tamarack

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.

We reached 73 on Wednesday, next mildest this month is 68. Wednesday is our AN day so far, +1 on the 4th and +6 on the 11th, but all other days have been BN and the month is running -5.

No floods at my place in Gardiner, but greatest calendar-day rain event I've measured - 6.41". Also the only TC I can recall that had backside winds as powerful as the frontside, though 90% of RA came before the wind shift. A popple stand on our Hebron lot atop Greenwood Hill was 2/3 flattened, 1/3 of trees pointed NW and 1/3 pointed SE (and 1/3 still upright, surprisingly.)

If we still lived in the Perley Brook section of town, my garden would be dead already. That's where we took frost damage on July 31. Once we moved to the back settlement on sloping land 450' higher, the growing season was about a week longer at each end.

Absolutely. Most recent example of this that I've suffered came a few years ago during our two-day "peer review" field trip. I was about midway in a line of about 25 people, Bureau field staff plus our "Silvicultural Advisory Committee" - long-experienced non-Bureau foresters, biologists, ecologists. I felt some stings, hollered "yellow jackets" (without seeing them, but I knew) and took off up the hill. 100 yards away we stopped to discuss some harvesting results, and one of those beasts flew past everyone else, buzzed around me a bit, and unloaded again. No white-faced hornet would pursue even a quarter as far.

I've found that if one stands very still, deerflies tend to lose interest. (Of course, that gives blackflies and mosquitos a free shot.) During deerfly season (mid-June thru about Labor Day here) I'll pick up an escort or three within 10 yards of leaving the house - fortunately not 100+ like I'd get while cruising timber in the Allagash-St. John country. Makes me wonder of those insects are related to T-Rex (the Jurassic Park version, that can't see you if you don't move), as their bite hurts beyond what their size would suggest.

About 3/4 of the deer I've shot came on middle Saturday or later. Though my first ever deer (90-lb yearling spike in PA) came on opening day, I've yet to fill a tag in Maine before 2nd Saturday. Takes me a while to find one dumb enough for me to shoot. And as I get older my willingness to endure long-time cold while inactive has waned. This past Thanksgiving I never even went out, first time in my 46 Maine deer seasons that happened on T-day when I was in-state - missed a couple while traveling. Of course, an afternoon max of 9° with winds gusting into the 30s was a major disincentive.

The response to the first part is, "My oven is a dry heat!" To the 2nd, I've seen SN+ at -15 (obviously warmer aloft) and moderate SN at -25. Last winter's biggest snowfall (Jan 19-20) came mostly with temps -2 to -4, and 2/2/15 we had 7" at about -5. The early Jan 2014 event gave us 2" at 10-12 below before rising to the max of -5 late. (North edge of a much bigger storm, with serious cold about - CAR temp -15/-28, 2nd lowest max on record. Lowest, -16, was on 1/4/81, the day I saw SN at -25.) The temp difference becomes important the longer one is out in it. When I first sit for deer (ground only - never been in a tree stand) the difference between -2 and +12 is slight, for maybe 10-15 minutes. By 40-60 minutes, when deer have typically appeared (if at all) the difference becomes acute, feet/hands losing feeling and an overall stiffness when it's near zero, much less so at low teens. That said, I again quote the U. Maine forestry prof who said, "There's no such thing as inclement weather, just improper clothing."

If it's flat calm those 2 temps don't feel terribly different at first, but if one needs to be outside a while, or tries to start a vehicle, the difference becomes stark. And if it's windy...

That's what I have, and for me it's more like 5 hours than 10. Except for the time we were camping/fishing in Deboullie Twp (25 miles SW from Ft. Kent) in June 1996. I really don't like the stuff but there are things I like even less, such as hundreds of blackfly bites. Had to apply as we transferred gear and canoes from vehicles to pond. Just over an hour later we got to the west end of Deboullie Pond and the blackflies were biting hard so I put on more, which was effective for about an hour. After that I looked for hiding places as hourly apps of Ben's 100 would not be healthy. (Found 2, our tent in the sun, about 120° inside with 1,000 flies trying to fly out thru the roof, and a much nicer place next to some ice and snow in the boulder crevices NW of the pond - too cold for them.) Ten years living in that area and many visits since and I'd never encountered anything close to the density of those little beasts, before or since. Folks with headnets were literally having trouble seeing thru the eager insects trying to get thru. Normally when temps get into the mid 80s the blackflies retire to cover and leave the field for the deerflies, which are heatproof. They could live and bite in the nether regions where they belong. Ft. Kent hit 91 on our first full day and I'm sure it was just as hot where we were, but the blackflies didn't care. Even out on the 275-acre pond, 500' from the nearest shore, the blackflies were thick - maybe too little airspace over the land?

Same here. And I find that I can endure the bugs a lot better if I have my little bottle of Ben's 100 in my pocket.

The owner of a logging business whose office is on the American side of the border near St.-Pamphile, PQ, had his garden wrecked on July 4th week - 4 years running before he gave it up.

The friend who introduced me to boletus Betula had a 2-inch-thick book on mushroom ID, stating which were poisonous, which were good eating, and a lot which were labeled "not poisonous" - probably the ones like shelf mushrooms that are hard as wood. His tongue-in-cheek method of testing for poison was "Take a bite and wait 20 minutes. If you start feeling dizzy don't eat any more." (Some of the most deadly ones don't show symptoms until 4-6 hours after consumption, and have no antidote.)

It's the season for birch boletes - stocky 'shrooms, a reddish cap with pores rather than gills, and a stout stem. Likes birches and aspens, and quite tasty. Its relative boletus edulis is said to be even better but I've never found one. They live in the spruce-fir woods. Puffballs are pretty good as well if you catch them early. One bit of brownish interior makes them trash.

That's impressive. Even in Fort Kent my earliest was August 24. Of course, I'm not sure whether the frost of July 31, 1978 was my earliest or my latest. Set back my pumpkin patch and killed beans in our next door neighbor's garden, maybe 50 feet from our pumpkins.