tamarack

August had only 1.79" here though June-July total was close to average. September is at 0.15" to date and driest September here is 0.84" in 2014 and driest for any month is 0.31" in April 1999. Almost a shame to wreck an all-timer only 3 days from being set; drought wouldn't be any worse if it ended on Oct. 1 rather than Sept. 28.

Reminds me of October 1963 in the town north of where I lived - had that phenomenon going on for more than a month until 4" from a SE storm in early November drowned it. The fire covered 3,000 acres, most within a State Forest. Edit: The warmup has begun, only 26 here this morning after 29/25/25. Was cloudy at 7 but dim sun now with light winds. Early GFS had 1"+ for this coming Monday. We'll watch it shrink between now and then.

Was the aquarium there in 1965? Crabcakes very good - could get a small one, perfect fit between 2 saltines, at the ball park (8 blocks from JHU) for about 40 cents.

Armpit of the East? (Our affectionate name for Balamer when I was at Hopkins in the '60s - fits both the climate and its position on Chesapeake. Perhaps fitting for other reasons as well.)

Back to back 25s here. Had two tarps over the peppers (tops portions killed, lower leaves and fruit protected) and abandoned the other warm-season veggies, with predictable results - annihilation. Another lesser frost/freeze tonight.

Magma must be getting closer to the surface there. Had 25-26 here, added a 2nd tarp over the peppers last evening, we'll see if that worked later this morning. Probably could play marbles with the green cherry tomatoes.

95-96 and 06-07 are the most schizo winters of my experience, and they did it different ways. 06-07 was a simple split - thru Jan 13 it was heading for record ratter status, then became one of the better 2nd halves. 1st-2nd snowfall was 11" vs 84". 95-96 did it month by month, Dec thru April (totally cherrypicked dates): Temp+/- Precip Snow Dec 1-21: -9.0 3.33" 34.0" Dec 22-31: +6.1 0.52" 6.0" Jan 1-17: -9.8 1.52" 20.0" Jan 18-31: +6.4 4.45" 7.0" Feb 1-20: -8.4 1.15" 15.0" Feb 21-29: +12.5 2.40" 2.0" Mar 1-12: -10.5 1.25" 15.0" Mar 13-27: +4.0 0.94" 2.0" Mar 28-Apr 15: -3.4 2.25" 20.0" Apr 16-30: +1.0 3.73" 0"

29 this morning, might be cooler tonight. Time to check on the garden carnage.

After a mediocre winter and the day before another 10-12"?

Most unexpected stat from 09-10: BWI 78", CAR 71".

Just clouds here, to keep the temp from plummeting. PQI had 26 - it's coming.

Even more in Jackman and when we were having winter harvests at Holeb, about 10 miles to the west, the snow there was a lot deeper than in town.

And Jackman, and The County, maybe Calais/Danforth to get the late bloomers. Moosehead area - my wish list is long. Back to Pinkham: Out of curiosity I looked up Diamond Pond. It's 57 miles N from Pinkham and about 200' higher and an obvious snow-catcher. In its 13 full winters (98-99 thru 10-11) it's average was 230.0". In those same winters Pinkham ran 126.7". Even adding 10" for the "M" in early Jan 2010 and another 10 for 4/1/11 only brings them to 128.2", still 100+ less than Diamond. Doesn't seem logical to this non-met.

65" near the end of the 26.5" storm of March 14-15, 1984 is tops - measured 80" on Big Twenty Twp. We'd reached 61" the morning after the 18.5" surprise* in early Feb but was settled to 59" at obs time. Then the 2nd half of Feb ran 15-20 AN and the pack dropped to 35". Without that thaw, just imagine. *The forecast had been 1-3, so the parking lot plowers weren't alerted until it was too late - Fort Kent's only full day lost to snow in our 10 years there. They lost a half day to the March event - 6" that morning with 6+ expected, by noon another 8 had fallen and it was coming 3"/hr so they sent the kids home, and everyone made it without serious issue, some living 30 miles and many hills from the high school. 2nd place is 54" in March 1977 - that winter's 186.5" in the most I've measured. Next are the 49 (09) and 48 (01 and 08) where I now live. Have topped 40 in 6 of 22 winters here.

