tamarack

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.

I've read that people were dropping dead on the streets during that July - not many, I'm sure, but it only would take a handful to make headlines. SNE/MA were plenty hot in that one but not record-smashing, while all 3 NNE states were recording their all-time hottest days. Farmington co-op had 4 days at 102-104 in an 8-day stretch, and they've cracked 100 just twice since then, in June 1944 and Hot Saturday in August 1975.

Since Autumn Blaze is a hybrid between red and silver maples, its seeds would probably share characteristics of each. Red maple seeds are among the lightest of any maple while those of silver are among the heaviest, 10-15 times as heavy as red maple. As you've noted, red maple seeds have reddish wings. Silver maple wings tend toward lime green. Maybe if you mixed paint of similar colors, it would be some shade of brownish? Sugar maple is 3-4 times heaver than red, 1/3-1/4 the weight of silver. If there are any Norway maples around, they produce big seed crops of relatively large seeds which drop about the same time as those of red maple.

I'd call it midsummer, and the maples tend to drop all their seeds over a relatively short period. White ash is different - seeds mature mid-late summer but many hang on into winter. Looks to be a huge crop for them this year, maybe like 1992 when the north side gales around the December bomb covered our entire yard with ash seeds (and not a single snowflake), at least 20 per sq.ft., and next spring it was like every one germinated.

That's more than twice my total May 1 forward, and 2019 is at about 20.45". (Depending on what fell after 7 AM this morning.)

Probably 3-4 weeks after the red maple onslaught. And big seed years tend to be high-viability percentage as well.

Some red maples look half leafed-out due to all the branch space occupied by seeds, which should start flying here soon. (And some trees, brown ash in particular, still look half-leaved because - late.) Looks like lots of trees are producing big seed crops - the pine across from the house, numerous female white ash, and every apple tree in the area (assuming pollination gets it done.)

0.40" overnight, maybe a cent or 2 after 7 AM, to go along with yesterday's 'T'. That's enough to water the fresh plantings in already moist soil, but come July-August we'll need bigger events to avoid mucho watering. Heard one lone (but loud) rumble - on April 19 - and that's it for 2019 so far. Significant convection typically dies (or is severely wounded) just before reaching here. I'll let you know if we ever buy one. Most recent install here was July of 2013. Like the fans, however, especially the one in the loft pulling cooler night air past us in the living room.

Re-calculated largest storm - actually 14.92" Median is 13.8". Avg. date of largest is Feb. 10, median 4 days later. Biggest by month NOV: once, in 11-12. DEC: 1.5 (16-17 had 21.0" storms in both D and F.) JAN: 6 FEB: 4.5 MAR: 6 APR: 2 Average peak pack: 30.1", Median 28" Average last day of continuous 1"+: April 6, Median 4/8.

Latest I've seen decent cover (more than 1") disappear here was 12/17/2000, when 2.8" RA at 40s-50s took out 5" snow. In Gardiner the massive mid-January thaw in 1995 removed the last of the 12" that had fallen on the 2nd, leading to a week-plus of bare ground. Not at all common.

Already a trace in drizzle here. Planted most of the garden Saturday, and since then it's been cool, mostly cloudy, with little precip - not the best recipe for good growth. Reminds me of one June in Ft. Kent that had endless cool drizzle but less than half normal precip. Only question was whether the tomatoes would die from wind-whipping, drought or mildew. We head for some time with the grandkids next week, so the garden will be on its own. Lilacs just opening up, 1st time here that they waited until June.

Shorts/tees work fine in the land without black flies (or deer flies.)

Would not be surprising. The sandy glacial outwash soils south and east of the Whites make for wonderful aquifers. The wells at Range Ponds tap into the same aquifer that comes to the surface at the actual Poland Springs.

Measuring snow - storm totals or pack - will always somewhat arbitrary due to the nature of the material. The difference at my stake between total and consecutive days with 1"+ is but 5", 122" vs 117", and in 10 of 21 winters the difference has ranged zero to 2 days. And it's not always related to total snowfall - 2002-03 with its 67.8" but lots of sustained cold had 1"+ for 4 days longer than 2007-08 with 142.3" snowfall. Unless there's major late-winter thaws like 2010 and 2012, the #1 key to long-duration cover is November snow followed by cold. Only in 3 of 21 winters, 02-03, 14-15 and last winter, has cover been maintained from November into the heart of winter. Other years with long-duration cover (07-08, 13-14) benefitted from snows in the first few days of December.

Using your event steps (and adding 8"-ers), here's 21 winters' worth. Amount Freq.% Avg 18-19 Max; winter 6" 95% 4.6 4 9; 07-08 8" 95% 3.1 2 6, 07-08 & 13-14 10" 76% 1.9 2 5; 13-14 12" 67% 1.3 0 4; 00-01 15" 43% 0.8 0 3; 00-01 & 16-17 18" 38% 0.4 0 2; 16-17 20" 24% 0.3 0 2; 16-17 Average for winter's largest: 14.97" Edit: Correction of previous post - only 6 winters reached 40", with 5 coming in 07-08 on.

Low was near 40, maybe just below, as the winds stayed active much of the night, as GYX had forecast. Bunch of mid-deck clouds about done passing over Augusta after the earlier cloudless skies. "Twenty acres wide"?? Conflates an area measure with a linear one. I'm guessing it's about twenty acres, and quite wide.

Thank you for supporting Maine state parks. Poland Springs has several wells within Range Ponds SP in...Poland, of course, and they pay a few cents/gallon to Parks and Lands, which goes toward upgrades in parks infrastructure (wherever needed, not just at Range Ponds.)

Closest I've come to having measurable in June was 6/9/1980, when flurries turned our grass to lime-green. If we'd been at 970' in the back settlement (moved there 9/81) instead of in town at 530', we'd probably have had an inch or so, based on what co-workers had to contend with west of Allagash. This past winter had continuous 1"= cover from Nov. 10 thru April 20, total of 162 days. Had one day with an inch in October for 163 total, both numbers tops here by about 2 weeks. Number 2 for SDDs with 3,443, over 600 above #3 but well back of the 3,835 in 07-08. Top depth was 41" on 3/10, 7th winter reaching 40" and 6th in the past 12 years (after having only 00-01 reach the mark in my first 9 winters here.)

We have a fairly shallow dug well, and a filter in our basement that includes an ultraviolet lamp to kill bacteria. Even with that, we've had issues, usually when the bulb quits and we get some coliform from the hayfield (and its soil amendments) uphill from the well. We used many gallons of store-bought water until we recently got a good water test.

The close-up pic helps, though I'm not a good enough entomologist to ID the critter. Since it appears hairless, like an inch worm, maybe winter moth? That's an invasive from across the pond that's been chewing up trees in southern Maine. However, the season's massive green salad is a smorgasbord for all kinds of insects, some native and some from away.

Looks "dogwood-ey" thanks to those veins curving toward the leaf tip, a characteristics of the genus. Almost the only tree group with leaf veining like that. Bark isn't like that of the native flowering dogwood, which usually doesn't flower until it's a bit bigger than yours. It's also a touchy tree to raise and transplant. Most nurseries would be more likely to have Kousa dogwood, an Asian species that flowers (eventually.) All that said, I can't say exactly what kind of tree, other than it almost certainly isn't found in the Maine woods. Edit: Desktop, so can't see the critter on Kev's oak.