tamarack

Gorgeous place! However, having heated mostly with wood for decades, I can't imagine not having a woodstove in the north country, preferably on an inside wall (unlike our current place with stove on outside wall) so the chimney gives heat to the house all the way to the roofline. Some folks, my wife included, would rather not see firewood hauled into a brand new home.

Not PC In the plant nursery business, trees like striped maple are called "snakebark maple." And slippery elm is relatively uncommon in the Northeast, such that I've never bothered to learn how it's different from American elm.

In Fort Kent, where vine-ripened tomatoes were dream stuff if one didn't own a greenhouse, we'd put the greenies between 2 sheets of newspaper and add 2-3 ripe apples. Ripe tomatoes (from somewhere else, obviously) would do the same - the ethylene gas that hastens ripening is the same for both "fruits." I'll have to double check the numbers but glens falls will def be higher than Troy/ALB It's almost 50 years since our youth group twice visited Word of Life's snow camp at Schroon Lake, and back then snow and pack increased gradually from little/none at ALB to a nice pack (Feb. 1969, living on the 2 feet from the post-Christmas storm) to being buried the next year. The biggest changes were from Saratoga north. In Feb. '71 we arrived on a Friday a few hours after the end of one major dump and left Sunday morning in another (the 2 totaled 34" at the Schroon River co-op.) The snowbanks next to the Interstate on-ramp were 7-8 feet high, and between that and the SN+ we had to stick the front of the car pretty near into the travel lane to see if anyone was coming. I likened the view as being inside a ping-pong ball, but by the time we'd reached Saratoga, the snow was nearly stopped.

Depends on when you look. My useful snow records for BGR start in 1953 and for a couple decades they had frequent bumper winters. Their cumulative average thru 1972-73 was 99". Then we moved there on 1/23/73 and the snowtrain derailed. Our 2 full winters, 73-74 and 74-75, averaged 55" and only the April snow brought that average above 40 (and we lived at about 25' elev - the airport observation site's extra 150' often made a significant difference. The 3-days of 32-33° paste in Feb 1973 brought 9.0" at our place - never more than 4-5" OG - and 14.1" at the airport.) For 1973-74 and forward, the cumulative average ran in the mid-upper 60s (probably not dissimilar to Troy/ALB) until the most recent 9 winters averaged 88" and dragged that 73-74/forward average up to 72". For the full 1953-on period the average is 80".

That map accurately reflects co-op reports, but folks living northwest from CAR know that Fort Kent and Allagash generally get more. There are exceptions like the April 1982 blizzard when CAR measured 26.3" while FK co-op recorded 13" and I had 17", but most storms and nearly all years had the St. John Valley with more actual snow than CAR. Loggers and sledders also are well aware that once one reaches the St. John uplands west of Allagash, where most of the land is at 1,000-1,500' elev (or about 500-1000 higher than the valley), snowfall and depth climb significantly more yet. The numbers below show snowfall during my time in Fort Kent, for that co-op, CAR and my own records. #1976 includes only Jan-May as we moved there 1/1/76, and 1982-83 omits March because the Fort Kent records are missing. I had 20.3" that month and CAR 13.9". Thru the winter of 80-81 we lived at about the same elevation as the co-op, while the last 4 winters we were in the back settlement 3 miles SW and about 450' higher. Winter FK co-op CAR Personal 1976* 86.0 85.6 93.5 76-77 152.0 145.9 186.7 77-78 108.0 118.8 125.6 78-79 113.0 126.8 128.2 79-80 65.0 74.2 81.8 80-81 73.5 122.9 108.5 81-82 127.5 159.8 185.8 82-83* 62.0 74.2 85.2 83-84 117.0 136.2 171.0 84-85 65.0 90.8 113.8 I probably took less frequent measurements - more one-a-days - then compared to what I do now, and one can easily do a sniff test of my reports on KevMA's snow tables. Look how sneaky NW and even nrn NJ can be near 287 with those events. Might not jack, but they do better than BOS when longitude is involved. 12/29/00 was a hard lesson in that. We were in N.Central NJ and bagged some major events - 2-footers in '56, '58 and '61 and storms 15-20" in '58, '60 (March and Dec), '61, '64,' 67, '69 and probably 1972 though we had only 8-9" with mix at our garden apartment about 400' lower and a few miles south of my parents' place.

Except for the Sugarloaf area, where 8" RA blew out Route 27 bridges both N and S of the resort entrance, Maine dodged that bullet. The 3-5" elsewhere was easily handled. The Carrabassett River recorded its 2nd greatest peak flow (though way short of 1987) while on the Sandy it wasn't even that year's top CFS and the Irene peak of about 14,500 was a bit below the median for yearly max (15,200.)

