tamarack

My dad hated cats. He also wasn't much for restaurant dinners; most such excursions involved the Essex County branch of the family and were in their neighborhood. From our home in Morris County, Bergen seemed about the same distance away as the like-named city in Norway. A little more dewey out ahead of the front that sweeps thru over the next day or so, 75/65°F. Temps at or below yesterday at this hour, but dews are sneaking in from the SW. Noon TDs: LEW: 67 AUG: 62 WVL: 58 BGR: 53

Had no clue. Search engine turned up a couple references to a now-closed CT steakhouse (the au jus?) and many more references to places in FL. I'm guessing your reference ain't for the Sunshine State. Given my residence location and those of family, I've not been very far off the interstates in CT, which generally means missing the good places.

Your local deerflies must've gone to bed already, or are a much different breed than ours, which treat DEET as salad dressing. (or au jus) Who is more childish, the one person who makes a passing comment on dews, or the 15 people who can't ignore the comment Posting science-based counter-evidence doesn't seem childish, though like anything one can take it too far.

Many of the grass species often used in the North are cool-season adapted, and will naturally become dormant in big heat/dryness then spring back to life when cooler wx returns. One can keep such grasses green throughout with abundant watering, but it's not the natural sequence for those species - more like using artificial lights to force your potted daffodils to bloom for the mid-March flower show.

Ours is set at 62 year-round in the main zone, but that doesn't mean much as it's less than 15' from the Jotul and in summer the furnace runs only for domestic hot water. Rear zone sometimes gets set at 65 in winter to lower the blanket load for my wife. Office has been 77-78 for the past 2 weeks, a bit stuffy at first but one adapts. Last year at this time it was 82-84 while the office across the hall was about 70 with the blower on constantly, and the staffer there put on extra clothes and still shivered. It's a century-old brick fortress and even the retro-fit of 12-14 years ago didn't solve everything. Improved my current office (in a framed 80-year-old addition) a bit - last pre-reno winter I was here (1995-96) temps at desk level ran 60-62, a bit chilly on the fingers, while at ankle height it was low 40s. Made me get up and walk more often - not a bad thing. Of course 2-3 days after a large snowfall, when hundreds of pounds of snow/ice slid off the slate roof some 25-30' higher than here and came thundering down atop the roof 6 feet above my head, I always wondered if the old framed roof would hold.

Don't think anyone was trying to claim that smoke never warrants an AQ alert, only that the initial alert that was posted here mentioned only ozone.

Warm farther east - CAR is about +4 and GYX +5 so far. I'm +1.3, but my records go back only to 1998, thus do not include the cooler 1980s that remain in the current 30-year norms. I'd guess the Farmington co-op is running about +3. However, except for last Fri-Sat, it's been the nicest AN July one could ask for.

So was I, thinking that dews must've been several ticks above 70 to allow such a warm minimum. Since I've lived in Maine (46 years) there have been two confirmed wolves killed, both 25-30 years ago. One was confirmed as a released captive animal, the other a wild critter from north of the St. Lawrence. As with the cougar reports, I await either roadkills or trailcam confirmation of anything beyond released animals or the odd migrant (like the roadkill cougar in CT.) The other potential cougar confirmation would be a large animal kill - deer or moose - with lots of its hair scratched off or fluffed up (to deter scavengers) and at least partially covered by leaves and/or duff. Until such time as that kind of evidence is presented, or of adults with young, I don't think there's breeding populations of either species in the area.

Current dews there are near 60, which in July probably doesn't fit either low or high. About the lowest dews as I can remember for an ozone alert.

Must be some cultural differences from deerflies in Maine. Sun with mid-80s or above generally drive the blackflies into the shade (June of 1996 was a horrible exception. At Deboullie Twp about 25 miles SW from Ft. Kent, I was getting pounded by blackflies while 500' from shore on Deboullie Pond while it was sunny low 90s. Two firsts there, getting bit that far out on the water, and at 90+.) Deerflies only buzz faster in the heat. I've had dozens to hundreds circling me and bouncing off my head on the summer's hottest days in the north woods. They were accompanied by as many or more "sweat lickers", similar size insects that are pesty but harmless. With buzzbombs all around, one cannot tell which ones have knives in their teeth. Another thing I've found is that deerflies home in on motion. I can be two steps from our porch and one has already found me, but if I stand still, they soon go away (mosquitos/blackflies do not, unfortunately.) Reminds me of the "Jurassic Park" version of T-Rex, and deerfly bites feel like their respective dental equipment might be similar, scaled for their size.

