tamarack

February 1981 was nearly 15° AN in northern Maine, but after the early near-50 RA temps dropped well below zero. Runoff from the rain/thaw backed up from the plow piles and the result was 5-6" of ice in our detached garage. Unfortunately, the Chevette was parked inside and I had to use the ax (carefully!) to free it. -19 at 7 AM here, trees are popping. In other news, the club groomer is still disabled on our woodlot. The tractor is a Gilbert 01339 - I've no idea of its provenance but it looks anything but young. They're now using a 4' drag pulled with a snowsled and it's a tight fit between an 8" diameter oak and the dead groomer, but there were a few sleds running the trail yesterday.

For a couple of our Fort Kent years we were taking the kids to an allergy specialist in Lawrence, MA (it worked - multiple allergies reduced to almost none) and on a mid-April appointment we would see some green on the early-riser trees. Local folks would comment on the green-up and asked about our area and we'd report the 25" or so still on the ground. Good for the occasional jaw-drop. Coldest morning this season though only by 1-2° from the -5 in Dec. Maybe <-10 by tomorrow sunrise?

Might still wake up with a mouse on the bed, but it will be the cat that's jumping.

Pounding in Porter and Parsonsfield. Love it for MBY, hate it for the grandkids in SNJ where they've barely seen white ground (except when visiting us) in 2 years and their current forecast is 5-10. That map offers them 2-3 which would be slush when the precip ends.

Especially after seeing my percentage chances of 3"+ drop from 70s to 40s only about 10 posts upthread.

Might crack the negative double digits, also not earth shattering as it's happened every winter here.

Guilty as charged. Since moving south from Fort Kent I've lived in places that get little or none of the endless non-synoptic snow, and that colors my thinking. That said, we've had mood flakes almost all day, ending with a single snow-dislodging gust about 3:30. Daytime flakes totaled "T" but the scenery is as wintery as any time this season.

Yesterday's "little" event finished with 4.0" and 0.24" LE. Then early this morning another half inch of 50:1 fluff, still a few flakes drifting down. 12" at the stake so this won't be the shortest-pack winter - 05-06 topped out at 11".

Accumulation was done by 10 AM but the flakes keep drifting down. Radar seems to be expanding during the previous hour.

Still getting some under-the-beam S-.

Still some flakes but radar says accumulation is done, 3.4" total. Not bad for a 1" forecast, wish we could do that for an 8" forecast.

2.8" at 7 AM, probably about 3 by now with a bit more to come. Forecast was more like 1" so a small victory. Broom snow, only 0.16" LE. Off to a Zoom meeting of the forest research cooperative until 1 PM. These meetings are always full of interesting presentations.

BWI had 29.2" I've no idea how it measures snow. Does DCA do the once-a-day? The same effect was there for winter 09-10: DCA, 56.2; IAD, 73.2; BWI, 77.1.

On 4/6/82 at our back settlement home in Fort Kent, there was 27" at the stake. A day later I'd recorded 15" new with a max temp of 17° and the stake showed 26". A day - and 2" snow - later with max of 23° the stake was down to 25". Of course, 20' on either side there was about 6 feet; same for parts of our driveway. Our black Chevette had about 50 square inches visible. CAR measured 26.3" from that storm and added 24" to their pack at their hilltop site. With the possible exception of 2/3-4/1961, that was the strongest wind I've experienced during a major snowstorm.

DCA: 17.8" IAD: 29.3"

Average is 100+ miles outside the benchmark? Sniff, sniff, whiff.

Pup and I checked out the grooming, which did head thru the woodlot but only made it 9/10 of the way - ongoing tranny issues on the tractor ended its day. (Met the driver, lives 1/4 mile from our home, coming out after trying a fix, will attempt tomorrow to get enough repair to limp it out of the woods.) The sled scraped some moss off the rocks and plowed some frozen mud, but left a platform that won't take as much snow to make a real trail.

Seems like about half the episodes of North Woods Law from NH include a mountain rescue. In the 4-5 years of the Maine version I recall only about one per year (not including the multiple inclusions of the Gerry Largay saga.) In other news, the groomer went by the house this morning an onto the unmaintained town road beyond, making a nice smooth path - the road is easily drivable when not snow-covered. I may go down to where the trail enters our woodlot to see whether he turned there or just groomed the mile of road/trail, to where the trail heads north into the woods. Maybe the club sees more snow than I do in the near future.

How about another Feb 2009 - nothing thru the 18th except one cutter, then 2 storms worth 33" in 5 days.

He might not have reached kindergarten when the Pack beat KC. (Back when the SB tickets started at about about $10 and the stadium was half full.)

Almost at the last minute, the old fellow from Maine got his ticket so he can keep alive his string of attending every SB.

Bottom of winter to date is -5, though we may drop below that by sunrise tomorrow. All 22 winters here have reached -10 and 18 have reached -20 (plus a -17 and -19.) Lack of real cold so far is uncanny. However, in the last 6 winters the coldest came in Feb/Mar 4 times.

Never. This is the first time any SB team has played in its own home park.

GFS shows advisory snows here (36 hr of S-) after having flurry-runs for seemingly forever. Nice D-9 storm too - wonder if it all disappears at 12z.

Tampa had F-16 receivers and the Pats had Fokker D-7s. I think Michael Phelps may hold that title. He was a literal freak of nature who did it all by himself too. Brady had teammates and a legendary coach. Swimming gets far less coverage than the NFL so in terms of recognition and star power it's Brady, of course. Most dominant athlete I've seen - not just winning but totally outclassing - is Katie Ladecki. Her margins in the 400 and 800 free remind me of Secretariat at the Belmont. The Olympics don't have the 1500 but if they did Ladecki might lap the field.