tamarack

Similar results but different sequence, as more than 3/4 of the month's RA came in the last week, 70% on 9/24 alone. The 3.18" is a half inch below the average while a bit higher than the median.

Lots of falling leaves yesterday, mostly white ash but a bunch from the sugar maples too. Color is decent and will likely peak here later this week.

In 21 years I've had 13 Grinches (snow-wrecking rains during the period Dec. 21-28, my subjective definition) plus 3 more with the same horrible wx but bare ground at the solstice. Of the 5 non-Grinches, only 2017 meets my (undefined) criteria as an anti-Grinch, though 2010 was close. 2018 made up for 2017 with the warmth and 2.17" RA, Grinchiest one of all. 2015 was a bit warmer but a lot less RA and no snow to melt. If February hadn't been so warm, I probably would have given it an A. That kind of tainted it a bit....but that winter had very strong bookends. Good December and early January and epic March. 2016-17 matches 1960-61 as the only winters in which I've experienced 2 storms of 20"+, and like that earlier wither there was a 3rd biggie. The Pi Day storm brought only 15.5" (of 7:1 denseness and wind pack) but it was just my 4th event that met blizzard criteria at my tree-sheltered location. (Others were 12/6-7/03, 12/21-22/08, 1/27-28/15.)

I think that's the trail under the summit lift - assuming they still have the same general configuration. The then-named Mountain Chair climbed up to about 3,000' (in 15 minutes - excruciating on a bitter day) and then one poled across nearly level ground to climb aboard the summit chair. Back in 71-72, that upper lift line trail was called Scotch Mist, keeping with the area's Highland theme, and it was not only narrow and bony, but had all those steel obstacles down the middle. No thanks! During the '71 ski week I went to the summit about 3 times after the 8" Tuesday snowfall, and it didn't look like more than a handful of tracks had been made by Saturday early (GE used to offer an hour of free skiing 7:30-8:30 for "conditions check.) The trail under the Mountain Chair had poles down the middle too (duh!) but was about 3X as wide and the moguls were all snow, not thinly covered boulders. The day after the snow it was near zero all day with winds gusting to 50 and the sun a dim spot through the cornmeal flurries. I wouldn't even try the slo-mo Mountain Chair that day, especially after getting a touch of frostbite just walking from car to lodge. Fortunately there was a 2,500' lift that gained about 500' elevation in 5 minutes, and I rode that one almost to closing time. After about 2:30 I'd get to the top and say "Last run - can't stand the ride." Then I'd make lots of turns and be warmed up and do it again. I don't think there were ever a dozen skiers on that hill all day, and by late afternoon maybe just one.

A week too early. The Grinch is rarely denied.

Learned to ski parallel there during a ski-week almost 50 years ago. (Incredibly inexpensive - entire ski-weeks were just $45 and they cut that in half for that January!) Went back for a short weekend a year later and still regret not talking Upper FIS. I was skiing as good as I ever achieved, perhaps low-end intermediate, conditions were good, the trail is wide and was deserted. Did ski the much narrower black diamond (name forgotten) to the left of the main lift line - used to be The Cliff - and had a great run.

There's some seasonal differences, IMO. 10° AN in July/August is pretty torchy, sniffing mid 90s in some SNE locales. At the other end, I'm not sure +15 in mid January warrants the term, especially in colder climates. Is 34° on January 15 at CAR a torch? (Not that it really matters )

Does "rural area" equal "suburbia", as the above seems to imply? And who gets to determine the social contract, to quantify the enormous external costs, and to decide what and how subsidies would be eliminated? Maybe nobody will tell me not to live where I do, but property tax rates could be augmented by a giant national (or beyond) surcharge to account for how selfishly wasteful we're supposedly living, which could force my hand. We burn locally harvested wood as our major heat source, keep the thermostat at 62 (woodstove is in our living room) and haven't run the AC since 2013. However, we live 500' from our nearest neighbor on a gravel road, so in some people's minds that would put a big financial bullseye on our place even though our carbon footprint seems relatively modest, at least by US standards. Rain has arrived in Augusta - still light so I'm heading out before it gets serious (if it ever does today.)

That was a much bigger issue than smoking back in the stone age when I was in HS. Our school had 1,000+ students and I don't think I ever noted more than 8-10 at the school-established smoking wall. However, we were a 30-minute drive from Greenwood Lake, NY where the drinking age was 18, with NJ requiring 21. Lots of draft card loaning for ID purposes. Also, more than a few wrecks/injuries/fatalities as inebriated youngsters tried to navigate homeward. Our community beach had a tradition of being "decorated" by pranksters the night before Labor Day, and one year they managed to load a huge tire (as in 8' tall, big "Butler Tire" painted on its side) from a dealership 3-4 miles away, flopped it in the middle of the beach, and filled it to overflowing with beer cans scavenged from the main route to the NY bars.