By the time it reached northern Maine the wind was gone but not the water. We had 6" RA, 90% falling 6-10PM on the 10th. On the 11th one might have been able to surf the standing waves in the St.John. A 50-yard stretch of Route 161 was blown out, cutting off that town and Allagash as a large number of woods road bridges also failed. Next to our office west of Fort Kent downtown (I was a forester on a large family-owned landbase then) a DOT dump truck was sitting with back axles partly in a washed out culvert and front wheels 4 feet off the ground. The apartment next to ours was getting foundation damage from the normally 2-3'-wide brook that was now flowing 2' deep and 100' wide across the highway. We directed it between that apartment and the one where I lived, using bags of marble chips and bales of peat moss from Pelletier Florist across the street, and by the time things had clmed down, there was a trench between the apts 12' wide and 8' deep, and our back yards looked like river bottom gravel, rocks, and one old car hood washed from somewhere.

Wisdom. They had no interest in going out there to rescue folks. High-end tropical storm, winds gusting 60+ at our inland location and the coast probably had some to 75. A local source reported 3.5" in 2 hours. The wind awakened me about 2 AM, at which time the storm was in full fury and the cheap wedge gauge on our 2nd floor balcony (garden apts) had nearly 4" and would overflow at 5". So I donned my official BSA poncho and stepped out to empty the gauge, getting thoroughly soaked in my 15 seconds outside. North Jersey sites received a combined 6" to nearly 10" (Morris Plains reported 9.72) from the 2 events, but it had been dry in recent weeks. Small/medium watercourses went nuts (stalled our Nova trying to drive through 15" of Rockaway River water on a street in Denville, pushed it out, restarted and continued) but there was little significant flooding. The lesser (4-7" in 8 hours) event of late May 1968 came with water tables and streams fairly high, and caused many millions of dollars damage.

Last evening I headed hole from Farmington just after 8 in moderate RA and halfway there got to dry roads. Precip began at home about 8:30 and 30 minutes later I dumped 0.13" from the gauge in moderate RA - enough that our Lab mix retreated under cover after a minute or two. (She's got the proper form, coat and webbed paws, but "retriever" and love of water wasn't part of the package. ) Final total was 0.91" (I'm probably the isolated dark blue symbol on the map PF posted) over a 6-8 hour period, just about perfect for the garden. Perfect would've been temps upper 60s rather than upper 50s - kinder to the 'maters. These PRE events are another one of the Fraud Five. They never produce as advertised in the 4 years or so I've been a board member. My first PRE experience, long before the term came into (common) use, was my best - 3.80" of thunder-free tropical-like downpours through the daylight hours of 8/27/71. Then TS Doria dumped another 5.10" during the overnight, for a total of 8.90", easily the greatest 24-hour precip event of my experience.

Unfortunately, there's no practical method (of which I'm aware) for broadcast control of ticks, short of converting the woods to parking lots. There are effective ways to prevent ticks getting on oneself, and methods to keep them out of one's yard area. The latter consists of providing ideal nest material (cotton or dryer lint treated with pyrethrum in a tube - TP centers work fine) for small rodents, but the stuff needs to be placed at about 10-foot intervals around the area one wishes to protect. (Would need about 40 such "baits" to protect 1/4 acre.) When the Sugarloaf golf course was opened, the black flies were as bad as it gets, the South Branch of the Carrabasset being ideal spawning habitat for the critters. The resort got permission to apply a biological (BT) product specially developed for flies and mosquitoes and of little/no danger to other organisms. Costs more than chemical insecticides, but would make sense around people's homes. (Not a silver bullet, of course. I'm not sure why a related BT product has not been used for browntail moth.) Lyme is a treatable condition with antibiotics. True, but one must recognize the need for that treatment and many with Lyme do not and progress to the chronic disease, which is far harder to treat and can lead to misery and shortened lifespans for numbers several orders of magnitude greater than those contracting EEE (at present - warming climate, as you've noted, can lead to increased EEE, plus other joys like malaria.) This should not be either/or but both/and...

Yesterday's 12z gfs had the axis of soak running AUG-MLT. Today it's BGR-BHB and points east.

Only 7" from that one at the Farmington co-op, but 4 years earlier they got 17" on those same dates, and the year before that 18.5" on 4/22-24.

We just bought a new outdoor antennae and believe it or not , I can pull in a couple Boston channels, one being whdh. TV fool says tower is 125mi away. Antenna is non amplified and rated for 70 mi. Being up on a hill helps but I'm surprised we can pull that station For sure, as we live in a hollow - good for radiational cooling but crummy for TV. Previous owner had installed a large antenna at the ridgeline of our steep roof, about 20 different elements at least 25' above ground and with a rotator to align things best. Never got Boston but had no problems with PWM and BGR channels. Then came hi-def. We got the "box" all hooked up and got PBS - sometimes - and otherwise just snow/static. We went for satellite (DirecTV) and waited until June to ask the tech to evaluate which trees needed to disappear if we wanted consistent reception. Got about 60% of that winter's firewood from the ones he flagged.