It's nice to have a bit of light remaining when I take the pup out for my 9 PM obs. Was especially welcomed last night, as coyotes had been singing quite near the house earlier, close enough that I could hear their paws on the leaves - probably within 20 yards though not visible due to screening undergrowth. Niot concerned about them attacking me, though I took my ironwood walking stick, but out dog is smaller than an adult coyote and there were at least two in that chorus. They were back within about 100 yards again this morning, parents and pups, as that species usually doesn't run in extended family packs like wolves. Anyway, I don't think it can actually be 105/75 here, do to the fact that by the time the atmosphere is arriving this far E it's heavily burdened with polyaromatic aerosols from continental exhausting ... Plus, being closer to sea-level, we have to heat the total column of the atmosphere...these factors mean that it takes more solar energy to get a parcel to that state than it does out near Chicago... even less so in western Kansas... In simple terms... there's an intuitive limit to the 'highest' ( I think ) . Probably correct, but August 2, 1975 must've been close with Logan registering 102/83, their highest minimum on record, by 2°. Seems like it would take a pretty tall dew to hold overnight temps that warm next to the bay.

No bears at my place, but the coyotes were close enough last evening for me to hear the pitter-patter of little feet on the leaves. With undergrowth in full leaf, visibility toward the sound was less than 30 feet and I'm guessing they were twice that far from the house. Then they sang again this morning from about 100 yards distance. But with mostly low dews, even the sunny skies hasn't been oppressive. Last 3 days were 75F, 77F, 80F---perfect. Here it was 75, 77, 77 with lows 50, 44, 49. Now 7 of 9 days this month sunny or mostly so - we'll pay in the coming weeks, but thanks for the CoC.

Got data? 80/50 here and quite nice. Today has been on the border between mostly sunny and partly cloudy, while 6 of the 1st 8 days this month have been mostly to completely sunny. Partly cloudy is the usual player for July-August - I've averaged just 4.3 days of sunny (which includes m.sunny in my data) in July and 20.5 PC days. This year's 6 is already tied for 4th most in 22 Julys. 11 is tops, in 2010, but that year (my hottest month here) had humidity. Would not mind breaking that sunny mark with some more low-dew warmth.

In 2004 and 2006 we spent a total of 3 mid-June weeks at GSP - daughter's wedding then 1st grandkid's arrival. More than enough; the wedding was scheduled for 6 PM to avoid midday heat (mid 90s that day, with a wicked TS 15 minutes before the ceremony) but it was still hot at 10 PM. Then 2 years later we had several days with upper 90s, 99 on the day my S-I-L and I chose to build a picnic table, out in the sun. Greenville is at 1,000', which helps even though winds were lacking, and dews topped out about 70 which is probably lower than Nashville's been getting, but a far cry from NNE.

Would GYX, or another source, have meta data for the Farmington co-op back thru its 1893 beginning of record. There's some 1890s heat of which I'm quite suspicious, also some 1940s mild minima that seem out to lunch. Addressing just the '90s, Farmington notched 8 days with triple-digit highs. Three of the four relatively close sites with records as old (or nearly so) all are jusually a bit hotter than Farmington post-1900 - WVL is usually the same or a bit cooler. Those 3, LEW, Gardiner and Bridgton, show a total of 2 triples, though the last doesn't have August 1893 when Farmington hit 102 and 100. Call it one apiece, which in comparison has Farmington's heat seem odd, and makes me wonder if the obs location was downtown amidst the masonry buildings. Farmington records also show its hottest daily mean (88.5) and daily minimum (78) on 9/23/1895. Other stations hit mid 90s but nowhere else among the above Maine sites had milder minima than 65 for Sept. 22,23,24. To me, that's not a location issue, just an error. (78 was also the max for 9/24/1895 - wonder if the morning min was missed/ignored/forgotten.)

