tamarack

Number 2 here since moving in May 1998; as March 2010 was 0.64° milder. At Farmington 2012 is #6, but trails only 2010 (0.98° milder) since the obs site was moved out of the built-up area of town in 1966. Snow at the stake down to 13" this morning as yesterday's dry and mostly cloudy 40s couldn't touch the armorplate. We'll have a snowy lawn at the equinox, but barring some cold and/or snow this month will be the 7th March of 22 in which continuous snow cover failed to last into April.

I'd call the eastern Aroostook terrain gently rolling rather than flat - flat is what I saw when the grandkids lived in DEC. Once one gets 20 miles N and W from Baxter Park, the hills in NW Aroostook top out at about 2,000' and the general elevations outside the river valleys are 1,000+. However, even those hills manufacture some snow. In 1976-77 when I recorded atleast "T" for snow on 82 of 90 days in DJF, I think Rocky Mt - 10-12 miles NW from Allagash Village - had at least some accum on every day I was there checking the loggers, which I did about 3 days/week. Probably 250"+ there that snow season, compared to the 186.7" I measured in Fort Kent. A few years later (Dec 1983) I had a messy SN+ to RA to SN dump 12" on Dec 5-6 and the Rocky area had 18"+ of clingy SN that led to major windthrow losses. Then the mod/hvy ZR on 15-16, which produced a 3" crust with 1.90" LE at home, brought 10-12" of SN/IP at 1,400' near Rocky Mt. That was the winter when we couldn't do boundary maintenance because all the blazes were under the snow. I've seen budding trees. Male quaking aspen buds usually begin to swell in Feb, red maples a month later. Those species seem about in line with the averages. The geese did return to Belgrade Stream near the bridge on Rt 27 on 3/9 compared to 3/20 last year. The average lies between those 2 dates.

Only Maine data I've found for that event was for Gardiner, which reported 8" with temps 38/32 - pasty mess. Nearest megadump was ASH with 30" (20/8/2 on 12/13/14), most at mid-upper 20s but got down to 19 on 3/13.

Totally missed that Was shoveling snow in NNJ then.

lol. My memory of March 1988 is marking timber for harvest on a public lot 25 miles west from PQI on the 21st and 22nd. On the 21st CAR's max was 12 and on T12R6 I doubt it reached 10, plus the wind was roaring, gusting well into the 40s. Not exactly spring wx, even in Aroostook. Fortunately the snowshoeing was good and there was no loose snow to blow around, but one had to be less than 3' from a chosen tree to be able to hit it with the paint gun (and not get sprinkled too much oneself.) Next day all was calm, temps climbed to upper 20s and we marked about 400 acres while covering 10-15 miles on the racquets.

Aroostook (The County" is 6,400 square miles, larger than CT+RI, and any area of that size will have many characteristics. My impressions, from living there 10 years and many subsequent work visits: South, basically S and E of I-95: Resembles Downeast Maine - soils, topography, timber types - more than it does the rest of Aroostook. East, the US 1 corridor and nearby: Midwest vibe, due the high proportion of farmland. Potatoes are no longer king (still crown prince) with increasing acres in broccoli and other crucifers, and small grains. Best place in Maine, perhaps the Northeast, to experience ground blizzard whiteouts. North/Northeast, the St. John Valley: Francophone country, with many/most having French (North American version, sneered at by Parisians) as their first language. Allagash Village is the exception, as it was settled by Scotch/Irish folks who had previously emigrated to Nova Scotia. Very picturesque mix of farms and forest. West/Northwest: 4 million acres of commercial forest and unspoiled lakes/streams, probably the largest private (mostly) tract of forest land w/o public roads in the lower 48. One of very few places in the L-48 which can host a 250-mile dogsled race.

Another sign of coming spring - yesterday there were about 50 geese on Belgrade Stream at the Rt 27 bridge. Since those birds invest several hundred miles of effort on the chance that their destination will be ready for them, they can't afford to be wrong. I think their arrival is about a week earlier than usual. Edit: Checked back and found that last year's goose-arrival notice came on 3/20, the later date unsurprising as DJF were all about 2° BN and March was running about -6 thru that date. This season Dec was about average, Jan +5, Feb +1.4 and March to date +6.5.

69 at PWM, 22 at FVE - Marching on.

My 57.8" to date is 16.1" BN, 78% of average, and unless the late week storm turns colder, we'll be close to 2' BN before expecting any more.

I'll take the under - AN temps but comfortably below 2010 and 2012. More meh than super torch, and for DJF, "meh" has been the name of wx around here - why not one more? Beats ratter, but not by much.

Sounds about right. CAR is 115% YTD snow and I'm closer to 80%. They've had several events 12"+ including one 18" and tops here is 7. Not awful, just meh-minus.

All the Northeast data I've looked at show a greater rise in minima than in maxima, which would appear to fit with an increase in cloudiness.

45 and 46 fit between 2010 and 12 at Farmington co-op. Top 6 (and only ones 36°+) at the co-op: 1903 37.61 (Includes 79° on the 20th, only top 5 warm day not in 2012.) 1902 37.44 2010 37.24 1945 37.16 1946 36.71 2012 36.26 Worth noting that the co-op site was in the most developed parts of town 1893 thru mid-1966, then was moved about 1.5 miles north to a more rural location. Farmington's UHI impact must be tiny, but the numbers indicate it's there. One example: Of the co-op's 14 triple digit highs, only Hot Saturday in 1975 came at the current site. March 2010 at my place maxed out at 80 with a low of -10. That 90° span is tops for any month I've recorded anywhere, going back to NNJ. Closest is Jan. 1979 in Fort Kent with 40/-47.

