tamarack

And my above story failed to mention the 12" on 4/8/56 that bent over lots of the smaller trees that had escaped the Jan. 1953 ice storm, and the 12" surprise (forecast ranged from 1-3" to RA) on 3/23/1961. Most fell in 3 hours and it's the one time I walked the 5 miles from HS, along with 8-10 friends who also quickly tired of waiting for buses that might never arrive.

My highs for 18-22: -14/-4/+9 (torch!), -6, -6.

January 1982 was my coldest month in Fort Kent, averaging 9.2/-12.3. It is also Farmington, Maine's coldest for any month since records there began in 1893. The first week was mild, 7F AN, but 8-31 the average was 5.4/-16.5. The month had 9 subzero maxima (9-11, 18-19, 21-23 and 26) plus 6 single digit highs. While the -7/-31 temps of the 10th were noteworthy, by far the most brutal cold came on 17-18. After a cheap evening high of 13, Sunday the 17th featured a precipitous drop with winds gusting into the 40s. It was minus teens by 8 AM (only time I've seen one of those flimsy dry-cleaner plastic bags shatter) and the bank sign read -24 at 3:45 PM. By my 9 PM obs time it was -29. Next morning the gusts had dropped a bit, probably still approaching 40, the temp was -34 and visibility was about 2 miles in light snow. (On the old WCI scale that's about -101. On the new it's around -70.) Even with the good heater-hose engine warmer plugged in, my Chevy Luv pickup barely started. That wind howled all day and my high was -14. The wind never really quit the rest of the month. On Tuesday 1/26 we were check-scaling logs in the wood yard of a pine mill across the river in Clair, New Brunswick. Temps that day were -4/-24 and there's no place hotter/dustier in summer or colder/windier in winter than a mill yard. The stench from the pork by-product rendering mill a hundred yards upwind didn't help. If you were at the 'Loaf on 1/17, I would be surprised if they didn't have a wind-hold, or an early closing due to dangerous wind chill.

Wonderful hyperbole! But that "finally" hits the (short-term) spot for Jan. 2, 1987. PWM was reporting SN at 4 AM but I had finished lunch when the first flakes appeared outside my Augusta office, around 12:30. Within what seemed like 30 seconds (more likely a couple minutes) the rate had gone from 2 flakes to 1/8 mile visibility. By far the most abrupt wall of precip I've seen from a synoptic event. That 16" storm was the 2nd biggest of my 13 mostly mediocre winters in Gardiner.

Most amazing to me is the "York County Jail" outbreak - inmates, staff, families of staff - totaling mid 70s last I saw and evidently coming via the one jail staffer who was at the wedding. Not following the written protocol at the jail was key - "no masks because they didn't want to scare the prisoners" was one bit of foolishness I read.

GYX has under a tenth here. Two days ago it had over 1". Typical

From March 1956 thru February 1961 we had 8 snowstorms of 18"+, including 2 with 20" and 3 with 24". (I wasn't into precise measurements but my dad measured the first one at 23.5" with snow still accumulating, giving me at least a subjective benchmark.) Even in snowy Maine I've not had a 60-month period with 8 storms of 18+. The (cherrypicked) period April 1984 thru February 2001 failed to hit the 18" mark even once. Even if I drop the threshold to 15" (the NNJ 5-yr run had no storms 15"+ but <18") the best I can find is 5, once in Ft. Kent and twice where I now live. Using 18" the top is 3 in 5-years. (Of course, outside of the wonderful 56-61 run, we never had even 2 of 18+ in another distinct 60 NNJ months. Jan 1964 and Feb 1969 are the only other 18s I experienced there, unless one includes the 1966 blizzard in Baltimore when I was at Hopkins.)

Surprised they're last. Is Electric Boat no longer building submarines? And I'm amazed at that $4k figure. Our household income is slightly above Maine's median and we've never sent as much as $4k to the IRS. My guess is that CT's average income is way above the median due to the abundance of plutocrats, and that enough of that population is paying at the top rate and enriching Washington.

Not surprising thanks to Laura. Same ACE, twice the TCs.

Up here March 19-20, 2014 was forecast for 3-5 and we got 13.3" before it changed to rain. Farmington had less rain and recorded 16.9". The Jan 2015 blizzard was forecast for 8-12 in our area and we got 20", but we stayed an extra day with the grandkids in SNJ (where the 12-16 forecast verified at 1.5) so to avoid driving thru the storm.

Jan-Feb 1979 were freaky in Ft. Kent for the extremes. In 10 Januarys there we had 5 days with minima above 32 and all were in '79. We also had 5 mornings at -39 or below (6th place is -37) and 3 were in that same month. PWM had 62.4" of snow that month, most for any month, and their 2nd biggest event- 27.1" - came on Jan 17-18. On the 17th my max-min touched -47. I'd been at our company's camp just across from St.-Pamphile, PQ and it was "only" -40 there. At home my wife noted that the red alcohol on the indoor-outdoor was well below the -40 bottom of the scale but the max-min on the detached garage measured down to -60 and so caught the record. PWM had 6.8" on Jan 25-26 and 8.6" on 30-31 while Ft. Kent had rain and mid-30s with catpaws. Finally snowed a bit on 2/1 as temps gradually slid downward. Feb 10-17 never got above -2. The wind on those 8 days never quit, which kept the mornings from dropping below -22 but at times the wind was such that one could not face it without tearing up, and first blink froze the eyelids together - "walk backward" days. Then March was nearly snow-free. The early '50s were awful in NNJ though they included the Jan 1953 ice storm that jump-started my interest in both weather and trees. The 24" storm of March 18-19, 1956 was a revelation after 5 winters w/o anything above maybe 8".

