tamarack

The co-op in Fort Kent is a prime example. Folks from that area know well that FK usually has more snow and deeper pack than CAR but the records show the opposite. From 1989-90 thru 2019-20 (without 2-02-03 and 03-04 as FK has missing months), CAR's average is 120.3" while FK's is 98.1". In the 5 winters that we lived in town within a mile or 2 and 20' elevation, 76-77 thru 80-81, my average was 126.2", FK 102.3", CAR 117.7". When we moved to the back settlement at 970', about 450 above our former home, my average was 144.0", FK 92.9", CAR 118.7".

Meanwhile we had 10.7" mush on 2.68" LE, by far my lowest-ratio met winter snowfall that included neither ZR nor IP. Then it was further cementified by 1.13" of 33-34F rain while NYC had its 20.9" snowicane. Almost impossible to move, especially as my snowblower was out of commission and the scoop was traveling on unfrozen driveway surface. Far more energy intensive than scooping out the 24.5" of 13:1 pow a year earlier. Worst double-digit storm I can imagine, and the fact that it was a near carbon copy of 41 years earlier on the same dates (just 5F milder) only rubbed it in.

Protocols were intentionally not followed at the York County lockup, "Don't wear masks, it might spook the inmates." Those 6 fatalities at the Madison long-term care facility are almost all those in Maine during the past month.

Kind of meh here other than the 15" dump on 4/1. Prior to that snow was essentially on the average (within 1/2") with 8.9" the biggest event. Was tough watching the AUG/WVL/BGR confirmed blizzards on 12/27 and 1/12, totaling about 30" for those places while we had nice 7-8" storms with modest winds. Temps ran slightly BN but with no notable cold snaps. Most memorable thing about that winter was driving into AUG on Boxing Day as conditions got worse and worse, leading my wife to cancel her PWM doctor appt. Within 5 miles on the way north visibility was up to 1/2 mile (was <100' outside the North Augusta Wendy's) and barely snowing at home. And 02-03 was cold and dry here, with only November getting AN snowfall. Suppression depression?

2007-08 had only 1.3" in November. Dec (46.2") brought 6 events 3.7-10.7. Three storms in Jan (27.5"): 1-2 had 12.5", season's biggest but somewhat localized. Then an even more localized event on 1/14 dropped 8" of fluff. In AUG we had 10" in 4.5 hours when I had to leave for a family emergency (hairy drive in SN++ but all was well) and AUG finished with 15" while Farmington had 5.5. Four days later another 5.5". Feb (46.5") had 8 snows of 3-9", including 4 totaling 21.7" in 6 days, 2/5-10. SWFEs galore! Only 3 snows 3"+ in March, in which the 18.8" was only 1.3" AN. Forecast for 3/1 was 10-14 from a "Manitoba Mauler" but only 6" came down, the last 4"+ event of the season.

At my current location only 5 of 22 winters even had both Jan and Feb AN and only 07-08 could do it for DJFM. In contrast, all 8 of those 81-82 months were AN.

2007-08 missed November but did real well DJFM. Not so for 2004-05 as all the serious storms missed us through the 1st week of February - nothing bigger than 3.4" which is pitiful for here. The 31 days Feb 10-March 12 made up for it with 60". Last winter was BN for snow but the first time I've had a 3"+ snowstorm in 7 consecutive months. 1981-82 in Ft. Kent had 1"+ snows Oct-May, only time I've seen that.

Saturday morning should have colder temps than today. Couple of white patches near the lodge to get folks ramped up?

Going by snow at PWM/CAR/Farmington, weak Nino and weak/moderate Nina have done better than neutral.

If there have been no fatwahs proclaimed, it would seem that Islam isn't too concerned.

And my above story failed to mention the 12" on 4/8/56 that bent over lots of the smaller trees that had escaped the Jan. 1953 ice storm, and the 12" surprise (forecast ranged from 1-3" to RA) on 3/23/1961. Most fell in 3 hours and it's the one time I walked the 5 miles from HS, along with 8-10 friends who also quickly tired of waiting for buses that might never arrive.

My highs for 18-22: -14/-4/+9 (torch!), -6, -6.

January 1982 was my coldest month in Fort Kent, averaging 9.2/-12.3. It is also Farmington, Maine's coldest for any month since records there began in 1893. The first week was mild, 7F AN, but 8-31 the average was 5.4/-16.5. The month had 9 subzero maxima (9-11, 18-19, 21-23 and 26) plus 6 single digit highs. While the -7/-31 temps of the 10th were noteworthy, by far the most brutal cold came on 17-18. After a cheap evening high of 13, Sunday the 17th featured a precipitous drop with winds gusting into the 40s. It was minus teens by 8 AM (only time I've seen one of those flimsy dry-cleaner plastic bags shatter) and the bank sign read -24 at 3:45 PM. By my 9 PM obs time it was -29. Next morning the gusts had dropped a bit, probably still approaching 40, the temp was -34 and visibility was about 2 miles in light snow. (On the old WCI scale that's about -101. On the new it's around -70.) Even with the good heater-hose engine warmer plugged in, my Chevy Luv pickup barely started. That wind howled all day and my high was -14. The wind never really quit the rest of the month. On Tuesday 1/26 we were check-scaling logs in the wood yard of a pine mill across the river in Clair, New Brunswick. Temps that day were -4/-24 and there's no place hotter/dustier in summer or colder/windier in winter than a mill yard. The stench from the pork by-product rendering mill a hundred yards upwind didn't help. If you were at the 'Loaf on 1/17, I would be surprised if they didn't have a wind-hold, or an early closing due to dangerous wind chill.

