tamarack

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.

Spent the day on a research trip to Kibby Township, about halfway between Chain of Ponds and Jackman, and color change is well underway. News pegged NW Maine as low but what we saw at 1500-2000' was moderate.

First use of the scraper this morning, with temp 27.

And the deepest it got at my CAD-rich, snowpack retaining yard was 31".

Ever played there in early June when the blackflies were swarming out of the Carrabassett? I think they still spray with a narrow-target biological, but they can't get all of the little beasts.

Farmington's average annual temps by decade show that clearly. Of note, observations moved to their current site in September of 1966. Before then they were in warmer locales near town center. Even though Farmington is a small town, the pavement ratio is quite high in its center. Just throwing things at the wall... I'd guess that readings from the 1/1/1893 start through summer 1966 were boosted 1-2°, so pretend 180s thru 1950s were maybe 1.5° cooler than the numbers below, and the 60s 1° (only 2/3 of decade in-town.) 1890s 43.67 1990s 42.40 1910s 42.88 1920s 43.17 1930s 44.78 1940s 44.14 1950s 43.88 1960s 41.68 Edit: 1960-66 avg temp 42.07; 1967-69 temp 40.76. PWM avg 60-66: 44.48; 67-69: 45.14 I'd say change of location was Farmington factor. 1970s 40.58 1980s 41.01 1990s 42.13 2000s 43.00 2010s 43.72 to date The 30s-50s mild spell shows up nicely. Western Maine had an epidemic of birch dieback (mainly in yellow birch) during the 40s, and some have laid that to the warmer temps weakening the trees and making them susceptible to bronze birch borer, the insect that actually killed them. Trading the 1980s for the 2010s will make major differences in the 30-year norms. In addition to the temps, here are precip and snowfall: Precip 1980s 44.37 2010s 49.33 Snow 1980s 79.80 2010s 99.15

Lot of purple-y (and early turning) white ash in that pic. Nice

Nearest Chick-Fil-A is BGR. The natural food store (Better Living Center) in Farmington is closed on Saturdays, as it's owned by Seventh Day Adventists. In BGR, the Bagel Shop (now defunct, sadly, as they made the best bagels I've ever eaten) was Jewish owned and also closed Saturdays.