tamarack

Was forest management (especially fuel management or lack of same), considered by this study as a possible contributing factor for the massive increase in burn area? Perhaps it's not a major factor, but I hope it was part of the data that was used. (Would read the link but I'm headed home.)

The Octobomb blew the doors off for magnitude of October snowfall, but the frequency hasn't necessarily been that much greater. Using the local long-term co-op, 28 of 126 Octobers have recorded 1"+ snow, or 22%, but only 1 of the first 17 years tallied. Since then it's been about 25%. The co-op will have zero to trace this month, giving them 5 of 20 (plus a 0.5") for 2000 on. That's right on the average. October snow years have come in bunches throughout the record: 3-of-5 for 1922-26 and 1930-34, 4-of-6 in1950-55, 5-of-9 during 1961-69 including the 2nd/3rd/4th (tied with 2000) snowiest Octobers. (Tops is 8.0" ion 2011.) Other locations may show a different pattern - CAR has had 29 Octobers in 79 years with 1"+ but 9-of-19 for 2000 on, clearly more frequent. For the equivalent 19-year span 1958-76, it was 10-of-19 and included their 2 snowiest (62 & 63.)

More like 4° (I'm at 44.67N) but yeah.

Or on our front porch. We have sizable web-spinning spiders in great numbers, and some huge wolf spiders (think a grape with legs) but those use ambushes rather than webs.

The 1994 thaw lasted no more than 24 hours here, but it was remarkable for wild temp swings and powerful winds - best shown by the last 6 days of January at CAR: Jan. 26 -13 -32 0 0 35 (Tied with 1/14/57 for CAR's 2nd coldest daily mean) Jan. 27 5 -23 0 0 34 Jan. 28 45 -1 .69 3.3 34 (Probably a noontime obs, before the SE gales fully arrived.) Jan. 29 43 -3 .05 0.3 25 Jan. 30 -2 -20 0 0 25 Jan. 31 4 -29 0 0 25 Even wind chill watches/warnings in MT, WY, and CO...this is freaking nuts. Wind chills as low as -30. WTF is going on About what we had last T-Day, low was -3 and aft. high was 9, with winds 25G35+ all day. That's 11/22 not 10/30 but it's also at 400' elev not 4,000+.

However, on 9/30/91 locations from PQI and points north recorded 2-5". Ironic, because 5 years earlier (9/30/86) brought the largest convective-caused blowdown I've seen in my 46 years in Maine, 600 acres in T16R6 and T16R5, ending by tossing spruce into the NW end of Square Lake. (The Telos blowdown in October of either 1979 or 1980 was 3,000 acres of flattened spruce that from the air looked like an August oat field squashed by a thunderstorm. However, that was a synoptic system, SE gale.) sadly no older folks mentioned the desert dry of '65 Driest year on record for 6 states - DE, PA, NJ, CT, RI, MA. Skipped NY because of a drier year in the less wet western counties, but NYC's 26.09" in 1965 is nearly 7" less than their #2 driest, which was the year before. 1963 comes in at 4th driest but only a 4" RA in early November kept them from the #2 slot. And 1966 was running only 0.7" less dry than '65 thru August. ('66 remains NYC's driest met summer and is 2nd only to 2010 for hottest.) Then 9/21/66 recorded 5.54" and the drought was broken, though only the following months' being near/above norms confirmed the end. Wx trivia: Some locales in western VA got more RA in 5 hours from Camille's remnants than NYC had for all of 1965.

Has not been a great sign here, but sss. We've had November events greater than 3" in 6 of 21 snow seasons, 02, 05, 09, 11, 14, 18. Those 6 included 2 AN, 3 BN, one ratter (05-06) with the 6-year average at 87% of that for all 21 while the other 15 average 105%. (79" vs. 96") Further limiting that small sample to events of 6"+ drops 05 and 09 and leaves the other 4 at 99% of the overall. Looks like a pretty weak indicator at best.

Had 1.03" thru 7 this morning, pushing October precip over 7". Still awaiting our first max in the 40s. Have recorded 4 highs of 50 and another 4 of 51, then yesterday topped out at 39.

March 1956 thru February 1961 in NNJ was my all-time tops for big snowstorms. Even the far snowier Fort Kent couldn't touch it for blockbusters. And it's natural for March to be more of a winter month than spring the farther north one lives. We carry continuous snow cover into April about 60% of snow seasons, and 20"+ on April 1 in about 1/3.

Saw some tiny snow grains last evening, even with temp near 40 - low RH so they probably survived by subliming vapor on the way down.

My max that day was 11, one degree below the coldest max I recorded in Fort Kent and 10° below any at my current locale. And that was set at 9:01 the previous evening; the afternoon high was 9° - had a 9° afternoon high in Nov once in FK but there was no wind and hunting was good. Much nicer than last T-day, when I didn't pick up the rifle. GFS looks chilly next week, at last on the recent run. Will likely change between now and then, maybe 3-4 times.

Fraid not - there's lots of dark-colored beetles around. Even seeing a pic might not help, though that might identify insect family and potential effects of the critter. As for the dug-out nest, bee/wasp larvae are a high protein snack attractive to all sorts of animals - skunks, coons, bears, even foxes or coyotes though I'd go with one of the first three ahead of the canids.

