tamarack

Checking in late as we were having our 2-day field trip in the BGR area. If having a TC at field trip time, this on could not have been better timed. A few light showers Tues. afternoon but all the real RA came 9P-3A and winds were meh, followed by perfect wx yesterday. Gauge at home caught 0.71" and my wife reported strong winds, though the amount of twigs/leaves scattered around suggest peak gusts <40 mph. Did lose our clothesline to a dead branch - disastah!

That's almost too narrow for a kick turn. I thought that Scotch Mist (Glen Ellen's name for the upper lift line at Sugarbush North) was a pucker-power trail, but it's about twice as wide. And though it's steep, it may not be as vertical as that chute, though it has a number of very hard vertical obstacles down the middle. Back when Glen Ellen was a thing I got to where I could ski some black diamonds, but would never set a ski on that one.

Certainly a minima-based record at PWM - maxima outside top 10 while minima all alone at the top for warmest month on record. At my place it was 4th warmest of 23 Julys, a tiny bit behind 2006. Average maxima was +0.2 and is actually the median value while average minima was +4.2 and mildest by a lot. Monthly temp range of 33 (84/51) ties Nov. 1998 for my lowest here.

As a NJ expat I can relate. However, in 47+ years in Maine only once have I had someone take issue with my being from away, and he was a politician with an axe to grind. CTS (consider the source.) I've never expected to be considered a native, however. Unlike what Skivt2 posted about born in VT vs growing up there, in Maine there's still some of the "Those kittens being born in the oven doesn't make them biscuits", or as a (humorist) Tim Sample fictional routine, "Chester Gormley was 6 months old when he and his family moved to Maine. All his adult life he could never understand why folks considered him to be from away. When he died at age 97, his tombstone was inscribed 'He was almost one of us.'"

From the west side of the pond one can probably see the higher hills (1300' in Vienna and Rome) in the Kennebec Highlands.

Yesterday was a near perfect summer day, 75/54 with dews 60 or below. It was also slightly BN, only the 6th BN day for the month. Despite that 25-to-6 advantage the month was only 2.2° AN, though that's 4th warmest of 23 Julys here. Avg max: 76.6 0.2 AN and the median value of the 23 Julys. Avg. min: 58.8 4.2 AN and the mildest July minimum by 1.1° Warmest: 84 on 20th. Warmest minimum: 70 on the 27th, only the 2nd 70+ low here. Coolest: 51 on the 17th. July coolest 1998-2019 range from 37 to 46. That 33° monthly range ties Nov. 1998 for the lowest in any month. Ironically, June's 63° is tops for that month. Precip: 5.84" 1.88" AN Biggest one-day RA was 1.54" on the 10th, remains of Fay. Yearly precip up to 27.32", a modest 0.18" AN.

Our system has hot water thru the oil-fired boiler but the tank is tiny - 2 or 3 gallons and up near the joists, just enough to cover that initial surge before the boiler kicks in. Running the boiler in summer adds to the oil bill but it also helps keep the basement from getting too musty.

A dozen or so years ago I built a 6-ft-square compost bin out of small (3"diam.) cedar logs, stacking rather than notching them to allow airflow. Don't shovel dirt atop - wood ashes serve that purpose. Bears are uncommon in my part of the woods; one probably wanders thru every so often but in 22 years only 2 have been noted, the 2nd bagged by a friend who asked to hunt on our woodlot. Having never eaten bear meat I was hoping for a piece (one should never ask) but the carcass was handled poorly and I think it ended up feeding someone's dogs. Being a meat hunter, I won't kill a bear (short of self-defense) unless I've eaten the meat and found it very good.

Given the cost (and beauty) of those sweaters I wouldn't have worn one for downhill skiing if I still did that, more likely for X-C. Three years ago we bought Dale sweaters for our son-in-law and our only grandson (then, but his little bro will grow into it), I think while we were in Andalsnes. Together the 2 came to 3,500 NOK, or north of $400 at the 2017 exchange rate. (This past May that 3,500 would've been about $100 less.)

Had 3.5" in 2 hours in NNJ from "Doria", August 1971. Storm total was 5.1" and with the previous day's PRE dumping 3.8" we had nearly 9" in about 20 hours. Things had been quite dry so flooding was surprisingly modest.

