tamarack

I remember only one significant ice storm that didn't begin with frozen precip, usually SN but a couple times IP. That one event, Dec. 11-12, 1970 in NNJ, produced the weirdest looking lawns ever, with grass blades encased in 3/4" ice and not a speck of snow on the ground before or during the event. Probably my #3 ice storm, vying with Dec 1983 in Fort Kent, but orders of magnitude below 1953 and 1998.

Good thing, after the grinchiest Grinch ever. Nice going from modeled cutter/whiff to perhaps 2 decent snow events.

Had 10" in NNJ, with pulses of heavier snow the evenings of 23rd and 24th, and flurries/S- between. Not all that many Christmas Eve/Day snow memories - 1961, 1966 (best one, with thunder), 1978 (Fort Kent) and 2017.

Pure sleet that one can shovel, meaning w/o ZR mixing in, has for me always melted out very close to 3:1, similar to snowmaking product. A situation like the Fort Kent ice storm in mid-December 1983 was different. At the end of that event, our yard had a 3" crust (atop a solid 24" pack) consisted of a 1/2" layer of clear ice sandwiched between 1.25" layers of ZR-welded IP. It was very difficult to get a core (had to somehow have the tube I use melt its way thru) and it came to 1.9". Thus the 2.5" of IP-stuff had 1.4" LE for slightly less than 2:1. (And with one half-decent snowfall on it, that crust would hold a running bull moose.)

And we had our warmest Christmas since moving to Maine in 1973. Have to go back to 1965 in NNJ to find one warmer. Irony is fun.

EPO/Machias payback for 2014-15? I'm also skeptical about those low depths along the Frontier area from Jackman to St.-Pamphile, especially since the Allagash corridor a few dozen miles east is credited with 2-3 times as much.

Had a few graupel flurries this morning, partly to mostly cloudy this afternoon. Other than some small piles, there's zero snow cover here. Rivers have peaked and are on the downslide, with the Kennebec in AUG cresting on the midday high tide at nearly 4' over flood. (Big floods like 1987 overwhelm the tide cycle, for about 3 days in that one.) Decided to move the max-min after the heat pump was installed, as the exhaust is about 3' from the old site. The installer said the pump's exhaust would affect the thermometer when set for AC and that's likely to be about 95% of our use.

Another 0.13" late last evening for a storm total of 2.68". Yesterday's 54/43 was 29° AN, the greatest positive departure I've recorded in 22+ years here, topping the +28 on 3/22/2012. The low of 43 was 33° AN.

2.30" thru 4 PM but wind thankfully underperformed here - maybe gusted into the 30s. Snow down to traces, which should all be gone before sunrise - worst pack-eater RA since Jan 1995. Lots of warnings for minor/moderate flooding around central Mine and NH , with the Kennebec forecast to crest more than 5' above flood stage in Augusta - not just washing the parking lots but may get into some businesses on the river side of Water Street.

Of the 4 "winter" months here, January has had the fewest storms of 10"+ with only 5 (DFM have 8,10.12, respectively) but 3 of those 5 have come during the month's 1st 5 days. SSS

That post implies that he thinks everybody in our age class is horrible while he's wonderful. Must've been triggered by this Grinch storm.

0.64" at 7 AM, windy but not making the house creak (yet). 50°, compared to my average low of 10° on 12/25. Pack down to 2", probably won't survive into the afternoon. Grinch has out-Grinched himself.

Calm, very gray and mid 30s here. Had some dz/fog earlier, still some light fog. Rudolph better get warmed up, as the sleigh will be fighting some serious headwinds as it travels southward.

Usually. Long ago (1978) we had a sizable fire of incendiary origin NW from Allagash village. I was on patrol to prevent/report (I had neither training nor authority for law enforcement) any more suspicious fires when I saw some fighter jockey from downcountry come blazing down the Little Black River valley at nearly the same altitude as the 2 Hueys doing water drops. I heard later that the Maine Forest Service radios nearly melted from the commentary. I've only lost a 12" pack in January once, in January 1995. The snow had already compacted to 8" when we had 3 days that averaged 25° AN, with 0.4" RA to help. Only needed the 1st 2 to finish the melt, as day 2 was 51/45, by far (8°) the mildest Jan minimum I've experienced in Maine.

Had to be in Maine, especially the north, to understand how awful and how frustrating that winter was. I clearly recall Cool Spruce wondering on about Jan 10 whether the big New Year's retro would ruin winter. How right he was! Still waiting for my 1st 30+; haven't come within 3" of that mark but more than a dozen 20"+, dating back thru March 1956. (Technically could extend back thru Dec 26-27, 1947 but I was only 2 months old for that one.)

Not my worst Maine winter - that's a tossup among 73-74, 05-06 and 15-16 - but definitely the most frustrating. Four KUs and we had 3 whiffs and the worst 10"+ event ever - total precip was 3.81" (2.67" slop and 1.14" cold RA) making for the most difficult snow-clearing job of my life, far more laborious than pushing 24" pow up 6-7' tall snowbanks with the same snowscoop a year earlier.

Our 17" only dropped to 13" despite an inch of low 40s RA. However, that 17" was compacted to 6:1 and very cold - the month was running 9.8° BN (23/3) thru the 22nd.

Inland Fisheries and Wildlife manages Swan Island, a 2,000-acre tract in the lower Kennebec, and had harvested timber there only for internal needs, like building repair of the old farm buildings on the island. The 2017 gales triggered a 7,000-cord salvage, including 2 million board feet of white pine.

The damaging winds in October 2017 lasted 30 minutes or less in most Maine locations but that was enough to black out half or more of the state's electricity customers and resulted in numerous large timber salvage harvests the next year. Up to 30 with clouds. Not much CA to D here; we'll see if any of the 5" of glacial pack can survive.

The EF-4 was supposedly assigned due to opinions that the wiped-out houses had been poorly constructed, but maybe in the background was the thought among tornado alley mets that 5s were impossible in New England.

Same here - had 6" more snow season-to- date with a 7" event coming on New Year's Eve. Also had plenty of cold thus solid lake covering for ice fishing. I doubt anything larger than 10 acres will have ice after tomorrow night and Friday.

None last winter, none the winter before - 1st back-to-back with no 12"+. (Of course, 18-19 is my only 100"+ season w/o a 12" storm, so no real cause to complain - yet.)

You're at maybe 40% of your annual average, I'm at 12%. Lots of cold season remains.

We were so spoiled by the period March 1956 thru Feb 1961 that anything near the long term averages would seem terrible. MY memory of the mid-1960s is that 63-64 was okay and 66-67 was great - thundersnow on Christmas Eve, 15" with single digit temps in early Feb, 30" total in March (also Dec and Feb) plus the 3" surprise on 4/27.

The sig tells the tale. Even Sunday night's little event was even littler, with its 0.8" in the "Small events" basket. Your 3 snows totaling 23.5" were 8.7" here. Missed the good bands for the 2 biggies - Dec 5th was elevational this far north, 11.5" at 1220' in Temple, 18" at 1300' in Carrabassett Valley.