tamarack

Back in the cold 1960s my (future) boss at my 1st forestry job woke up on 6/17/64 to see 3" snow had fallen during the overnight, on the NW Maine border across from St.-Pamphile, PQ. No snow was reported at Clayton Lake, 25 miles to the SE, but they had temps 53/33 with 0.32" precip that day so maybe if the cookee had gone outside at 3 AM he'd have seen some flakes.

Unless my gauge holds a couple post-7 AM droplets. Lots of garden work for tomorrow, and hoping that the wind keeps the skeeters at bay (and that the deerflies haven't appeared in great numbers - would take a Cat 3 to beat them back.)

The "tiger mosquitos", big striped-body ones, on our Topsham lot fronting Merrymeeting Bay could sometimes be confused (the noise, anyway) with the Orions that used to fly out of Brunswick Naval Air Base, 5 miles away. And as much as I hate deerflies, greenheads are worse. Many decades back when my dad would take us fishing on Great Bay, out of Tuckerton, NJ, we'd always seem to be at the fish cleaning benches just when the sea breeze died, allowing those aerial sharks free rein. Slapping at them with hands covered in fish guts was quite entertaining. (Appropriate emoji for greenhead bites)

Seeing this sent me back to my records, and I found that Jan-Feb 2015 wasn't the slam dunk that I thought, though its 33 days is still longest. However, Jan 2-31, 2003 misses by just 3 days. Also, dendrite's post had coldest temps, which I'd mostly ignored (until now): Coldest morning: -36 on Jan 16, 2009 (Have reached the -30s 5x: -30 in Jan 2005, -36/-34 in Jan 2009, -31 in both Jan 2014 and Dec 2017.) Coldest mean: -16 (-1/-31) on Dec 29, 2017 Coldest max: -8 on Jan 15, 2004 (Afternoon of the 14th topped out at -11 but "only" -7 at my obs time the previous evening.)

1.87" as of 7 this morning, nearly all coming 1-8 PM yesterday - largest precip event since the 2.17" Grinch deluge last Dec. 21-22. June went from half average to 0.2" AN for the date. Have not seen a flash of lightning at home, or more than a few distant rumbles there, since last August.

High dews (65-70) over much of Vermont plus SW New Hampshire, but Maine south of MLT is 55-60 and has actually retreated 1-3° since 8 this morning. Light-mod RA in Augusta since about 1, perhaps 4-5 tenths so far with some nice echoes upstream.

Likewise about the stakes, though most of the plants remain too short to really need the support. Two weeks away from the garden so lots of work needed there.

When will my place have its first day averaging >65? Can we finish June with zero CDDs for the season to date? Lowest by 6/30 so far is 7, in the endless rains of 2009. That year had only 26 CDDs thru 7/31 before August came in AN and added 72 more.

Hit the fog wall immediately as I began to go down the SE side of Mile Hill this morning - there was none at home though hilltops were a bit obscured, none while climbing Mile Hill or on its little plateau, and by the time I'd reached Belgrade Village there was very little. It was just that one foggy mile or so. Looks like i may need to get into the garden and tie off some plants after this rain................ Would not mind about an inch, as I'm 1.5" BN for the month to date, and it's been dry since last Thursday. 2" - no thanks. (And we got out of SNJ just in time - serious flooding there from overnight downpours, including part of our usual I-295 route.)

Excellent non-action! Wardens and wildlife rehab folks get loads of new-born "faux-orphan" fawns this time of year from people who are unaware of deer behavior. Mama deer makes the near-scentless little critter(s) lie still while she's our refueling. Staying clear and checking later is exactly right.

Hope that's real and not another mirage. With the right management, snowmaking and customer base, that area's elevation and NW aspect could enable it to challenge K-Mart for longest season.

