tamarack

"Old Sam Peabody" (Sometimes more than one "Peabody") Good streaming movie. The green movement is pissed at Moore. Ironic Have not seen it (haven't entered the streaming world) but read a very critical review - on a forestry and forest products site, not an environmentalist one. The review took Moore to task for basing his economic critique of wind and solar on old technology, ignoring for instance that solar had become far more efficient and less costly since the examples he used. (From 2008 IIRC) Another point in the review is that Moore assumed no environmentalists considered the costs (dollars and carbon) of making/building wind turbines and solar panels when they (the enviros) pushed for more use. There were many other examples of that that reviewer considered as bad journalism - made it seem like Moore had made up his mind on these issues and then scratched around trying to find supportive examples without considering whether they were valid examples.

GYX is in full retreat mode - P&C offers my area <1". At this rate we won't even see enough white stuff to lighten (briefly) the color of the grass. AWT

My average temp for May 9 is 50 (63/37) and for the month of January it's 15. With models showing H8s below -5C, having H8s at -25C (Maybe the -30s due to winter's generally greater anomalies) with long nights and calm air, my frost pocket site might be on the cold side of -40. Fake cold for sure, but tell that to a car battery.

Maybe like 2 weeks earlier when during the 24 hr prior to storm arrival the forecast here slid from 5 to 4 to 2, and verified as T.

Farmington had 8.4" on 5/11/45, a 9.0" storm on 10-11. Then 18 years later on the 11th their 2nd biggest May event dropped 7".

AUG/WVL/Skowhegan jack - 6-8" of paste, maybe 7:1 stuff, only 3-4" of 5:1 mush for LEW but only if the heaviest comes at night. Reality says we'll get about what we did from last week's 2-5" forecast, a few flakes after most precip was done.

They haven't even come out to check the menu here, though the cluster flies and some midges are out feeding the birds. Week after next for blackfly bites in my area.

That describes 1999 (killed my freshly planted Reliant peach tree) and 2010 (killed new shoots of ash, oak and some maple, plus all the blossoms on our apple trees.) Highly doubt it will happen this year, as the BN April is far different from April 2010 (+5) and early May '10 had 2 days at 81. (Then 5/11 dawned at 22° - disastah!) Yesterday's 69 was just about perfect, and the only green is on the willows, though buds have broken on hophornbeam and cherry, and red maple is in full flower.

22" and 9+ pounds - that's a really fat fish! (Though the estimator equation - length*girth*girth divided by 800 - works out to 9.9 lb.) Many years ago (the year Lauri Rapala's lures became widely available in the US) I caught a non-skinny 22" largemouth that weighed 5 1/8 pounds from the nearby NNJ lake.

April numbers Mean: 37.75 2.3 BN, 1st BN month since Nov. Avg hi: 48.6 3.1 BN, Highest: 60 on 4/27 Avg lo: 26.9 1.5 BN, Lowest: 18 on 4.21, also 4 mornings at 19 Precip: 6.16" 1.67" AN Wettest day: 1.19" on 4/13. 4?2-3 had 1.94" Snow: 8.6" 3.3" AN Snowiest day: 4.8" on 4/9. The 4/9-10 storm was 8.5", 4th greatest April snow in our 22 years here. Pack: 21" on 2/19 was the deepest. Mean for deepest pack is 29"

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.