tamarack

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.

Works just fine for Chick-Fil-A. And "Christmas Creep" (term is not my invention) continues to progress. Not that many years ago the Christmas displays went up for Black Friday. Then it was post-Halloween, which has been called the 2nd biggest holiday for consumer spending. Now it's leapfrogged past that day? Maybe by September 2030 we'll be seeing displays for Christmas 2031.

Don't have Eastport stats, but here are those for 33 days (1/25-2/26) at Machias, contrasted with what fell at my place (lol): Jan. 25 6.5 T Jan. 27-28 25.7 20.0 (Would've been nice to have been there) Jan. 31 13.9 9.1 Feb. 2-3 16.0 7.5 Feb. 5-6 5.1 0.5 Feb. 8-10 4.5 4.7 Feb. 12-13 0.8 0.7 Feb. 15 24.4 1.5 Feb. 20 5.9 5.5 Feb. 22 3.0 1.2 Feb. 23-24 1.3 1.8 Feb. 25-26 8.4 0.1 Total 115.5 53.5

lol. Surprised it's not all Halloween stuff.

Frost on the pickup roof and a bit on the sun-facing windshield, low about 31, one day later than the 21-year average for 1st frost. Most of the garden dies tonight, expecting U-20s.

Discounting 1976 when we lived right on the St. John River and had fogs all September, my average 1st frost in Fort Kent was Sept. 6. Don't have the freeze data (28 or colder) for FK, but at my place average 1st frost is 9/17 and 1st freeze 9/29. Assuming FK still has 1st frost averaging 9/6 (it's probably a few days later now), that 12-day difference translated from my place would land right on tomorrow morning.

Our home is 5 straight-line miles from the site, and my wife thought a tree had hit the house or something, as the building creaked and shook like it does in our strongest winds. Our dog was thoroughly spooked. Folks heard it in Livermore Falls, 12-14 miles away. Still 5 in hospitals, mostly ICU. The facility's maintenance worker (now in a Boston hospital) came in early to put away some tables in the basement, smelled gas, and had folks evacuate right away. Propane is heavier than air so workers upstairs (8 or 9 that day) smelled nothing. As bad as things were/are, it could've been much worse. Also, the kids from the trailer park behind the blast site had been right in front of the building until the schoolbus came about 5 minutes before things happened. Pics showing the widespread coating of shredded of insulation with papers blowing about reminded me, and many others, of Lower Manhattan after the towers collapsed.

Machias total was 174" and I think EPO had a foot more than that. For folks too far N and W, it was the winter of might-have-beens, still AN snow for most but oh those near misses. And it was the winter of 4 major storms forecasted that verified at 1/8 of the low end of the progged snowfall. (One of those was in SNJ, where the 12-16" forecast verified at 1.5" that was gone 4 hours after final flakes, while I was missing the most powerful January storm to hit the home front in my lifetime. As I've whined about before. ) I feel like we do see those repeated patterns over 4-6 week cycles...say March 2001 was just a series of bombs that favored more interior and NNE, with COOPs in VT seeing up to 80" in that month in 3-4 storms. And we narrowly missed the most powerful storm off that series of lows on April 1-2, one that dumped meter=plus snows in Newfoundland with 150 kph winds. As I was looking at 19" new and 48" pack early on 3/31/01, the PWM forecast was 12"+ with high winds for later on 4/1. Fortunately for the plow truck drivers who were running out of space, the storm jogged to the east just enough.

It's all good - thanks.

Thanks for your work in setting up this fun site once again. Will we need new usernames and passwords, or will the ones from last year still work?

That's why my post included "so far"... I've been tracking the 1991-on numbers just to see how big the changes will be when the updated 30-year norms go into effect in 2021.

Maybe if those 80s come with 65-70 dews like 2 years ago, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Many many years ago in NNJ, the occasional 80+ in mid-late October felt wonderful - always w/o stickiness and if on a weekend I knew the fishing action would be fast.

Co-op average for 1981-2010 is 117", but 91-20 so far is running 122".

Had hoped to fish North Pond today, but low 50s sprinkles with a raw wind says no canoeing for me - would be amazingly miserable on the water. This stuff belongs in early November.

Here it's 70s (1), 60s (10), 50s (2) For minima it's 50s (2), 40s (8), 30s (3)

Probably. Clouds rolled in here before dawn, pushing temps up from the upper 30s low and maybe preventing a frost. Edit: When I consider 15-16, the saddest single feature (to me) was that some normally snowy VT sites recorded the season's biggest snowfall - about 4" IIRC - on May 16. It's a terrible winter that has no storms to beat one in mid-May.

I recorded about 100" for 1966-67, with 30" in 3 different months, Dec/Feb/Mar, surrounding January's dud. However, it took the 3" on 4/27 to crack the century, and the 1.5" three days earlier was needed as well - 2 latest measurable snows I had in NNJ. 1957-58 had big storms in Feb and Mar that totaled 40"+ but overall was AN for temps with not much else of note. Was not recording wx in 60-61 but memory plus nearby co-ops suggest a total in the 100-105 range.

The farther northeast one travels in New England, the worse that choice would be. I'd put BWI getting more snow than CAR about on par with 1938 for rarity - 200-year event? Even though 2009-10 had more SSDs than 11-12, and even though I got a measly 4.5" from the Octobomb (forecast was 10-16), I'd take the latter "winter" any day. Both stunk but 09-10's frustration level was exponentially worse for NNE, except for the VT locales that got bombed in late Feb. PTSD.....lol, 14" of snow from 1/18/10-04/17/10 that winter over a 3 mos period, Really epic, That ranked with some of the winters of the 80's. The last true wintry event that season was the WONDEX of Jan. 28. After that, all we had was the mashed potato fest in late Feb and 3.5" paste in April. Worst 2nd half of winter ever, even worse than the less-snowy end of 05-06.

Already affected one truck driver, who tried going under the railroad bridge on Water Street in Augusta - height 11'10" while most semi boxes are 12-13 feet. Messy commute go-around as the busy street was totally blocked. That bridge catches a truck every 2-3 years.