tamarack

Here it's the week after. I've learned that putting out the tomatoes and peppers causes cloudy, cool and windy wx. The one year in Fort Kent that I chose to wait until June's 2nd Saturday, we had snow the following Monday. (Only a trace in the valley though it slightly whitened the grass, 1-2" above 1000'.)

It will slow down by a day - Farmington's 2 biggest May snowfalls came on the 11th - 1945 and 1963.

That's how I look at it here. After a mild 1st week temps have run close to -5 and Saturday's 60 ties 1976 and 78 (in Fort Kent) for coolest monthly max of my 48 Aprils in Maine. However, despite precip that will finish 40-50% AN (depends on when it starts tomorrow) we're BN for rainy days, tomorrow will make 9 days with measurable precip, average here is 11.4. Most days rated as "fair" or better, no half-weeks of misery mist, plus 4th largest April snowstorm in my 22 years here.

We had a trace and upper 30s RA. The New Year's retro-bomb that ate winter was still wrecking the wx here.

Some slushy flakes here 7-7:30 but only -RA since, temp 34-35. P&C from GYX thinks we might get an inch tonight but I'd be surprised. Had one verifying snowstorm this month, haven't had 2 in April since 2007, though this month ranks 3rd (of 22) for most April snowfall. Had 0.58" precip thru 7 bringing April total to 5.66"; will likely go over 6 by storm's end and maybe make a run at 7" by obs time Thursday evening.

Reached 60! First time this year, so now every Maine April (1973 on) has reached that mark on my thermometer. Gorgeous day heading into an "interesting" period.

Lost power at least 6 times (too many to remember) this cold season, starting with the gale last October when I had to cut my way thru a fallen tree to get to work and climaxing (so far) two weeks ago with our longest outage since the 1998 ice storm.

Bring it on. The tech will finish the hook-up and testing of our 13kw on-demand Generac this afternoon. (Though we may be too far north for the crusher.)

Congrats Phineas (whether he's in Randolph or western Maryland.)

Mother's Day weekend that year featured 2+ days of continuous snow in the St. John Valley. A co-worker from Frenchville (home is about 1100') had over a foot. CAR had 3-4".

My expertise in pruning of fruit trees is modest (understatement!) and totally absent for anything but apples. However, peach trees are generally quite vigorous so your plan may work well, though you may need to choose among multiple shoots originating from the cut. Maybe my experience with our best producing apple tree (Haralred) might be useful. It had a narrow V-shaped fork about 5 feet from the ground with both sides of equal diameter. Fearing a future disastrous split, I cut one fork 12-13 years ago when both were about 1.5" diameter. The scar is grown over and the tree is nicely shaped now. Edit: Checked all my Maine data, and if yesterday's 59 holds as April's mildest (models look like that will be the case) it will be the fist time since moving to Maine in January 1973 that April failed to reach 60. In 1976 and '78 the top was right at 60 - in Fort Kent.

Yup - 59/19 yesterday, likely April's mildest and unless Thursday AM is colder, would also tie for month's coldest. That’s a disaster I fear for peach and apple trees. Anyone know how to assess the risk of that? I’d consider covering my trees as they are still young Buds on our apples aren't even swelled that much, so they're safe. In one sense I'm happy for the cool spell - lowers the chances for a destructive May freeze, as happened in 1999 and especially 2010.

First 40° diurnal range of spring yesterday, 59/19. Looks like that will be the April max. First 21 Aprils here all reached at least 64. Wood frogs quacking in good order and a few peepers last night.

Another morning down near 20. Thurs-Sat minima were 19, 19, 22. Dry and cool, though this afternoon might empty the woods here of the last snow patches.

Had 6 consecutive months with over 8" snowfall for the first time in my 22 winters here. Too bad none of those months cracked 20" and the total is more than a foot less than the median. At least the April 9-10 dump brought the total to 90% of average so it wasn't really a ratter here.

I remember reading about the monster that hit eastern Newfoundland 4/1-2/2001, with St. John's getting something like 30 mm RA followed by 47 cm SN and winds over 100 kph. Had missionary friends over on the west side (Paradise, near Corner Brook) who got lots of wind but no snow. That storm had been progged to bury us before shunting off way east of where the models had it going 24 hours earlier. Would've been interesting, as we'd had a 19" dump on 3/30-31 that brought the pack up to 48".

Maybe, or maybe not. Norfolk, CT co-op is at 1340'. Maine has no co-ops that high (and little such terrain) until one gets into the western mountains. Snowfall comparisons for 1981-2010 Norfolk (1340) 79.1" Long Falls Dam (1161) 105.1" Eustis (1260) 122.8" Can't speak for similar elevation snowfall in VT/NH.

Nothing here on 5/18/02 but the Farmington co-op measured 3" on the 13th, their latest 1"+ on record. 6 miles east I had only 0.3" - had 5 times as much while tilling the garden on 5/7/76 (but that was Fort Kent.) I want to use my snowblower one last time.. next week might be interesting too! On May 18? Not even worth pulling cord this time of year unless there's 10" or more and one needs to go somewhere.

Surprised here, too, as there's not a cloud in the sky and temp may have dipped under 20, which couldn't have happened if we'd had much cloud.

A firewood poem includes this: "Ash wood green or ash wood dry, a king shall warm his slippers by." However I must demur on birch. Yellow birch is fine firewood but all the birches must be split to dry well as their bark is waterproof to an extent greater than any other species group. At the worst end of that spectrum is probably balsam poplar, also called balm of Gilead. As one fellow from Allagash once said in a discussion of burning unseasoned wood, "You couldn't afford the oil it would take to burn balm of Gilead!" I'm not familiar with the growth habits of black locust in its natural range, but in Maine it doesn't seem all that windfirm, which is a bit odd for such strong wood though sometimes the strength of root wood differs from that above ground. Working against its resistance to windthrow is its intolerance of shade. Like the far weaker and equally intolerant aspen, the live foliage tends to be concentrated near the top, so the sail area is all at the top of the mast, giving the wind more leverage.

Hickory and hophornbeam must be close and maybe Osage orange, though different sources show different relative BTU levels. Black locust offers rot resistance equal to cedar plus lots more strength. Not native to the Northeast but planted (and naturalized) in many places.

Except for last week's? Stayed 31-32 from when the snow pushed temps out of the upper 30s Thursday afternoon right thru the next morning when steady precip ended.

Here it's been mild mornings and mild cloudy or partly cloudy afternoons. Temp is running +1.1 thru yesterday, but -1 for maxima (and +3 for minima.) Mildest has been 54, same as last month's highest and 60s seem out of the question for the next 10 days at least. At least the precipitation has come in discrete events rather than days and days of mank and muck - 3 storms for 4.66", over 250% of average MTD.

Same here, though we were antsy after last week's outage. However, we're fairly protected from SE winds by the Kennebec Highlands. 1.2" warm RA took all the snow, Sandy R. is at 14,600, slightly higher than from the 2" event early month, and the Kennebec in AUG was slightly above flood so the parking lots get at least a partial washing.

Yup. Hit right in the forecast range (8-12), first April WSW forecast to verify since 2011 (though there's been at most a half dozen 2011 on, and getting big April snow is usually a no-margin scenario.)