The proverbial "silver bullet" which of course does not exist. The bias against marijuana has led to a paucity of formal medical testing, to determine not only effectiveness but optimal dosages and means of application. Some proponents hold that such testing is superfluous ("of course it works, but you're too stupidly biased to admit it!") and even harmful as the "placebo group" would be unfairly deprived of its benefits. I see the same attitude for non-psychoactive hemp - far more productive than forests in every way, needs neither fertilization nor pesticides, blah, blah, blah. Any large-scale agricultural/forestry monoculture is subject to problems with diseases and insects, There's no silver bullets there, either. Hemp can be a very valuable agricultural product for many uses, but like pot it's not the answer to everything.

Approaching moderate around my place as well, though the significant white ash component gives a bias toward earliness. That species is at peak here with 25% leaf drop while the rest of the trees show lower color and very little leaf drop.

Only 0.20" yesterday afternoon, though Doppler estimate was much higher. However, we were right on the west edge of the heavier stuff, and at our distance from GYX the beam was hitting whatever was at 5-6000' over our heads. Saw Detroit (Maine) with 3.20".

Showers were in the forecast but I didn't see any indication of how heavy they might be. Doppler estimated precip from about my place to points east (about 50 miles) show 2" to 4"+. I usually find somewhat less in the gauge than the estimate, but there are flash flood watches/warnings up for that area. It's also the region that got the most rain last night. Finishing up here in Augusta, probably 1/4-1/2".

Cooldown for about a week, then the next 7 months were all AN. Novie thru March ranged from +3 to +7. With winter wx to match.

When the website says "Request a quote" you know it's big bucks.

LEW was reporting heavy rain at 2 PM. Getting dark here in Augusta with some nice though sparse C-G to the south. Warned for the towns just south of here, though it looks like the north fringe will clip us.

Not asking for much. At Farmington, those AN departures would set all time warmth records for every month Oct-Mar.

When I shut off the computer at 10 PM, it looked like the really good stuff would be just to our north. We'd had a couple of heavy showers but only 2-3 minutes each, at most 1/4" by that time. Brings the month's total to 2.63". 21-year average is 3.67", which I doubt happens, while the median of 2.98" (lowest for any month) might be in play.

Same at Farmington. Their only October 90 (on the button) was 10/13/1930. Next latest hitting that mark was 2 years ago on 9/24. Their latest 80 was 10/25/1963 (which I remember well in NNJ - beautiful day to be fishing and the action was always fast there in late Oct warmth, but the fire danger was so high that state officials didn't even want people going out on the lakes, probably because some numbskull might toss a butt into the brush while prepping his boat at the launch.)

Ground zero was Temple to Palmyra - 8 cocorahs reports ranging 1.72" to 2.90", with 1.91" in 4 hours for my gauge. Next highest was 1.20" in the Penobscot Valley.

Got way more than I'd expected, as by 10 last evening the best echoes appeared to be sliding to our north. Finished at 1.91" in about 4 hours, with occasional thunder throughout the first half of that period. Cocorahs reports show 8 stations - 5 in Somerset County and 3 in adjacent Franklin - with 1.72" to 2.90", and nowhere else above 1.20". Temple to Palmyra ftw. My gauge had caught just 0.20" during the 3 weeks Sept. 3-23 so other than some driveway gravel on Starks Road (Rt 134) there was no evidence of the downpour by 7 AM. Sandy River rose about 5" and is already going back down.

No surprise that, as summer departures - July/August especially - are the lowest of the year on average. JJA was not quite 1° BN, with the AN July sandwiched between BN June/August.

GYX unimpressed so far, though they mentioned the (low) possibility.

Mid-upper 40s for the low here. Highest Fri-Sat was 75 - was away from home Fri evening so no instrument reset, and temps were low 70s when we headed out at that day about 1:30 PM. Had to work harder for that 75 to have been Friday, as the low was 34 compared to yesterday's 49.

Yes! Thick frost to deep blue and mid 60s, and I was in the western mountains south of Jackman all day, where leaves are about 1/2 changed with some deep reds and oranges. 37° range, 64/27. 112 days between frosts, 132 between freezes (28 or lower) each near my average.