tamarack

Every day this month has been AN, making it 24 of the last 26 with the big rains of June 29-30 the only BN days in that stretch. July is running +3, with highs +0.6 and lows +5.5 - all warm but no big heat, max is 82 so far and only 28° total range for the month. June was just the opposite, ranging from 27 to 90, the greatest span for any met summer month here, 1998 on. Garden loves this July so far, more than adequate rain, warm days and mild nights with no blazing heat that sends the greens to seed.

We snuck up to within 5.5" of our average, thanks to 22" post-equinox, including the season's 2 biggest storms. Near 70 this AM, very mild for here. Only 7/19/2005 has recorded a 70+ minimum. The day before was 69, also 9/8/99. Nothing else above 68, and today's minimum will probably be about there. Pleasant atm with a breeze but a high launch point for this afternoon.

We got a sprinkle as the easterly cell died.

Could be. However, after posting "just about every TC" I recalled (helped by your post) two exceptions. Hugo and Katrina both were followed by humid wx and both passed to our west, though it was close with Hugo - its huge inland recurve brought it thru the W. Maine mts with gusts to 60+, amazing power for a once-TC that had traveled 1000+ miles over dirt. Our agency had loggers salvage over 1000 cords of blown down timber from that storm.

Just about every TC I've experienced has had CoC wx the day after - worked from Donna to the remains of Earl 50 years later. Not this time.

Sun briefly burned a hole thru the clouds about 10 AM but it's cloudy again, very humid but with a nice breeze that waited until after the RA to arrive. Some weak echoes showing up to my south, don't know if any will reach the gauge.

One day at 90 here, but at my transpirationally cooled site, 85 is the new 90 and we've cleared that 4 times, 87, 88(2) and 90, plus 4 more at 84. Without digging back thru my records, that might be the most since 2010 and we're just entering peak summer. Average temp clears 65° on July 9 and drops below that mark on August 9, peaking at just under 66° for July 22-29.

Radar looks pretty clen behind that band, but I don't know if you'll see much sun. If it burns thru, tropical dews ensue.

Band of moderate RA spent several hours overhead, had 1.48" at 7 AM. Temple cocorahs, 10 miles west, reported 0.37". Precip dropped to nothing about 7:20. No need to water the garden this weekend.

I've never personally seen a tree get struck (or anything else, for that matter.) My favorite strike, seen a couple months after the storm, was at the state lot in Topsham, on Pleasant Point between the Muddy River and Merrymeeting Bay. What had been a white pine 24" by 85' had become a 25' stub with a 45' treetop "planted" vertically about 4' away. The other 15' was widely distributed shards, some probably weighing over 100 lb. (12' long, 8" by 12" thick) That was in the mid-1990s and the shards are becoming compost, the treetop finishing its full descent to earth about ten years ago.

Congrats MPO?

Video wouldn't stream on my PC but the stills are impressive. Even worse is when a tree like that merely smolders, with little smoke, then bursts into flame a few days later when fanned by stiff CAA. Some significant forest fires have started that way.

Cleared off quickly after yesterday's TS and dropped the low here to mid 50s - the dews are just now rolling in. First "real" TS of the year, though the fairly frequent lightning never got closer than 2 miles. Probably half of the 0.47" RA came 5:10-5:15 PM, by far the highest rate I've seen for a while. My wife was driving home from Farmington during the heaviest and our Forester briefly hydroplaned, which was scary and led to her pulling over into the nearest safe place to wait out the RA++.

Just heard a strike that might have been within 3 miles, closest of the year, and unless the line suddenly parts like the Red Sea we should get a good show. Unplugging again...

Well, that "arm" dislocated at the elbow and we had 0.03", and a half hour of near-constant thunde0 (now fading to the SE), most to the south but some from the small piece that broke away and passed to the north. No strikes close enough to see the flash in daylight so I could count off the miles, so probably all 4+ miles distant. We'll see if our 2020 lightning shield can withstand the much bigger bunch coming from the NW. Edit: The warning area will probably extend to cover MBY, but right now there's a teeny bit of Franklin County in the "bird's mouth" between and outside of the now-connected warned areas, and our place is right in the middle of those 3 square miles.

That cell is growing a northerly arm - think it's time to shut down/unplug the computers. Would not like having to explain why I allowed the State laptop to get fried.

And I'm about 2 miles north of the smaller area's NE corner - BAU (though we'll probably get something from the north edge of that cell.)

Haven't seen that much purple on a radar scan since the August 2007 Rome defoliator. Just some rumbles here from a small but intense-looking cell, but the real action is up near the border country.

That "weakening line" died on our doorstep - not a drop, just the clouds to lower the chances of much RA later.

Weakening line of showers should go thru here in the next half hour, and trailing cloud debris won't help with destabilizing afterwards.

105 in Maine (Bridgton) and Vermont, for their hottest on record as well. That 1911 furnace had the benefit of modest (low 60s?) dews in NNE, judging by minima in the 60s and diurnal ranges 35+, except at ASH which had minima to mid-70s. Farmington co-op has touched triples just twice since 1911, reaching 100 in June 1944 and 101 on Hot Saturday in 1975. Has not topped 95 since 1995. (And I hope it doesn't this year, either.)

No sneaky qpf here for the late Feb event in 2010 - models were showing 3-4" several days prior to the first flakes/stuff, the only question was P-type. Verified at 3.81" here for the total event, 2.67" in 10.7" mush and 1.14" in cold RA. Maybe 5F away from duplicating what occurred on the same dates 41 years before. (Capping the winter's frustration.)

That Christmas night + storm is CAR's biggest at 33" and change. Same at Fort Kent where the co-op recorded 32". Eastern had a member from FK then and he measured 37". Given the one-a-day and seemingly lackadaisical reporting from the co-op, I think the higher number is more accurate.

2005-06 was my only winter in the past 50+ years that failed to produce a storm 6"+. It's a member of my bottom 5 Maine winters, with 1973-74, 1979-80, 2009-10 and 2015-16.

True. The Whites and Greens (and BTV) did a lot better than CAR's 71", their 4th lowest on record and 7" less than BWI.