tamarack

Kind of meh here other than the 15" dump on 4/1. Prior to that snow was essentially on the average (within 1/2") with 8.9" the biggest event. Was tough watching the AUG/WVL/BGR confirmed blizzards on 12/27 and 1/12, totaling about 30" for those places while we had nice 7-8" storms with modest winds. Temps ran slightly BN but with no notable cold snaps. Most memorable thing about that winter was driving into AUG on Boxing Day as conditions got worse and worse, leading my wife to cancel her PWM doctor appt. Within 5 miles on the way north visibility was up to 1/2 mile (was <100' outside the North Augusta Wendy's) and barely snowing at home. And 02-03 was cold and dry here, with only November getting AN snowfall. Suppression depression?

2007-08 had only 1.3" in November. Dec (46.2") brought 6 events 3.7-10.7. Three storms in Jan (27.5"): 1-2 had 12.5", season's biggest but somewhat localized. Then an even more localized event on 1/14 dropped 8" of fluff. In AUG we had 10" in 4.5 hours when I had to leave for a family emergency (hairy drive in SN++ but all was well) and AUG finished with 15" while Farmington had 5.5. Four days later another 5.5". Feb (46.5") had 8 snows of 3-9", including 4 totaling 21.7" in 6 days, 2/5-10. SWFEs galore! Only 3 snows 3"+ in March, in which the 18.8" was only 1.3" AN. Forecast for 3/1 was 10-14 from a "Manitoba Mauler" but only 6" came down, the last 4"+ event of the season.

At my current location only 5 of 22 winters even had both Jan and Feb AN and only 07-08 could do it for DJFM. In contrast, all 8 of those 81-82 months were AN.

2007-08 missed November but did real well DJFM. Not so for 2004-05 as all the serious storms missed us through the 1st week of February - nothing bigger than 3.4" which is pitiful for here. The 31 days Feb 10-March 12 made up for it with 60". Last winter was BN for snow but the first time I've had a 3"+ snowstorm in 7 consecutive months. 1981-82 in Ft. Kent had 1"+ snows Oct-May, only time I've seen that.

Two of the 3 trees had a fair amount of blossoms, which opened after the May snowfall. Did not see many bees round them during blossom time, though plenty in the jewelweed later, so maybe poor pollination or perhaps the June 1 freeze killed lots of baby apples. The complete lack of blooms on a tree which had produced bushels of fruit for 2 years (and 3 of 4) seems strange. I hope it's just a pause to recover, as the tree looks healthy otherwise.

Carrots and greens will grow almost until the snow flies, beans have done their thing. Terrible year for the 3 apple trees. The late-ripening Haralred had zero blossoms, resting after 2 straight bumper crops. Ultramac with about 2 fruits and the Empire's hundreds of blossoms resulted in maybe 6 apples.

Spotty colors around here with a few trees almost fully turned and many still green, maybe 15% color on average. 30% change on "early corner", some poorly drained land along Rt 2 about a half mile west of the Sandy River bridge in town.

31-32 this morning - had to scrape the windshield a bit at 7:15. Frost-free season 106 days, 8 BN mostly due to the June 1 freeze. Have not checked out the garden. Covered the peppers but not the cucurbits - too much area. They may be toast while the tomatoes and peppers may not survive the weekend.

Saturday morning should have colder temps than today. Couple of white patches near the lodge to get folks ramped up?

Lots less tree damage in Maine from 2019 than 2 years earlier, but we lost power for longer in '19 and I had to cut my way out of our road so I could meet the green-certification auditors for the final day of last year's audit.

Too young for the early '60s. In 1963 a town just north of my NNJ hometown had a forest fire start in late September that burned into November. It was only 2-3 miles north of the HS I attended and we could see smoke erupting from the hot spots out of the north-facing windows. Because of the rocky terrain and thick growth, fire would travel under the rockpiles burning duff and roots, such that a firefighter might be putting water to the fire in front only to have the bush behind erupt into flame. Finally quenched by a 4" rain a week into November; the storm also kept '63 from setting a new record at NYC for driest year, dropping it to 3rd place. (Now 5th, as '64 broke the record and '65 had over 6" less than '64.) Last evening's 0.02" builds September precip to 0.15".

Makes me feel for the people clearing 5 years worth of brush (so brush saw not weedwhacker) from the trails so Saddleback can reopen in December.

Going by snow at PWM/CAR/Farmington, weak Nino and weak/moderate Nina have done better than neutral.

Welcome aboard. It's great to see the NW part of NNE adding members and geographic coverage. I hope we can get some of the same for the NE part of NNE. 10-15 years back we had posters from Aroostook but now I don't think there are any east of the Kennebec. (Though MPM can see the east side from Pit 2.)

35-36 here, won't help ripen the cukes but otherwise no damage. Couple more threats over the next 10 days.

If there have been no fatwahs proclaimed, it would seem that Islam isn't too concerned.

Odds are that I'll escape tomorrow's frost (I'd give it 2 out of 3) but not 10 days from now with its below zero 850s. Median here for 1st frost is 9/19, so one next week would be close to that. 12Z GFS has no precip thru day 14 for my area.

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.