.4 25.3 116 1,281 15.74 Farm co-op 92.1 31.6 111 1,698 18.44 Tamarack 90.6 29.6 124 1,800 19.87 NS co-op measures snow only at 7 AM, explaining some of the totals difference. It's also a wind-scoured gentle N aspect, which may be limiting depth though days of cover are long. Farmington co-op is on a moderate west aspect and doesn't hold 1-2" depths very well - in 2002-03, a low snow but cold winter, it had 99 days of 1"+ while NS co-op had 145 and I had 146. My site is near fully stocked forest and even the bare-limbed hardwoods block 25-40% of sunlight.

Some not-recent examples illustrate that flukiness. The post-Christmas storm of 1969 gave western Maine 12-18" followed by 4-7" RA, western NH serious ice nd 30" snow for BTV, their biggest on record (until another fluke in January 2010.) Four years after that - my first December in BGR - we had 56° toward the end of a major RA event while the west half of SNE had crippling ice and my parents in NNJ had 15° and IP. Left turns can bring weird, and often frustrating, results. More recent is NYC's 21" snowicane in Feb. 2010 while S. Maine had hurricane force gusts and the same NE winds brought my foothills area 1"+ of 33-34° RA to further compact the 10" of 4:1 mush that had fallen the previous 3 days.

The "not limited to" items listed on the proclamation noted parking lots, sporting events, waiting in lines. The PWM/AUG newspapers' editorials (all written by the same person, I'd guess) inferred that the mandate would apply to a hunter in the woods alone. Silly - ever try walking thru a fir thicket wearing a mask? Would need it to be attached by at least duct tape (around back of head) or perhaps something even stronger, to keep it from being ripped off by the brush.

Toward the beginning of the pandemic in the US, we saw a clip of people at work desks, one with no advice about touching and the other asked to try avoid touching the face. The 2nd had fewer touches than the 1st, but still more than a dozen per hour. Instinctive. Mask use at the Farmington branch of U.Maine is essentially total among students walking around campus. During our trip to Oquossuc Bald Mountain last week we saw very few with masks among the 40 or so others on the trail. We put on the masks when at the parking lot but not during the hike.

That's odd, to me anyway. I've never had that feeling for more than a few minutes after regaining consciousness, though maybe it was because my general stupor preventing me from noticing it.

CAR has an advisory for NW Maine tonight/tomorrow, 3-5". Also high wind watch for the coast.

Hiked Oquossoc Bald (2,400') today with grandkids and some friends (10 in all), saw yesterday's IP as we hit about 1900 then SN on the spruce and fir above 2000, about 1/2" on top - enough to make the obs tower steps slippery. Probably 30-32 on top with gusts 20+ and spitting snow. Met 35-40 others on the trail, including 20-25 from Carrabassett Valley Academy. Not bad for mid-November in questionable wx, though Bald is one of Public Lands' most heavily used trails and it was a Saturday.

62/34 yesterday for 7 days of 60+, though yesterday's high and low were at opposite ends of the day, with morning/afternoon 50-52. Down to a frosty 20 this morning.

Only our 23rd November here but this week (Today's max will be about 61, recorded last evening about 10) now dominates the month's warmest days. However, 6th warmest was the 11th in 2002 and with low of 50, that day's mean of 58 remains #1. 11/6: 63/31 +10 11/7: 69/44 +20 11/8: 61/36 +12 11/9: 67/38 +16 11/10: 70/33 +16 11/11: 69/35 +17 Warmest November temps: 71 1/2003 70 Tuesday 69 Saturday 69 Yesterday 67 Monday 66 11/2002 63 4 times, including last Friday.

March 2010 was milder for most Maine sites north of PWM. Farmington only got to 66 that month but hit 83 in 3/12. The 2 months had vastly different temp sequences: 3/12 was like terrain that was below sea level at the start then climbed a tall mountain and finished on the beach after the incredible peak. 3/10 was more of a high plateau with a single narrow valley during the final week. Since we were -8 after 4 days and +3 (and climbing) thru today, the profile would look like 3/12 if it's cool in late month.

That spot is really catching the warmth for that latitude and elevation. I'm a bit farther north and 1100' lower and here's my past 5: 11/5: 54/27 11/6: 63/31 11/7: 69/44 morning low about 50. 11/8: 61/36 11/9: 67/38 estimated - haven't checked the max-min yet. However, in 22 years I've recorded 16 November minima of 60+ and never had 2 in a row - closest was 10/31-11/1 last year. Now I've had 2 in a row twice in succession (and may bag a 3rd pair, for a run of 6.)

Reached 69 here yesterday. Only the 71 on 1/2003 has been warmer, though the 66/50 on the 11th in 2002 had the biggest positive departure at +23.

Horrible month in a terrible winter. Most incredible stat IMO was NYC recording 72/63 on 12/24, with the minimum more than 20+ higher than the normal max and departure of +32. I can find no greater positive departure in their 150-year POR.