Some of that data is in my sig. I'll add that my least snowy 12-month period was Feb. 2006 thru Jan 2007 when just 26.9" fell. Ironically, the max 12-months began in March 2007 - from then thru Feb 2008 I measured 178.0". I also haven't tracked Holiday snows, though I'm confident I've never seen accumulating snow on all 3 in the same season. Biggest T-Day snowfall is probably the 3.7" in 2005, also noteworthy for the 2 cold-air tornados, EF-1 and EF-0 in Maine's midcoast during the storm. (I had had no idea such things were even possible.) Biggest for 12/25 was the 8.0" in 2017, also 8.0" in Fort Kent (storm of 25-27 totaled 16.5") though we had about 15" (plus first thundersnow of my experience) on 12/24/66 in NNJ with the finishing flakes after midnight - does that count? Biggest Easter snow was 3/29/70, another NNJ event, when we had 11" of mid-20s pow thru the middle of the day. This past winter's 162 consecutive days with 1"+ is 1st place by 20 days. Also had 1 day in Oct for 163 total, tops by 13. Without parsing 21 years' data, I know that the 33 consecutive sub-freezing days Jan 20-Feb 21, 2015 take the prize. The temp popped up to 35 on 2/22, probably above 32 for no more than a couple hours, and was followed by 9 more sub-freezing highs thru March 3. Except for 2/22, the highest temp 1/20 thru 3/3 was 29. For those 43 days (includes 2/22), average high was 19.3, low -7.0, avg 6.1, 10.5° BN. 29 of the 43 had subzero minima and another 5 hit zero or +1. Biggest snowfall by month: Also, in italics, biggest at Gardiner(G, 85-86 thru 97-98) and Ft. Kent(FK, 1/1/76 thru 84-85) OCT: 6.3", 29-30/2000 (29th max was 31, only sub-freezing in OCT) G: 1.8", 1988; FK: 4.0", 1981 NOV: 26-27, 2014 G: 8.5", 1989 (thunderblizzard); FK: 8.0", 1983 DEC: 24.0" 6-7/2003 G: 17.5", 1995; FK: 16.5", 1978 (8.0" on 25th) JAN: 20.0" 27-28/2015 G: 16.0", 1987 FK: 13.0", 1977 and 1978 FEB: 24.5" 22-23/2009 (max depth 49") G: 15.0", 1995; FK: 18.5", 1984 MAR: 19.9" 7-9, 2017 (Hon men: 19.0" 30-31/2001) G: 10.7", 1993 (the superstorm, 6:1 rimefest); FK: 26.5", 1984 (65" pack, about 16" SWE) APR: 18.5", 4-5/2007 G: 11.0", 1996 FK: 17.0", 1982 (With winds gusting 50+. CAR recorded 26.3") MAY: 0.3", 12-13/2002 (3.0" Farmington, latest 1"+ on record) G: Can't recall any. FK: 2.2", 1984 (Also 1.5" in 45 minutes on 5/7/76 as I tilled the garden) Fort Kent also had traces in June 1980, August 1983, and September 1977. The June/Sept events brought 1-2" above 1000' elev.) My average winter at Fort Kent had 134.3"; in Gardiner 79.2". Both numbers were significantly higher than those town's co-ops, which did one-a-day obs. FK obs are particularly ludicrous, with winter's average more than 20" less than at CAR despite a FK/CAR eyeball test indicates the opposite.

The MNAP guidebook control methods for common buckthorn are almost the same - only difference is that Garlon is not mentioned for foliar application, though it's there for cut-stump.

Looks like glossy buckthorn - its equally invasive exotic cousin has 4-petal flowers and yours has 5. Repeated pre-seed cutting can work, if you get it all and do it for at least 3 years. (Guidebook from Maine Natural Areas Program: "...diligence is required.") If herbicides are an option, either glyphosate (Roundup - I use its off-patent knockoff "Eliminator", which I've bought at Wal-Mart) or Triclopyr (Garlon.) Foliar application of either works well, as does cut-stump application except in spring when sap is moving upward. The ester formulation of Garlon, in bark oil, can also be applied to the base of the bark in any season. (Source: Same MNAP guidebook)

I've managed to kill the usually tough lupines in 2 places, my current locale and at our 1st house in Fort Kent. IIRC, the culprit here was plow-scalping (by the town) of the late-Feb slopfest in 2010, one more reason to hate that "winter." In Fort Kent, we planted lupines in the side yard shortly after moving in during May 1977 and got nice blossoms 3 years, just a few in 78 but lots the next 2. Then came Feb 1981, in which CAR tied its high temp for the month twice and exceeded it 7 times. The lupines failed to make an appearance that spring, so I guess the thaw went deep enough so that the subsequent sub-zero mornings on bare ground did them in. Edit: Spent the last week with family in SNJ - EF-0 just 8 miles to our NNW (Mullica Hill), closest I've been to a confirmed tor. We had little wind and not even a rumble. Looked for EAB and Gypsy moth evidence on the drive down (too much RA to see much on yesterday's return trip.) Patches of dead ash all thru CT/NY/NNJ. Also dead/sick oak, mostly S.MA and N.CT, but zero sign of current Gypsy moth feeding and even with this year's somewhat delayed phenology the defoliation should've been visible if significant. (Route thru MA/CT was 495/290/Pike/84. Nothing on I-684 nor Saw Mill River Pkwy in NY nor any of the NJ highways we traveled. either.)