The "good" in the 1980s was mostly in the far north. The 1980s were Farmington co-op's worst for snow with 73.5" average compared to the long-term average of 90". 1979-80 and 80-81 are 2nd lowest and lowest snowfall winters they've recorded. For 79-80 thru 84-85, my last 6 winters in Fort Kent, they recorded an average of 68"/year while I measured 127"/yr. If I (or some Methuselah) had recorded Fort Kent at my locations there from 1893 on, their average would probably be about 120" compared to Farmington's 90.

I don't think anyone had bunches of months of the BN temps, AN precip and record low snowfall trifectas during those winters. Also, 81-82, 83-84 and 86-87 were pretty good in NNE. The first 2 were especially big winters in Fort Kent, the 3rd had 4 warned storms plus an advisory event in January to build the pack that produced the greatest peak flow ever recorded in Maine, on the Kennebec on 4/1/87.

But if one of those 1-per-game hits is a "perfect" grand slam, 2-out walkoff while 3 runs down, that's what folks will remember. A 20-game streak with .400 BA but only one HR (this year) or the "perfect slam" (1992 when August 15 arrived w/o a singe named storm), it only takes one - as many have noted - and this year is "one, so far". Edit: I wonder if the recent awakening of the previously somnambulant West PAC has any bearing on our TCs.

Considerably less prevalent here, only 32% (7 of 22 with 3 others having "T" OG and 2 getting a 1" cover the following day.) The white T-Day years, with AN winters boldface: 2000, 2002, 2005, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019. Those 7 winters averaged 90.4", or 0.2" B below my current average - essentially dead on. The AN winters include #2 (2000-01) and the BNs have 2nd lowest (2005-06). Deepest is 11" in both 2014 and 2018. My conclusion is that T-Day snow cover tells us nothing about the coming winter here.

But 60" over the next 50 days once that month was done healed (almost) all wounds.

September (and April-May) snow in Denver isn't terribly unusual. Snow 2 days after 97° is record-setting, and hard to comprehend.

Jan. 1-4, 2014 averaged 26.8° BN. Jan. 6-15 produced 3 rain events (middle one had 0.2" SN) with 3.29" total precip, at which point the month was running 4.2° BN with 3.46" precip (twice the avg) and 2.1" snow. Rest of the month was slightly BN with 0.30" precip and 3.0" SN. You can't make this stuff up.

In New England, especially NNE, one can see full colors and green throughout the season - the dark greens of spruce and fir make for wonderful contrast. Actually a bit behind the average around our place, but the early-turn sugar maples along the road a mile toward town are 2/3 changed - not sure if it's health or genetics, but they're consistently early.

4.3". Only 1991 with 4.0 had less. January average is 21.0. 1990-91 had 69.1" snow while 2013-14 had 108.0". Farmington's average is 90.0". The cold snowstorm in early January 2014 brought only 2" while SNE mostly had double digits. (Side trail: on Jan 2 CAR had no snow but temp -15/-28.) After the early cold (I had -31 on the 4th, one of only 5 mornings -30 or colder in 22 winters) we had 3 rain events and never had another 1" snowfall until February.

That "paster" was forecast as 3-5" advisory snow but dumped 13.3" overnight before ending with a couple tenths RA. Even so, the 46" pack at 7 AM only settled to 43 at my 9 PM obs. Farmington didn't change until right at the end and got 16.9".

In the Northeast it's 1934 having the greatest competition with 2015. Only valid NE record I've found back beyond 1875 is NYC, and Feb that year is only 7th coldest, 5.2° less cold than 2/34. That site recorded its 3rd coldest Feb in 2015. 2013-14 was a good winter marred by a frustration January - BN temps, precip way AN, and 2nd lowest snowfall in the Farmington co-op's 128 Januarys. That's an unusual trifecta. However, the winter had 5 double-digit snowstorms, most in any winter here, though greater than 13.5". Also ranks #3 for Snow Depth Days and is one of 5 winters in which pack got above 40". Also the coldest March on record at that co-op (as was February the next year.).

21 of 22 for September frosts - only in 2011 did 1st frost wait until October, and that was a hard freeze on 10/6. Median date of 1st one is 9/19 but it's ranged from 1st to 30th.

The state system won't allow that. Parks and Lands can't even advertise the position until I'm fully retired and the process (getting a register, setting up interviews, receiving permission to make an offer) will take several months. We've talked of my coming back on a contract, for that training and because 2021 is when we have to undergo a full recertification audit by the Forest Stewardship Council - happens every fifth year. It's a complex process, and while I'm sharing some details with our recently (May) hired assistant bureau director, the new chief forester probably could use some background (unless a long-time bureau forester were to get the job.)

About 3 months ahead of me - enjoy!