tamarack

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.

I think EPO had more rain and less wind than ACK. Hope that's true for wind; the remains of Arthur several years back had our logging contractor salvaging a lot of windthrow on the land we manage in Cutler. Would prefer not to have a repeat.

His frosts would probably run about a week earlier than my location. Here are the dates (non-chronological) of my first frosts over the past 21 years: Sept. 1, 2, 5, 6, 9(2), 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19(2), 20, 21(2), 24, 25, 26, 30, Oct. 6 (in 2011. Sept had mornings of 33 and 34.) Mean and median both Sept 17, pending each additional year.

Back in the mid '70s I used Repel, made locally in Orono at the time - 52% DEET. Only the Army issue (72% IIRC) had more. On my skin, Cutters was treated as salad dressing by the mosquitos - different skin chemistry, different results. Folks next to me used Cutters and it worked fine. Still have not found anything, short of a hazmat suit, that keeps the deerflies off.

I think pine tar is one of the ingredients, along with belladonna and other mysterious and malodorous substances. At forestry summer camp many years ago a few students used the stuff and the aroma carried half a mile.

Down to 34-35 this morning. Yesterday's 61/36 was 10° BN and pulls the month down nearly to -6. Still waiting for the month's first 70+. Maybe tomorrow.

In my long-ago and unlamented year as urban forester, I learned that the best planting depth was to have the top of the root ball above the surroundings by about 1/8 the ball's diameter or 2", whichever is greater. It's especially critical in very heavy soils. It’s one of the smells of summer to me. I wouldn’t say I “like” it but it does evoke a lot of good memories. The smell of DEET brings back memories of good fishing, and of cruising the woods of northern Maine. EEE hasn't made it to there yet, but when the black flies are so abundant that the ground seems to quiver due to the swarms (and when one needs to stand relatively still for 5-10 minutes while measuring things), bug dope is nearly essential. And the smell of Old Time Woodsman, which didn't come out of some high-tech lab, is far worse than that of DEET.

That is strange. Apples are not super precocious like peaches, but all 3 of mine began flowering before the 6th year after planting. I'd guess that whatever was keeping that tree from flowering may be the cause of the leaf drop. An early call on viability might be had by scratching a twig (1/4" or larger preferred) and looking for green under the bark. If it's all brown, that twig at least is dead.

Only got to mid-80s here, but 2 weeks later for that warmth than (almost) all other years. My greatest positive anomaly came on 9/26/17 with +19 on 84/61. Except that precisely 10 years before I recorded the exact same max/min. The earlier warm spell was just 2 days, compared to 4 in 2017. 37-38 this morning, may be cooler tonight.

Highly recommend "Thirty-Eight: The Hurricane That Changed New England" by Stephen Long. Lots of details and pics. My only (very parochial) lament was that it totally ignored the considerable damage to forests in western Maine - many thousand acres in that area hold trees dating from that event.

Ice storm: December 2008. About an inch and a half of ice at 31F. Amazing event. Most people posting on here were on the forums for this one so they've seen all the pics and such even if they didn't directly experience it. Can't match January 1998 up in NNE but basically no ice storm can. Comparing just worst-to-worst, they may have been close (though the "Godzilla effect" high tension towers in Quebec are indeed unmatched.) But 1998 tore things apart from Montreal to Machias - can't recall another ice storm that covered nearly that much area.

Yesterday's 56/48 was dry but an overnight shower brought 0.03". Woodstove output feels good.

Cloudy 50s here, though dry. However, we reach 80+ in 70% of Septembers, plenty of time for some warmth.