Just peeked at some Pinkham numbers and found an early January event in 2010 with about 1.5" and M for snow at teens/mid 20s and only a 3" gain in depth. The 4/1/11 storm gave them 1.2" LE with 1" snow recorded, temps upper 20s. Low elev places generally got 10-15. That said, I wonder if they get shadowed by Wildcat for synoptic events and by MWN when winds turn NW. And while the pack additions in 1969 look suspicious (how does one even measure a depth that's 7 FEET greater than any other on record at one's location), a 77" dump is impressive.

Sounds like fun. When I was up north, one of the Jackson clan from Allagash was hauling a load of tree-length spruce toward St.-Pamphile and was approaching the crest of a short but steep hill when the driveshaft broke and one end whipped around and cut his air hose. With no go and no brakes, he attempted to keep everything in the narrow and slightly curved road as he rolled backwards. Almost inevitably, that didn't happen and he was rolling so fast when he jackknifed that the trailer fortunately* ripped off the 5th wheel as it was tipping over and the once-forward butts of the spruce ended up pointed back from where they had come from. *Repairing the 5th wheel assembly wasn't cheap but far less than fixing a cab that had gone tail over teakettle, not to mention what might've happened to the driver.

Elevation-related in our area too. Farmington co-op recorded 8.8" at 420' while the Temple cocorahs observer, 6 miles west and 800' higher, had 26.4". Heard rumors that 'Loaf summit had about 5 feet; those idiots who went thru the barriers thinking they would ski down the back side were up to their ears in damp powder, the woods too thick to ski. IIRC, they got the bill for the rescue $$.

Had my chance when a friend dislocated his shoulder and couldn't drive his very hard steering tractor - 1940s vintage, red so maybe a Case. Pushing that April windslab - the place was at 1200' with a west aspect in Frenchville - was a challenge. Also helped the apartment neighbor who got his little backhoe too close to the embankment and dropped the smaller wheels over the edge. He pulled with the hoe while I did clutch/gas and flipped snow with the bucket and we finally got it back on the level.

The co-op in Fort Kent is a prime example. Folks from that area know well that FK usually has more snow and deeper pack than CAR but the records show the opposite. From 1989-90 thru 2019-20 (without 2-02-03 and 03-04 as FK has missing months), CAR's average is 120.3" while FK's is 98.1". In the 5 winters that we lived in town within a mile or 2 and 20' elevation, 76-77 thru 80-81, my average was 126.2", FK 102.3", CAR 117.7". When we moved to the back settlement at 970', about 450 above our former home, my average was 144.0", FK 92.9", CAR 118.7".

"Slightly" different point of origin and looks like the only one with any westward component at LF - like 90 degrees off from all the others. Expecting Teddy to be moving west of due N at latitude 40 is beyond a hail Mary.

Meanwhile we had 10.7" mush on 2.68" LE, by far my lowest-ratio met winter snowfall that included neither ZR nor IP. Then it was further cementified by 1.13" of 33-34F rain while NYC had its 20.9" snowicane. Almost impossible to move, especially as my snowblower was out of commission and the scoop was traveling on unfrozen driveway surface. Far more energy intensive than scooping out the 24.5" of 13:1 pow a year earlier. Worst double-digit storm I can imagine, and the fact that it was a near carbon copy of 41 years earlier on the same dates (just 5F milder) only rubbed it in.

Protocols were intentionally not followed at the York County lockup, "Don't wear masks, it might spook the inmates." Those 6 fatalities at the Madison long-term care facility are almost all those in Maine during the past month.

1.94" here, with 0.15" this month. My driest Sept is 2014 with 0.84". Driest at the Farmington co-op is 0.53" in 1948. (Driest I've experienced was October 1963. NYC had 0.14" with 0.10" coming on the 31st, keeping that month from tying June 1949 for their driest since records began in 1869. We had maybe a bit less in NNJ and the NJ governor totally closed the woods - even fishing from a boat was prohibited, sad because I knew the 80F temps would mean lots of action.)

We re-windowed with Andersen, price was competitive and they're working well, though only 4 years - so much better, unsurprisingly, than the 1975 originals (brand unknown.) Low of 40 this morning - actually well before sunrise as we had a breeze by then. Yesterday's 60/31 brought the month average back to a bit BN, will be very close to my average after tomorrow, then a 3-4 day dive.

Keg Lake? I'd rather not see that Euro run with the 973 mb Cat 2 coming ashore in Machias. We'd be facing tens of thousands of cords flattened, and probably unmarketable because private lands would have 20 times as much to salvage.