We had but one in 09-10, and I doubt you would want anything like it - 10.7" of 4:1 mashed potatoes, in globs so wet they did not accumulate on even the thickest branches but merely spattered to the ground. And that stuff was followed immediately by 1.1" of 34-35° RA (during NYC's snowicane - so I DID compare there) that turned the mess into 7" of 2.5-to-1 horror. And channeling Will, I was not comparing that storm to Baltimore, but with how close it was to what had occurred 41 years earlier. Exact same dates, another 4-day (plus) storm, but 3-5° lower temps during the earlier event meant 40"+ powder. Doubt we'll see another retro-bomb as strong and persistent, and 6 of the following 9 winters have brought 100" or more.

12z GFS op has 1.4"-2"+ AUG-HUL, peaking at MLT. Yesterday it was in the .1-.2 range. We'll see if the Goofus incredible shrinking qpf kicks in before tomorrow night.

September has the lowest median rainfall here at 2.98", though the average of 3.67" trails JFM for driest. The average is skewed by 1999, with 4" on 10-11 then nearly 6" from Floyd the next week.

That was a weird event, a significant snowstorm on March 6-7 (14.5" here, 8.7" at CAR with temp 11/7) then after lollygagging in the Gulf of St. Lawrence a while, a weakened version started backing up. CAR got 2.4" on the 10th with temps rising to 30 then light RA on the 11th with temps into the low 40s. At my place the retro snow came on the 11th (3.3") and wet 40s on the 12th. At CON there was 20s SN (2.7") 11th-12th then the warming on the 13th. Then the 15-16th brought 5" to CON, 10" to CAR and 14" at my place with some serious blowing snow on the 16th. That was it for snow that season. Last 3 days have had temps 64/44, 68/43, 70/39, average is 67/42 which is -7.5. Equally AN would be 82/57, warm but nothing out of the ordinary. Today will be a tad milder, maybe 73/42.

Last 4 Septembers have averaged about +2 here. Given discussions and models, I think 2019 will fit the pattern. And I expect plenty of sun. This summer has had the highest sunny day share of any of my 22 here, and September on average is my sunniest month. Would be nice if those 2 stats worked together.

The map doesn't extend to northern Maine, and I'd offer that "most" prize to CAR. It wasn't their least snowy winter, just 3rd worst and lowest since 1961-62, but the clincher to me is that they had 7" less than BWI. Next closest those two got was 95-96 when BWI had 57% of CAR's snowfall, compared to 110% in 09-10. Then there's temperatures - JFM averaged 24.98, which is 3.67° above 2nd mildest. To get 3.67° less mild than #2 takes one all the way to 20th mildest. Don't know how many SDs above the rest that JFM 2010 sits, but it's quite the span.

Killed by the sharp cutoff - forecast was 10-16, we had 4.5", and only lost power for about 2 hours. Might've been 2 days or 2 weeks had the forecast verified high end. Farmington reported 8.0", their largest Oct. snowfall on record. I saw about 8" that Sunday morning at 750' on Weeks Mills Road, but the Farmington co-op is at 420', only 25' higher than my place, so it was surprising they had nearly twice our total. 25 miles SSW from that co-op, Hartford (765') had 14". That cold season's biggest snow came on Nov. 23, with 9.7" and nearly half came during the 3 hours I was looking for deer that morning.

I don't think so - no new lesions or fruiting bodies visible. Looks like that tree had some early issues with wet snow and/or ice, but was able to grow out of it.

If you do any clearing near that tree, be super carful not to cause any damage to it. The blight is out there and I've been disappointed by minor wounds leading to blight numerous times.

Fri-Sat-Sun had highs 69/64/68, the cooler Sat max due to considerable clouds while Sunday had almost none. Low near 40 this morning.

Definitely not black cherry - too wide and too glossy. One test for the cherry genus is to scrape some bark and sniff for "bitter almond". The bottom 2 pics look something like glossy buckthorn (which despite the name has no thorns) but the little points on the leaves in the top 2 don't match as well. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Have you seen any berries or such? The buckthorns have small berries that run from dark green to red to almost black. That chestnut is larger than some (blighted and gone now) from which I've picked nuts, but those were getting more sun than yours appears to get. Since chestnuts are monoecious, both male and female trees would need to flower in order to get nuts, though a lone female will produce sterile husks.

Near 40 this morning. Saw HIE hit 34 - probably some scattered frost in the usual NNE/'Dacks locations. Not terribly uncommon for late August.