tamarack

Still hanging around 30° under the clouds in Augusta. Spring sun working on last evening's 2" of fluff but it's slow going so far. Sun comes out for 30 minutes and it's gone.

Drove thru moderate snow- lovely parachutes - for the 1st half of my homeward commute yesterday afternoon, with rate decreasing from Belgrade Village northward as my area was on the western edge of that inverted trough. Measured an inch of 11:1 fluff but saw 3"+ near the Augusta-Sidney line. A "no-fault" event, sugared up the trees nicely while little or no stuck on roads. (Unfortunately our gravel road had the previous day's white concrete plowed, with a pickup rather than the bigger unit so the grader effect was less, but stuff cascading from both ends of the narrower plow left foot-high snow chunks (rock solid this morning) in the travel portion.

3.0" of 4:1 stuff and 32° with SN- at 6:30 this morning. Some nice parachutes 4-5 yesterday aft, then rimey snow that was more rime than flake - bounced like small IP but opaque with irregular shapes. Back to SN- before dawn. TS apparently died before getting this far east.

Snowfall now almost to moderate, nice parachutes, ground/snowboard whitening a bit. The really good echoes appear to have moved past W.NH so precip will probably get lighter here in an hour or two.

Started as RA about 3, gradually switched to light SN, no IP noted yet. Not sticking (temps still mid 30s) but were it full dark I think it might accumulate.

Pretty much a whiff in Fort Kent, though the day had a flake or 2. Can't whine too much after getting 26.5" on 3/14-15. Though the biggest snowfall I've measured anywhere, it was odd in that winds were light and our barometer was 30.4 as snow began and never dropped below 30" throughout.

1984?

Pack will drop below 10" today after 82 consecutive days in double digits. Average run is 74 days, median 77. Tuesday's snow is gone but 10" of 2:1 crust melts a lot more slowly. South facing slopes in hardwoods have bare patches, aspens just need a couple more days in the 50s to break bud and extend the male catkins. May be a week or more after today before another 50 shows up. I’ve never seen vegetation like this so early. We're 10-14 days behind 2010, which set the standard here for early spring awakening. Also 10-14 days ahead of last year's cold spring. Edit: WS watch posted for Maine mts, might get a sloppy 2" here tomorrow night.

Search showed 12 May ice outs in 129 years, only one (5/2/2001) since 1972. March 27 is 4th earliest, behind 2010,2012, 2016 - this last the earliest at 3/18.

A bit cooler to the north - GYX closer to+3 (same at my place) and thru 3/25 CAR was about +0.7. For the majors? I believe so. Most Coops though are 7a-7a. Farmington has been both at differing times in its long POR, recent years using 12:01-11:59. I'd look at obs time temp for minima "twins" and cross check nearby majors (or known midnight-obs sites) to see if those had one cold night or 2.

Checking the ice on Flying Pond while driving home today. Hope it's safe for one last day of hardwater fishing tomorrow. Had 17" ice 2 weeks ago, but open water at the edges may make entry/exit a problem even as most ice is plenty safe.

We'll probably be back to the pre-storm 10" by this evening, but that's near-glacier in composition with 5"+ LE. Melting the 0.83" from the early week event was easy.

We get serenaded every year by at least one coyote family - pups singing high-end soprano in May, descending to near the adults' alto by September. Last June they were close enough that we could hear their footsteps rustling the leaves. Looks like things could get interesting here Sunday-Monday. Steve said "fir flattener" but I hope not. Had one of those 19 years ago in late March - 16" paste that left Christmas trees scattered about the ground. Maybe a quarter of the fir - most abundant tree on our woodlot - had their tops snapped off.

I'd have preferred the pack down, but my wife generally drives the Forester (shopping or taking older ladies to their medical appts) and the Ranger wasn't going up thru 10". When it's 5-6" powder, the snowblower stays parked, though the 3.5" of 3:1 "stuff" late last month brought it out from under the tarp before the mess had a chance to freeze. (Frozen hard, it then held me but I weigh a bit less than the pickup.) I like to get a good packed layer from the first storm or two to protect driveway, machine and nearby objects.

We've got lots of coyotes plus a few foxes, several species of owl, broadwing and other hawks, two types of weasel and some bobcats and fisher. However, about 99% of the acreage around here is excellent small rodent habitat with lots of shelter areas, so I think the predators eat well but don't have much impact on overall prey numbers. A cold and (near) snowless winter might change that temporarily, but I'd rather not see one.

Thanks. Read the article and it didn't change my thinking that there is no silver bullet. I mentioned the tube method mainly because of its DIY potential; I've made no attempt to employ it at my place in the woods. The small rodent population is massive here. Also, I wonder if results would've been different in our area, where chipmunks are present but not abundant and red-backed voles are much the most abundant small rodent. We also have several mouse species.

Fine for deer but small rodents (mice/voles)may be even more important as vectors and the spray may not be able to de-tick them. I've read that one can put "traps" around one's yard - edge of woods preferable. Those traps are homemade, using cotton batting (or dryer lint, cheaper) with permethrin mixed in, then stuffed into cardboard tubes - TP centers work well, or paper towel cores cut in 2-3 pieces. Placed under a board so not ruined by rain, the material is eagerly collected by the tiny furbies as tick-killer nest material. Need to place them at about 10-ft intervals, and check weekly to see if they've been emptied. Interior folks hitting their season averages. Would need another 20"+, not impossible but very unlikely.

I've attracted ticks in mid-late November while deer hunting, though usually with no snow on the ground, and it was last Oct 30 at the midcoast when I briefly hosted 26 of the little horrors including 3 of the tiny nymphs discovered that evening. Fortunately I've yet to provide a good drink for one of them, unlike yours which looked pretty engorged.

GFS bumped up qpf to 0.7-0.8" Monday afternoon, very close to what we got. (0.83" at my place) It was the ratios that won the day - 10-13 to1 while AFDs were talking 6-8. The exceedingly rare Route 2 jack, the area's snow shield temporarily incapacitated.

Not an option for my 2WD Ranger and the small hill to get up the driveway. Unfortunately, starting from bare ground meant tossing some of the gravel into the lawn, just like in November.

Back 10-12 days when March temps were running +7 or more, I figured this would be one of the less common years when our snow cover failed to persist into April. Would need some 70s or a flooding warm rain for it to go that quickly now. Before this storm the pack was more than 50% liquid equivalent, much of it gray ice rather than ripe snow, so pretty durable.

10.3" from 0.83" LE, ratio 12.4 was about 50% above what was being discussed. Snow was just packy enough to sail a long way without clogging the chute. 21" at the stake, tied for season's tallest though by my 9 PM obs it will probably be 16-18. 1st warning-criteria overperformer (forecast was 4-7) since March 2018. The 12 events between the 2 overperformers had 5 verify and 7 underperform. Biggest spring snowfall since 2011.

Took away late week here but doubled qpf for tonight and a real oak-croaker next Monday.

I think GYX is in progress of upping the forecast totals, and only the "expected" amount has been revised, not the 90% and 10% maps. Maybe this belongs in the month of March thread, but GFS went nuts at 12z - doubled qpf for the current event (just catching up to other guidance) but also wiping out Thurs-Fri and crushing us next Monday (and if day 7 wasn't silly enough, another solid event at day 14.)

Thought of that and added that to my edit.