Or #3. In our area 2010 was milder, by 0.98° at the Farmington co-op. That co-op reached 83 in 2012 and only 66 in 2010, but also dropped to-2 in '12 and only to 11 two years earlier. 2010 had no afternoons cooler than 36 while 2012 had 5 days with max 32 or lower. I had 14.6" snow in 2012, only 0.6" in 2010. That's my lowest for any of the snowy months (DJFM) in my 47 Maine winters. Except for the impact on the loggers, I'd take another sunny and warm 2012 long before repeating cloudy and wet 2010.

Agreed. Driving while high can't be good though I don't know if studies have been made on comparative impairment of weed and alcohol. Unfortunately, objective measures of MJ impairment are much harder to obtain than a breathalyzer, but with increasing legalization such research should quickly follow (assuming the Feds will lift the MJ research ban.) From a personal viewpoint, I've seen what alcohol and tobacco has done to family and wish that recreational use of each (and weed) were not part of the culture. But of course that ship has sailed.

57058 for NYC metro was much AN: NYC Oak Ridge Reservoir (35 miles NW from NYC) DEC 8.7 14.0 JAN 9.2 6.9 FEB 10.7 25.5 Cold storm of 16-17: 7.9" NYC, 19.0" Oak R MAR 15.9 42.0 Paste bomb 20-21: 11.8" NYC, 28.0" Oak R (Pastie on the 14th: 4.1 and 13.0 respectively) APR 0.2 4.5 TOT 44.7 92.9 % Avg 155% 215% 3rd of 63 Rank 27th of 151 (and easily tops for the futile '50s; only 55-56 had more than half as much.) Had some family drama resulting from the equinoctial storm, but that's another story.

I don't have the stats, but damage in the worst places was consistent with 60s, maybe 70s, and it was dozens of gusts over that 20-30 minutes rather than a handful in a typical microburst. That storm also was the 2nd 2"+ rain event in 4 days, so soils were soggy. (And not to downplay microbursts - in Sept 1986 one flattened 600 acres between Eagle and Square Lakes, 10-15 miles south of Fort Kent, a patch 4 miles long and up to half a mile wide. Snapped large perfectly sound sugar maples, gusts so strong that trunks broke before roots could be uprooted - probably in the 100 neighborhood.)

October 30, 2017. More CMP customers lost power than in the 1998 ice storm, though restoration in 2017 took days rather than 1998's weeks as infrastructure damage was less catastrophic. Our agency salvaged about a half million board feet of high quality white pine at Bradley (NE from BGR) and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife salvaged 2 million BF from Swan Island, in the Kennebec 15 miles downriver from AUG. Though the storm lasted nearly 24 hours, damage in most places occurred during a 20-30 minute period of intense winds (different times at different places.) I was driving to work when that blast went thru Belgrade Village, and though damage was light there compared to other places, I had to dodge a large red maple in the road, also a studded wall blown from an in-progress addition.

I think the mix on highways is 16:1, enough salt to encourage melting if temps aren't too cold. On the logging roads it's 50:1, just enough to keep the sand from freezing, as melting is undesirable. Only used on hills and bad curves; the straight and level is for hauling fast and heavy.

Dixmont hills are indeed snow catchers, and other things as well. In March 1984 the communications towers atop the hill collected 4-6" of ice and many didn't survive. I think that area also affects the 160s section of I-95 where so many crashes occur. As for sand vs all salt, if I'm driving during the storm I prefer sand - the liquid salt just makes things more slippery. If I'm coming 12+ hours after final flakes, the salted road is apt to be a lot nicer.

Our NNJ school also let us out at noon, with 7-8" of fluff at mid-teens, first big snow I'd seen at sub-20 temps, 18" total. Then Dec 11-12 brought another 18" at low teens and the JFK inaugural storm 20" at near 10. The capper, 24"+ on Feb 3-4, came with the more common mid-upper 20s along with monster winds. March 1960 was the only time I saw our larger lake re-freeze in March after a Feb ice out (and probably to safe thickness though the "safe ice" red ball flag wasn't re-raised.) Snowfall this March remains an unknown, but I highly doubt there will be any cold to match 3/60 - maybe a cold day or 2 (1st-2nd were 5° BN) but not the extended bunches of 10-15° BN of that March.

Good move. NW Cumberland is radically different from the PWM area. Numbers for Meh-bruary 2020 Avg max 30.4 +1.3 Mildest: 49 on the 24h/. Coldest max: 14 in the snow on the 18th Avg min: 7.5 +1.5 Coldest: -28 on the 15th, 2nd coldest Feb morning here. Mildest min: 27 on the 25th-26th Avg temp: 19.0 +1.4 Precip: 3.26" +0.19" Biggest day: 1.42" of "stuff" on the 27th. Snowfall: 17.9" -5.1" Biggest storm: 5.5" on 18-19. Avg snowpack: 16.3" -3.2" Peaked at 21" on the 19th. Not terrible but nothing memorable except perhaps that -28, though it was fake cold.

Should see some snow in the hills between Newport and BGR. That area (160s mile markers), always catches snow, also unwary drivers. It's Maine's I-95 version of the Mt. Tolland Triangle on I-84.

One of only 4 events in 22 winters here to reach blizzard criteria, this time for 5-6 hours, and though it was all snow with temps +/- 20°, its 2.12" LE resulted in only 15.5" - not often one sees 7:1 snow at those temps. Our Lab-mix rescue from TX had tolerated all the Feb snow in her first 2 weeks here, but was absolutely petrified on Pi day a month later. A repeat would make this a plus winter even if we fall short of climo snowfall.

We've had some very cold mornings this month, but only because our frost pocket site radiates well. But our coldest afternoon has been around 10° and most winters have some close to or below zero. OUr longest run of days with max 32 or lower is 7 while most winters have streaks of 10-20+.