Had 15.8" in Gardiner, 3rd biggest of my 13 winters there. #1 came 11 week earlier, 17.5" on Dec 20-21. My top 5/top 10 entries that come from my Gardiner time don't involve snow. (Other than its contribution to the 1987 flood)

Much prefer the NNE mix: Little hurricanes, little tornados, little earthquakes, big snowstorms. Edit: Add to the above the "asbestos forest".

Not just the southern (assuming that means MA and perhaps SNE) but NNE as well. Farmington co-op reached 40" depth on Jan. 13 despite whiffing on the blizz. Then 3 torch-deluges (totaled 4" RA at temps 47-53) crushed the pack down to 8", by far the co-op's greatest January loss of snowpack. Feb. snows brought the depth to 21" before late month thaws pushed it back to 7", then a cold snowy week-plus in March grew the pack to 23". Two weeks later it was gone, just traces, and the 20" of April snow lasted but a day or two. 11/23/89 4" of snow at my parents house in Bayside. I drove to my friends house in Dix Hills for Thanksgiving dinner and right into the storm. Near zero visibility and heavy snow. My car nearly went off the road. Only flurries that day south of Augusta, though I tagged a deer that morning. Much preferred the thunderblizzard two days earlier, which ushered in nearly 6 weeks of continuous BN temps with several 10-11" snowfalls.. Extremely late snowfall in May of 1996. Snow on 5/12/96 in New York State and Vermont. Co-worker living at 1200' in Frenchville had 36 hours of continuous snowfall that weekend, top depth reaching 12". 30 miles SE and almost 600' lower, CAR recorded 5.7".

While some grass was showing then, I'd guess the "green" was leftovers from autumn, not spring green-up. Probably lots of piles still around as you drove by. Farmington co-op, located along Rt 4/27 about 1.5 miles north of town center, had 7" depth on 4/17 and only a trace on the 18th, despite that day's 37/36 temp and only 0.25" RA. To me, that's far too little RA/warmth to eat 7" of snow, even ripe 2:1 stuff. At my pack-holding location, 4/17 had 15" (at my 9 PM obs time - don't know when the co-op measures) and then decreased 2-3" per day to reach "trace" on 4/23. Had 3" the evening before.

That mid-April event dropped 5" snow at my place and 5" cold rain. Hope I never see another such pair of 5s. Sugarloaf summit probably got 4-5 feet, maybe more. Brought the month up to 37.2", and the 36.1" at the Farmington co-op was 12" above its next snowiest April since 1893. My #2 April here is 15.6" in 2011, and even my Fort Kent records top out at 29" in 1982.

April and May were nice, but JFM had way BN sun, 140% of avg precip and 60% snowfall - no way to run a NNE winter. Were you around to see Olympia snow woman in Bethel? Only on TV.

Maine's #1 must be 2010, the winter eaten by the New Year's retro-bomb. #2 might be the 1998 super Nino. 2012 obliterated some daily records and featured the 3 warmest March maxima in Farmington's 125-year POR. However, 2010 "wins" because those months had almost no BN temps at all, until the 2nd week of May when all our apple blossoms got freeze-killed, along with ash, birch and some maple shoots.

There's Fixer-Upper, Homestead Rescue, Maine Cabin Masters - why not Lawn Rescue, and we know where the pilot should be filmed.

The above guess was way conservative - found 1.18" in the gauge that evening for a 2.23" total. Merely October doing its thing - month total now 6.19", a half inch above the average and maybe another inch to add. Average temp now 1.5° BN but sliding up toward normal.

Some NNJ memories triggered by 4,5,6: 4. Our scout troop (I was asst. scoutmaster) got caught at Allamuchy Scout Reservation that Sunday morning, and we had an interesting (but safe) 35 mile drive home. My '62 Beetle had no problem at all. 5. Had a high of about 4° that day with a stiff breeze. We were framing a new house, usually a well-warming exercise, but we were hard put to keep hands and feet fully operational. (Not as uncomfortable as 5 years earlier, 12/31/62, when the same 4° max was accompanied by gusts well into the 60s - speed estimated, but backed up by all the damage.) 6. 18" at low teens overnight, starting to taper off as we headed into the woods for the deer season opener. My dad dropped a nice little buck a couple hundred yards from the house while my friend and I saw nothing while slogging a mile or so thru the powder. Dad gave me a knife and showed me how to field dress a deer - came in handy 8 years later when I took my 1st deer, with no one else nearby.

Dumped 1.05" at 6:30 when I left for Orono, guessing another 1/2" after. Caught up to the heavy RA (and heavy traffic) about 10 miles south of BGR - a rain/spray white-out at times.

Not exactly a ski area here, at under 400' elevation, and Feb is easily our snowiest month. On a per-day average, Feb has 0.82", which is 28% higher than #2 Jan, 0.64".

October is our wettest month (5.62") on average, and we're just under 4" at present - looks like we'll be close to the mark. Had to challenge last Thursday's storm with the forest certification auditors, and tomorrow morning I need to be in Orono by about 8:20 - might keep me under the heaviest band all the way.