Had a regular toad-strangler in Mahwah/Suffern (NNJ/SNY) around 11 AM yesterday while looking for Good Sam hospital in the latter town. High gear wipers couldn't compete, visibility 100 yards at times.

Wow - short but intense. Wife and I were watching 6 of our 7 grandkids about 8 miles SSE from there while dad/mom were on an anniversary date (with the still-nursing 7th.) Tor-warn came over cell phones and we pondered a to-cellar move while I went out for a look (3x.) Little rain, no wind, no thunder, so we stayed put.

Only a B- for me despite an A+ November and "A" grade snow in January, 2nd most SDDs (07-08 is inviolate, but 18-19 is closer to that year than to #3) and long, long pack. The "retention factor", SDDs divided by snowfall, was more than 10% higher than any previous winter here (31.5 vs. 28.0 in 13-14.) November got A+ for both temp (easily coldest, and crushed the daily high/mean marks) and snowfall, totaling 4" more than Dec and Mar combined and just 1.1" behind Feb. However, I couldn't award a seasonal A to a winter with a Dec 2018 - less than 40% avg snowfall, no storms over 3.5", and a monster Grinch rain event a few days before Christmas. Also, as noted above, nearly every snow event included RA/IP, and the only month with more than one mix-free storms was . . . April. Also, the winter lacked extreme cold and had no extended periods of far BN temps, and while I'm no big fan of super-frigid wx (no longer challenge it for ice fishing, as an example), runs like the 2-weeks Dec-Jan 17-18 add impact to any winter.

I think this can work for advection fog as well, at least over a small area. If there's a really moist E-SE flow during the cool seasons, I can expect to encounter fog on the SE-facing part of Mile Hill in Rome (Maine - I'm pretty ignorant on Italian wx.)

On vacation June 11-18, so delayed in responding. My earliest date for peak depth is Jan. 20, 2010 and latest in March 31, 2001. That's probably also the latest for Farmington, as that month was their snowiest for any month not starting with "F", and ended with 18" (19 at my place) on 30-31. However, even without looking I'm confident their earliest season peak came in 2003-04, when the Dec. 6-7 blizzard was measured at 40", a total I find suspicious because nearby sites came in near 2 feet. I got to our church (1.5 miles SE from the co-op site and about 100' higher) within 2 hours of the storm's end and the snow there looked about like to 24" I'd measured. 30" I could swallow; 40" sounds like a drift (and the wind made lots.) All that said, the co-op reported 40" depth on the 7th and never got near 30 after the Dec. 11 rain pounded down the pack. I can tolerate mosquito bites, and even after the initial pain of a horse/deer fly, but black fly bites I think I have a special reaction to. They itch like crazy. To the point I'd consider severing the limb than go on. Mosquitos and black flies can be impeded by repellents, though in June 1996 the latter were so awful that even Ben's 100 barely worked for one hour. The only ways to avoid deerflies are to stay inside or remain under water (though I've heard that flaming kerosene works.) In addition, deerflies can travel faster that I can run, faster even that I could run at age 18. Skeeters use a delicate "straw" to take their meal, black flies scratch a little hole and lick the flow, but it feels like deerflies carve off a steak and fly a way with it. The nearest I ever came to being chased out of the woods was during a hot July day in NW-most Maine - had hundreds of flies buzzing around, most being similar-size harmless critters I call sweat-lickers, but impossible to distinguish from the knife-carrying deerflies until it was too late.

2 PM obs: BML at 85, NYC at 63. Not a common pair of obs, thanks to sun north and RA south. Cirrus on the south horizon here.

I'm sure they would've been giving lots of attention to the system that had clobbered Flint, MI on the 8th. Only around 330 days until next years leaf out! Leaf out is still in progress here, especially on ash. White ash is about 3/4 full size but brown ash is barely 1/2. (Other than black locust, which is not native to the Northeast, ash is latest to turn green. Phenology is maybe 7-10 days behind average, no big thing and lots better than 2010 when it was 10-14 days early - until the killing freeze of 5/11.)

Probably a lot more than one.

Tis the season for winged ants. We've had carpenter ants at our place and never heard the chomping like that of the powder post beetles. (We got rid of the ants, for now, by placing little trays - margarine lids work great - filled with a borax/sugar mix. The ants come for the sugar but take both substances back to the nest and the borax does them in. Place the stuff with care - last year we found a dead mouse lying in one of the trays. If it can kill a mouse, it isn't safe for pets/kids.) Piles of spruce, fir or pine sitting in the July sun are often filled with sounds of chewing beetle larvae.

Likely powder post beetles, distantly related to Asian longhorned beetle but a native that rarely reaches outbreak proportions. Larvae make nice pencil-thick holes in wood.