My daily mean climbs over the 65° mark tomorrow (76/54), and remains there thru August 9 without ever quite reaching 66.00, though my records being "live" means that significant AN or BN runs near those beginning-end dates could cause them to move earlier or later. A hot stretch in late July could drag peak days above 66 as well.

Mid 40s at my place, making it 22 for 22 Julys with sub-50 minima. Also 4 years with upper 30s, lowest was 37 in 2007. July hasn't dropped below 41 since 2007.

1954 Cat 3 (Carol) 1954 Cat 2/3 (Edna Though Hazel went well inland, I think it produced Cat 1 winds in New England (BTV?) It had the strongest winds of the 3 at our NNJ home, one of only 2 times I saw houses pasted with chopped leaves. (And the 2nd was tender June leaves, not tough old October ones.)

Distant rumbles and 0.04" while points within 25 miles to south and north had an inch or more with svr warnings. We do fine with synoptic events but the convection-avoidance syndrome is still at work.

While listening to the TS line split and go around here, I played with Gardiner and Fort Kent. Taken chronologically: Fort Kent, 1976-77 thru 1984-85 Avg snow: 133.7" Nov. med.: 10.6" Nov. < med: 106.5" Nov. >=med: 155.4 Using both Oct & Nov brings the difference down to 40", but that still makes Novie snow a good sign there. Gardiner, 1985-86 thru 1997-98 Avg snow: 78.2" Nov. med.: 3.6" Nov < med: 84.7" Nov >=med.: 74.4" Adding October makes no difference. (Only 2 of 13 had measurable, anyway.) Maybe the more snow a place gets, the better a snowy November looks. (Or more likely, SSS.)

Doin' the 7-10 so far, warned storms N & S, probably less that 0.05" in 30 minutes here - probably doesn't define "torrential", but it did drop temps a dozen degrees. Closest lightning strike timed at just under 3 miles. Nothing particularly interesting behind this line, either, other than some very welcome CAA.

The adage works for me, which I found surprising, though the sample size is small - 21 winters. (Have not parsed Gardiner (13) or Ft Kent (9*). The * is because we moved north from BGR on New Year's Day. That season - 1975-76 - had AN snow for both NOV and winter, but I don't know a good way to determine medians which include a split season.) My median for NOV snowfall is 2.5". Though I've recorded measurable snow in 6 Octobers, in no case did that move O/N totals from below median to above, so that median is also 2.5". The 10 winters with NOV snow below median averaged 96.5" while the 11 at/above median averaged 85.8". The NOV median year came in 2012-13, which totaled 90.4", and switching that winter to the below-median group merely drops both groups' averages by half an inch.

Exceedingly well said, as others have already stated. What gets my goat is people who seem to spend their days searching for reasons to be offended. Earlier today I read a story (MSNBC? Can't recall) on the Betsy Ross flag, and within the story it was noted that ADL had classified nearly 200 symbols as racist or hatemongering, but had yet to receive a single complaint about that flag.

And since wild animals can be unpredictable (understatement!), "threat to cubs" can vary by situation. Many years ago in the north Maine woods, I walked up on a mama and 2 cubs 40-50 feet up 2 trees, noisily chomping beechnuts. I'd stopped immediately upon seeing them, in a less than desirable stance, and after 10 minutes attempted to very carefully sit down. Not carefully enough - mama caught the movement and came down out of her tree at top speed, such that I was confident that my only danger was if she chose the wrong path and trampled me on the way by. It was mid September and the cubs were 2nd year, 50-60 lb. That's about the time the cubs are left on their own as mama is about to start on her next litter. There was a good chance she never came back to look for them. Had they been 1st-year cubs, she might've acted differently.

Agreed, but with a major caveat: Having seen the effects of alcoholism on loved ones, I'd prefer that neither intoxicant be used recreationally. However, the first ship has long since sailed and the 2nd is making ready to leave port. Folks who say that marijuana isn't as bad/dangerous as alcohol make me think of someone saying that a bite from a copperhead is less dangerous than one from a large Eastern diamondback.