tamarack

Thanks for the recap - among many other things it confirmed that retention stunk. Our (usually) pack-retaining site had 111% of average snowfall but only 67% of SDDs. That's by far the lowest SDD percentage for a winter with AN snow and only the late-blooming 06-07 came relatively close. Touched 32 this morning, 1st of the season so we're on our way.

It's 44 years ago but still a clear memory of walking into a spot 1/2 mile from the road to sit where I'd taken a deer 2 years earlier, on a day with continuous light snow. After several hours I came back to see that 3 deer had walked past the truck, coming within 5 feet of it. (My intention of catching up to them failed as I was in an open road and was spotted before I saw them. That was my 5th deer season up north and the first one in which the deer all eluded me.

I've seen 27.9 in the Aleutians. For the lower 48, it might be the OV bomb of Jan. 1978. Lowest I've seen in Maine was 857 mb at CAR during the SE gale of Feb 2, 1976 (just before their temp plunged from 49 to -7 in 8-9 hours, with gusts 50+). At 11:15 last night our temp was 36 under bright stars and a frost/freeze seemed inevitable. Then clouds rolled in and brought a 60-second downpour (0.02") about 5 AM followed by fog, and the low was 34.

My younger brother's primary residence is near Cape Canaveral and the current center-of-cone has Milton passing 10-15 miles south of there as a strong Cat 1. That close to the center, even on the left side, won't be a pleasant place. One hopes they're at their 2nd home in northern Alabama.

In "Five Seasons", Roger Angell has a wonderful description of Tiant's windup. Luis was one of the few who would fully turn his back to the plate as part of the act. IMO, he belongs in the HOF. 66 WAR plus some post-season heroics ought to be enough. Only 20 MLB pitchers have tossed more shutouts - that's good company. He was on 31% of ballots his first year of eligibility and never again got more than 25%, a very odd sequence. usually, 30%+ in year #1 leads to enshrinement by about year 10. I was hoping that the Veterans' Committee would vote him in while he was still alive.

0.67" here, and sheet drizzle continued into the wee hours, keeping the temp well above freezing (low of 43) - maybe frost tomorrow morning if the clouds cooperate.

The Feb 1978 blizzard caused 99 deaths and destroyed or caused major damage to 1700 single-family houses. Peak gust was 92 mph at CHH. These numbers pale compared to Helene (and likely Milton as well) but are still significant, perhaps the highest since 3/1888.

Strongest at landfall is still the 892 of Labor Day 1935, though it trails Wilma and Gilbert for lowest mb overall.

Check out KevMA's snow table and see how poorly we do for snow. CAD is our winter friend here though upslope is essentially nil. Did you miss the post about blooms in Portland Maine? Looks like mid July there.. Portland also isn't representative of most of Maine. The "lawn warrior" 20 miles NW in Raymond gets 20%+ more snow than PWM and is significantly colder, especially in winter.

Absolutely. However, when it's -20 some January mornings, I haven't been able to convince the pickup's battery that the cold is fake. No fake cold here as the clouds slid in from the east overnight.

Four more days for things to change, but right now the cone is centered on Bradenton. Hope that the eastern Gulf is still a bit cooled from Helene's passage.

Might not hold for a 'cane coming in on a course perpendicular to the coastline.

0.24" by 7 AM with very light RA, and the morning low of 54 is 15° above the average (though we may be a bit lower by my 9 PM obs.) Yesterday topped out at 66 as the early fog (<1/8-mile vis) and clouds blocked the sun almost to noon.

Hope it's less than last time. We had 24.45" Dec-Mar despite only 0.95" in Feb. That 4-month period was about 5.5" more than any other DJFM here, back thru 98-99.

Only rain in Gardiner where we then were living. In 12 Octobers the only measurable events were 1.8" on 8-9, 1988 and 0.5" on 31, 1993. I do recall seeing 1987 tree damage in Dutchess County NY as we drove south for Thanksgiving with family.

Near peak here, maybe a week early. A bit of reds, too, as the trees near the house usually are all yellows. Despite last month being way BN for rain, the year is still 6.5" AN. Edit: Looks like we finally get a frost next week, about 3 weeks later than average.

DJF was slightly BN here in 21-22 thanks only to a very cold January. Both 17-18 (coldest Dec here 1998-on) and 18-19 (all 3 months BN) were several degrees BN. The 2 mildest DJFs here were 22-23 and 23-24, and that's what stands out in our memories. Edit: If my site had 1991-2020 norms, which include the cold Pinatubo years, 21-22 might've come in AN but not the other 2.

Too far north for most of them, though we did get 15" on April 1. The 12-16 forecast for the Octobomb verified at 4.5". On the bright side, we lost power for only a few hours; 12-16 would've meant days.

For my records, first/last frosts are minima 32 or lower. Freeze is 28 or lower. Frost (more likely frozen dew) on car roofs with the max/min bottoming out at 34 doesn't count. Enjoy that extra month of growing season if you're in northern New England I guess. Good for fattening the carrots but the warm-wx crops (tomatoes and cukes here) look exhausted and are not producing much if any.

Low 60s here as clouds hung tough. We've had the same number of cloudy days this month as in the first 20 days of September.

40 trillion gallons. That's about 1.5 times the annual precip in Maine and it fell in 48 hours.

Absolutely. 22-23 snow was latitudinal, with much of NNE getting AN. 23-24 was more of a unicorn, with the spring storms focused on the NNE foothills. We had 11" more than CAR that winter despite their average being 32" greater during the 26 winters here.

Sept 1 was +8 and today will be closer to +4. Progress? September numbers - Avg max: 69.1 +0.8 Warmest, 80 on the 17th Avg min: 46.6 +1.1 Coolest, 37 on the 23rd. Mildest for Sept's lowest, topping last year's 35. Mean: 58.3 +0.9 The month's average diurnal range was 22.5° which is 0.3° AN, a small departure but it's the first month with AN range since May 2023. Had 15 straight months with BN ranges. Precip: 1.51" -2.10" The 1.39" on 9/26 was the only day with more than 0.05".

14 of September's first 19 days were sunny or mostly sunny and 2 of the final 3 days of August were also sunny. I can't recall another 3+ week period with that much sun. Sept 20-29 had 3 cloudy days and 7 PC with today closing out the month with another mostly sunny. We had just one day with more than 0.05" RA.

Helene's rain covered at least 10x the area of Camille's Apps flooding, but the earlier storm dumped up to 26" in 5 hours on some central/west spots in Virginia. (That's about what NYC recorded for all of 1965!) In that more limited area, the damages/casualties (~115) were equal or worse than Helene - though the total of fatalities from Helene will be, sadly, almost certain to be higher.