tamarack

On today's date in 2015 I'd recorded 41.9" of snow for the season and had 10" OG. Not exactly dealing from the same deck so far.

We're in a very low population density area, and this week was the first time any acquaintances caught the virus - a family that had been attending the same church as us but moved to another nearby one last summer. We have good friends in that 2nd church so we'll be alert for future cases there.

06z GFS agrees. Gives me perhaps a 1" starter atop my 5" pack, then 1"+ RA at U30s to 40. Then it shows the first sustained cold of the season but only about 0.05" qpf for the rest of the 16-day. Suppression city? I don't think that forecast will totally destroy our little pack but may leave the driveway needing both 5-gal buckets of wood ashes.

In the city or east (BTV) and west (PWM)? I'm definitely not an urban-preference person - my college years in BWI and BGR confirmed that opinion.

That's certainly true, but this season's Grinch was far out of the ordinary. The 2.54" on 12/25 is my greatest 1-day precip for any day in DJFM, the +29 temp is the largest positive departure for any day, any month, and it was the latest in the season I've seen a 6" pack go to bare ground. Currently have 5-6" but I don't think I'll lose it all Saturday - maybe half the qpf of 12/25 and temps 10-15° less mild.

Same idea for the weather presentations on the PWM network channels. They offer "coastal" and "inland" forecasts, but the latter seem to fit Westbrook and Gorham more than Raymond or LEW.

We like where we are now, but for snow being about 5 miles SE (thus 400'+ higher) would probably add 10-15% to our snow. Example: We got 6" of 4:1 stuff on Dec 5 while Mile Hill had at least 10, based on what was there 4-5 days later.

Normal? Yesterday's 1° BN broke a 21-day run of ANs, and January is still 7° AN. Storms obviously can cut despite any antecedent temps, but we'd have a better chance if the thermometer looked more like January. There's even a chance that we never get below zero this month. -4 in 2002 is the mildest monthly minimum so far. (Avg is -22 and median -23.)

We were visiting at the time so I shared their disappointment. Then found out we'd had a 20" blizzard at home, best January snowstorm of my life, had I been there. (Got home about 12 hr after final flakes, then to do all the snow removal.)

Farmington (midnight obs) 6-7: 14"/26" This is the strange number. My place (9 PM obs) 6-7: 6"/18". Had S+ at 9 so prob. 12" by midnight, 12" after. New Sharon co-op (7 AM obs): 23" on 12/7.

And the grandkids in SNJ were overjoyed at the 12-16" forecast, until it verified at 1.5" which was gone 3-4 hours after final flakes.

Surprising bit of snow in the pre-dawn, 1.0" of 40:1 fluff though I rounded LE up to 0.03" - covers the dusting that fell 7-8 AM after I cleared the board. If wxeyeNH's request of 1/3 of the Kuchera fantasy were to verify, I'm all done thru 1/24 as that map had me at about 3". 06z GFS dumps about 1.5" of low 40s RA over the weekend and the ever-retreating cold has moved completely beyond 384; all 16 days show AN minima, ranging from a few degrees to 20+ during the deluge. In other trivia, yesterday's mean temp was 1° BN, stopping the AN run at 21 days. (And leaving me wondering how long before the next BN.)

Mainly to protect native brook trout, and "many" would've been more accurate than "nearly all". Lakes in which landlocked salmon and/or togue are the more important species are often open, like the Fish River chain of lakes. Most smaller waterbodies in N. Maine are closed in winter and a lot of the larger lakes open.

Unfortunately, Aroostook is bleeding population in a serious way. Great snowmobiling (N. Maine may be as good as anywhere in the lower 48) but fewer other winter rec opps - decent X-C (or biathlon, if that's your thing), a small alpine ski area. Good fishing during the warm seasons but nearly all the lakes are closed to ice fishing. Sort of "Midwestern" type scenery with all the fields - St. John Valley is more scenic but even farther from amenities.

NO embarrassed TB12 twice this season - 3rd time too?

Pass. Jan 1996 had 2 nice storms atop a snowy Dec, though the metro-blizzard was a whiff. Then 3 torch-deluges in 11 days, Farmington loses 32" of snowpack right when climo temps are coldest. I've whined enough on that other month . . .

And 12z was worse. The weekend event is now a 1-1.5" snowpack swallower and the cold finally arrives, sort of, at 384 (after another cutter.) It never happens quite that way, even with cutters. Normal low temp at CAR in mid-January is near zero. That 12z run has them never getting below 11°.

Near zero this morning, first BN minimum since 12/20. Average max here for 1/11 is 26° and the forecast high is low 30s so it's probably 50/50 whether the mean can end the string of ANs at 21. 06z GFS was not impressive, <1/4" qpf in 16 days, Fri-Sat is RA and the arrival of deep cold pushed back to the 24th. Next run will be different, one way or another.

A friend took a nice salmon thru the ice on Parker Pond (Fayette/Mt. Vernon, 10-15 miles SSW from my place.) Probably on some cove ice near his brother's home that somehow survived the Christmas deluge. Long Pond in Belgrade is about 2/3 open. Yesterday's low of 9° is the coldest since 12/20 (my last BN day) but still 3-4° AN.

Exactly, which is why this season is even more meh so far than last year's ultra-meh . However, the 12/25 rain of 2.54" is the greatest I've measured in 23 Decembers here and the 29° AN that day is the greatest positive departure for any day, 1° more than 3/22/2012.

Need some near zero nights to put safe ice on the lakes. Don't need -20.

Dec-Feb last year was the most blah met winter I can recall, mitigated somewhat by some post-equinox storms. So far, the current one is worse. It would take an amazing 2nd half of met winter to drag it up to "C" level.

We shoveled and (more often) scooped snow until getting that Trac-26 for the 1994-95 winter, and of course only had 2 storms worthy of pulling the starter cord though it was a bit different in 95-96. The 4 years in the Fort Kent back settlement we averaged 144" with seasons of 186 and 171. The plow would clear about 2/3 of the road going uphill and since we were on that side of the road the banks on our side were twice as high as on the other. When the snow got deep the plow driver had the wing pushing back as much as possible and when a driveway was encountered snow was spread far and deep into it. Things were at their worst in the April 1982 blizzard - our black Chevette only had a hand-sized bit of color showing when the drifting had settled down. It was a little car but still . . .

My dad bought a Craftsman Trac-26 (8 hp) in the mid-late 1980s and when he passed in 1993 I had it made part of my 1/3 inheritance - brothers in N.VA and SoCal not interested. Tracks were slow but just about unstoppable and though the chute-direction was hand crank it was more solid than my current joystick control. Early in the 2008-09 winter the drivetrain wore out to the point that the friction wheel would only hit the power disc in reverse gear. Engine had never missed a beat but a snowblower that only moves backwards wasn't very helpful. A friend and I took the drivetrain apart and found the badly worn parts, after which I spent fruitless hours on the internet looking for replacements - no one had them. So I had to junk the machine, gave the engine to that friend, and bought my current snowblower (another Craftsmen but according to Consumer Reports it's built by Ariens) the first week of 2011. Not as solid as the old Trac-26 but faster-moving and gets the job done.

Nov was 2° AN here and Dec +4. Jan 1-8 is running +9 with minima at +14. At least the ground is white.