Wonderful hyperbole! But that "finally" hits the (short-term) spot for Jan. 2, 1987. PWM was reporting SN at 4 AM but I had finished lunch when the first flakes appeared outside my Augusta office, around 12:30. Within what seemed like 30 seconds (more likely a couple minutes) the rate had gone from 2 flakes to 1/8 mile visibility. By far the most abrupt wall of precip I've seen from a synoptic event. That 16" storm was the 2nd biggest of my 13 mostly mediocre winters in Gardiner.

Most amazing to me is the "York County Jail" outbreak - inmates, staff, families of staff - totaling mid 70s last I saw and evidently coming via the one jail staffer who was at the wedding. Not following the written protocol at the jail was key - "no masks because they didn't want to scare the prisoners" was one bit of foolishness I read.

From March 1956 thru February 1961 we had 8 snowstorms of 18"+, including 2 with 20" and 3 with 24". (I wasn't into precise measurements but my dad measured the first one at 23.5" with snow still accumulating, giving me at least a subjective benchmark.) Even in snowy Maine I've not had a 60-month period with 8 storms of 18+. The (cherrypicked) period April 1984 thru February 2001 failed to hit the 18" mark even once. Even if I drop the threshold to 15" (the NNJ 5-yr run had no storms 15"+ but <18") the best I can find is 5, once in Ft. Kent and twice where I now live. Using 18" the top is 3 in 5-years. (Of course, outside of the wonderful 56-61 run, we never had even 2 of 18+ in another distinct 60 NNJ months. Jan 1964 and Feb 1969 are the only other 18s I experienced there, unless one includes the 1966 blizzard in Baltimore when I was at Hopkins.)

Jan-Feb 1979 were freaky in Ft. Kent for the extremes. In 10 Januarys there we had 5 days with minima above 32 and all were in '79. We also had 5 mornings at -39 or below (6th place is -37) and 3 were in that same month. PWM had 62.4" of snow that month, most for any month, and their 2nd biggest event- 27.1" - came on Jan 17-18. On the 17th my max-min touched -47. I'd been at our company's camp just across from St.-Pamphile, PQ and it was "only" -40 there. At home my wife noted that the red alcohol on the indoor-outdoor was well below the -40 bottom of the scale but the max-min on the detached garage measured down to -60 and so caught the record. PWM had 6.8" on Jan 25-26 and 8.6" on 30-31 while Ft. Kent had rain and mid-30s with catpaws. Finally snowed a bit on 2/1 as temps gradually slid downward. Feb 10-17 never got above -2. The wind on those 8 days never quit, which kept the mornings from dropping below -22 but at times the wind was such that one could not face it without tearing up, and first blink froze the eyelids together - "walk backward" days. Then March was nearly snow-free. The early '50s were awful in NNJ though they included the Jan 1953 ice storm that jump-started my interest in both weather and trees. The 24" storm of March 18-19, 1956 was a revelation after 5 winters w/o anything above maybe 8".

The "good" in the 1980s was mostly in the far north. The 1980s were Farmington co-op's worst for snow with 73.5" average compared to the long-term average of 90". 1979-80 and 80-81 are 2nd lowest and lowest snowfall winters they've recorded. For 79-80 thru 84-85, my last 6 winters in Fort Kent, they recorded an average of 68"/year while I measured 127"/yr. If I (or some Methuselah) had recorded Fort Kent at my locations there from 1893 on, their average would probably be about 120" compared to Farmington's 90.

I don't think anyone had bunches of months of the BN temps, AN precip and record low snowfall trifectas during those winters. Also, 81-82, 83-84 and 86-87 were pretty good in NNE. The first 2 were especially big winters in Fort Kent, the 3rd had 4 warned storms plus an advisory event in January to build the pack that produced the greatest peak flow ever recorded in Maine, on the Kennebec on 4/1/87.

But 60" over the next 50 days once that month was done healed (almost) all wounds.

September (and April-May) snow in Denver isn't terribly unusual. Snow 2 days after 97° is record-setting, and hard to comprehend.

Jan. 1-4, 2014 averaged 26.8° BN. Jan. 6-15 produced 3 rain events (middle one had 0.2" SN) with 3.29" total precip, at which point the month was running 4.2° BN with 3.46" precip (twice the avg) and 2.1" snow. Rest of the month was slightly BN with 0.30" precip and 3.0" SN. You can't make this stuff up.

4.3". Only 1991 with 4.0 had less. January average is 21.0. 1990-91 had 69.1" snow while 2013-14 had 108.0". Farmington's average is 90.0". The cold snowstorm in early January 2014 brought only 2" while SNE mostly had double digits. (Side trail: on Jan 2 CAR had no snow but temp -15/-28.) After the early cold (I had -31 on the 4th, one of only 5 mornings -30 or colder in 22 winters) we had 3 rain events and never had another 1" snowfall until February.

That "paster" was forecast as 3-5" advisory snow but dumped 13.3" overnight before ending with a couple tenths RA. Even so, the 46" pack at 7 AM only settled to 43 at my 9 PM obs. Farmington didn't change until right at the end and got 16.9".

In the Northeast it's 1934 having the greatest competition with 2015. Only valid NE record I've found back beyond 1875 is NYC, and Feb that year is only 7th coldest, 5.2° less cold than 2/34. That site recorded its 3rd coldest Feb in 2015. 2013-14 was a good winter marred by a frustration January - BN temps, precip way AN, and 2nd lowest snowfall in the Farmington co-op's 128 Januarys. That's an unusual trifecta. However, the winter had 5 double-digit snowstorms, most in any winter here, though greater than 13.5". Also ranks #3 for Snow Depth Days and is one of 5 winters in which pack got above 40". Also the coldest March on record at that co-op (as was February the next year.).