tamarack

As soon as I sent the last post the light snow became almost no snow, now very light. The brighter echoes seem to be sliding to our south except for the patch now past that gave us its southern fringe. Stuff directly upstream needs to bulk up a bit or we'll have problems reaching the bottom of the 2-5 forecast.

After 3 hours of occasional flakes that amounted to nothing, steady light snow/tiny flakes began about 3:15, maybe 1/4" now.

Only 22 winters here, but our biggest events have come in weak ENSO. Maybe NNE is different in ENSO? ENSO N Lg Event Avg lg #15"+ VS Nino 1 8.5" 8.5" 0 S Nino 0 n/a M Nino 2 13.8" 12.3" 0 W Nino 4 21.0" 15.4" 3 La Nada 7 24.5" 15.6" 4 W Nina 4 21.0" 17.4" 8 M Nina 4 12.5" 1.5" 1 S Nina 0 n/a

82-83: Warmest winter of my 10 in Ft. Kent; 1983 was the warmest year there. 97-98: Ice, ice baby! 15-16: Least snowy winter at my residence since 73-74 in BGR.

Jeff's BY is about 3 colors better than mine (though that spot of 0.20-0.25 centered over my roof is tiny.)

Here's the average percentages of their snowfall normals at CAR, PWM and Farmington for various ENSO states, 50-51 thru last winter: Avg S N EL NINO Very strong 73.8% 3 Strong 116.3% 3 Moderate 83.5% 6 Weak 101.8% 14 LA NADA 101.6% 22 LA NINA Weak 101.7% 13 Moderate 115.4% 6 Strong 90.8% 3 Tables I've seen do not show any very strong Ninas. And that average snowfall map for 1981-2010 will look different when the 1991-2020 data is published, as 2011-20 had a whole lot more snow in most places than did 1981-1990.

Must be the 10 flakes per minute crashing all power north of PWM. Getting serious, this last event produced fluff in southern Maine and nothing here, so I've no idea where those trucks are heading to or returning from.

That was the winter when Chimney Pond pack reached 94", eclipsing Farmington's 84" in Feb 1969 for the state's deepest on record.

Four promising storms Feb 11-19 and we managed to finish without a flake, though we did get a dusting several hours after sleet-day was done. Hope there' something nice in March - last 2 have been BN for snow.

The Wrangler (and perhaps other Jeep models) are built to handle off-roading. Subarus are built to handle almost all on-road conditions, a significant difference. Hitting major LES in western PA (heaviest snowfall rates I've ever seen though little wind) was a lot more comfortable in our first Forester than it had been two years earlier in our little Mazda pickup, especially as we'd left all the extra weight in Illinois as Christmas presents for the grandkids.

We've done well with Foresters since 2014, traded the 2011 car for a 2017 about 18 months back because I'm close to retirement and friends said we'd have issues with financing if we waited. Good clearance, entry/exit height nice for the boomer generation, reliable and at/near the top mileage for its class among gas-only models. (And my vocation adds bias. )

Not many places can get both good CAD and good upslope. We benefit from the former but get zilch for the latter. That Grinch was both my greatest calendar-day rain in December and biggest positive departure (29° AN) for any date. CAR did it even better - somewhat less precip but +35, also their greatest positive departure and their POR is 82 years while mine is not quite 23. Farther north, Van Buren was +41 that day.

The super-Grinch has really messed with my ice fishing plans, since I no longer do it at near/subzero temps - too much bother having to skimming my topwater traps every 5 minutes. The mild wx in early-mid January would've been perfect but my preferred pond didn't yet have safe ice. (No safe ice in Maine in January?!?!) Since then Saturdays have all been cold and windy, days when I'd have been cutting holes when I was 25 or 40 but not now.

Just talked with a friend in Port Jervis, NY (at the 3-state corner) and they got 9" from the current storm so far, and the snow has resumed. Meanwhile, the sun is trying to come out here.

Nearest co-op to where the grandkids live in SNJ is Hammonton, south edge of the pine barrens, and their average temp for Feb is 34°, probably 44/24. Avg max reaches 50 about a week into March.

Last June got hot but it started cold. Farmington co-op hit 27 on the 1st, tied for their coldest June morning since their records began in 1893.

lol. BGR gains 58° between those two runs. Even that pales compared to Chicoutami, with 67° (37C) change.

Clouds. Any snow now expected after noon, maybe a dusting, maybe not. Four storms 11th-19th all looked good 3 days out. #3 produced 3/4" LE but all IP, the others zero (plus anything we might see today.) Next week the deep troughing goes away, the cold is exhausted, back to meh? Unless March produces, this winter's rating will drop from merely BN to ratter - been 5 years since the last one so maybe we're due.

My earliest wx memory was the Nov. 1950 Apps gale - dad, brother and I watched from the back porch (almost no rain in NNJ) as the trees were getting more and more thrashed, until some tops snapped off and dad said it might be time to go inside. One of the two most powerful wind events I've experienced. (The other was the frigid gale of 12/31/1962.) The real trigger for a lifetime fascinated with wx and trees was the Jan. 8-9, 1953 ice storm, lost power for 6 days, cracked ice 6" deep in our driveway after the stuff came off the trees on the 10th/11th. P&C forecast from GYX retreated from the morning's <1/2" - now accumulation isn't mentioned at all.

Nice. Just 1.5 feet (and growing) ahead of my place. And the grandkids in SNJ that were looking at 3-5 are now progged for 1-2" IP.

Socking the old homefront in NNJ. They must be comfortably ahead of my place for total snowfall. From my incomplete records, the only winters when inland NNJ had more snow than the Farmington co-op were 1960-61 and 66-67, possibly 09-10 as well but I don't have good numbers from NNJ for that.

At this location the "snow season" is 12/1 thru 3/31. The last month in that timeframe with AN snow was Feb. 2019. We're 7" shy of the norm this month and I don't see where that might be coming from, which would make 8 straight BN snow-season months. And after the Mon-Tues event/whatever the pattern appears to switch from frustrating back to boring.

Or disintegrating completely.

I've read that the first dose offers some protection against infection - obviously not enough in your mom's case - and also can limit severity in many cases.

There's been about 6 threats since the Feb 2 storm, and if the forecasts 3 days before each had verified my area would've gotten 25-30" instead of the actual 6". Models seem to be making more/bigger jumps close to events than usual.