Sounds like my mom, especially after age 55, which was when her emphysema was diagnosed. She was especially adverse to drafts and when they planned to visit us at our first house in Fort Kent, a small (18x20 ft 2-story) somewhat drafty and poorly insulated place in town, we were a bit concerned. However, even with some lowery cool days during that summer visit, she would camp 4' from our little Jotul 602 and bask in its warmth.

I thought that 495 was just the connector between 295 and 95 north of PWM. And "Suckerville" probably (hopefully ) refers to fish - sucker-gigging used to be a rite of spring, not so much nowadays.

Another one well south (along with the nice echoes well north.) It's like the Whites help sustain the TS but the Mahoosucs kill them - or something. Still have not seen a single lightning bolt this year, even after a significant amount of time on my front porch waiting and watching as thunder arrives. Of course we scored multiple times June 28-July 14 but it's been pretty scratchy since then. Our 2-day expert peer-review field trip is this coming Tues-Wed, probably means we get Isaias. Having been gully-washed in NW Maine by the remains of Katrina in 2005 and dodging multiple TS (not always successfully) on these trips 2 years later, c'est la vie.

2.8" from that storm in mine. At least the ground stayed white from early November thru early April, and having storms of 3"+ in 7 different months was kinda cool, even in a year with both snowfall and SDDs were BN and it never stayed cold for more than 2-3 days at a time. (Some would count that last as a plus. Not me)

The whole winter was boring. The most interesting wx came either in November or after the equinox.

Wow! For contrast, I was a lifeguard 4 years at the NNJ lake where I grew up and had one rescue - and on that I merely swam out to the swimmer in trouble and accompanied him in, never had to touch him. In the 90 years of that community, there has never been a drowning at either of the 2 beaches, and on a busy day there would be perhaps 300 total at the beaches. The only drowning was at a tenth-acre "feeder pond" one late winter 45-50 years ago when a 2-year-old went thru the rotting ice.

Have not gone swimming in the ocean for 25-30 years. With my spinal fusion at C-4 in 2011, I probably should keep it that way. When I'd body-surf at Reid or Popham, occasionally I'd mis-time a wave and get driven head first into the bottom.

Average temp here is 77/55 and that's the warmest average of the year. Over 22 years here, July's coolest mornings have ranged from 37 (2007) to 46 (2006) with no month having fewer than 3 sub-50 minima. This July the bottom will be 51, a quantum leap from the past. To date we've had 10 mornings at 60+ and tomorrow might make it 11. In 2010 it was 15. The month has had only 33° temp range from highest to lowest, and though it will finish with 26 days AN and 5 BN, the end result will be about a modest +2.3, currently 4th warmest of 23 and possibly 3rd (only 0.09° behind 2006 thru yesterday) but well short of 1999 and 2010.

Weak ENSO has generally been good here, with some obvious exceptions.

Two co-workers got filmed during the show's Maine run, one with the robo-partridge decoy (his son did everything right, plus spotting the wardens/film crew) and one with ATVs going past his home at 50+ on the town road. Neither made it past the "cutting room" floor.

You've seen enough "North Woods Law" shows to know what to do.

It's been the month with the highest proportion (not duration) of sunshine in my 22+ years here. Except for 2011 when first frost was Oct 6, that initial 32-or-below has come in September, with the median date the 19th. (Includes 2011.) However, with convection becoming rare (average # of Sept TS here is 1) and fall storms usually not yet cranking, it's hard to disagree with that 1st sentence above.

Can't say I've seen a hemlock over 100', or at least way over. However, there are superstory pines all over northern Maine that are 120'+. Some in southern Maine too - one spot that stands out is in the woods between Sabbathday Lake and the Shaker village on Route 26. Another is the Gardiner forest in South Gardiner -30+ years ago I tallied pines there that had 6 logs of 16' each plus 25-35' of topwood. I think those trees are still there.

Some oddities on that list. Balsam fir's shade tolerance is only a teeny bit less than that of hemlock, the only species on the list to earn an "S" for light. Also, seeing yellow birch listed as the tallest tree - 100' when nothing else is listed at over 80 - is weird. White pine is the state's tallest native tree by a significant amount. Also, the species with the greatest volume in the Maine forest, red spruce, isn't even listed. (Maybe like the St. John Valley Francophones, they lump red with black spruce, though they use the label "red spruce" - epinette rouge - for tamarack!)

I've read that great whites can partially thermoregulate, thus can remain active in colder waters than can most shark species.