tamarack

Was 8° and m.cl when I left the house - maybe stay cold enough for a decent ratio? (Since qpf likely to be the limiting factor in the foothills.)

Agree, though in their defense the hills of central Oxford are notorious snow-catchers. However, for the next zone NE (where I live) they backed off accum - P&C now down to 1-3. Event always looked a bit south, one more tic and we get some mood flakes (at midnight) and not much else.

Just read (on Daily Bulldog, online newsfeed out of Farmington) of yesterday's rescue at Tumbledown Mt of a woman with a broken ankle. Looking at that ice makes me wonder even more why they (had 2 kids with her) were there, and without crampons. Took a crew of about 20 (no way <10 gets it done) five hours to get her down safely, having to belay the sled and rope it down on five of the steeper stretches. Article has some great pics of the terrain involved.

Would need over 2 feet to qualify as "near normal" here. I give it a 0.1% chance.

May be on the northern fringe here for both. CNE jack?

Yesterday's max through my 9 PM obs time was a mere 40, with dz/fog and 36 at 9. Then the wind arrived and temp hopped up 8° in 2 hours. U20s this morning.

The 20 events I noted include 12/96, 4/97, 2/01 and 3/01. Of the 20, 9 have come this century and 4 more in the '90s. The ORH ratio, about 2 per 7 years, is essentially the same as Farmington (Maine),which has had 35 such events in 127 years. 13 of those came this century, with 9 in the "oughts."

The data I've gathered from UCC and Climod show BTV with 14 storms of 18"+ in 96 year POR (31 years missing early 20th) and ORH with 20 such events in 71 years, close to 2X the frequency of BTV though their respective biggest (ORH 34.5, BTV 35.3) are pretty much the same.

Looked at the local long term co-op and found a weak positive signal. --Compared to the 127-year JJA average, 11 of those 20 summers were AN and the overall average was +0.60 --Compared to the appropriate decade averages, also 11 were AN and 20-summer average was +0.49. Looking at only the 10 least snowy winters, against LT for JJA the departure was only +0.24 but against the decades it was +0.73. Still pretty weak.

37 with dz in Augusta - yay! Probably just clouds at home - no SN but no reduction of pack either (till tomorrow.)

The Rangeley area lakes show up bright and white, but not the Belgrade lakes, which also remain almost totally ice covered. Odd.

Was a bit surprised to find an inch new at home, similar to the most I saw on Mile Hill, 6 miles south but 400' higher. Most accumulation came 1-4 PM and max temp was 32, after the 31/5 on Monday.

2006 stunk, as we had only 7.8" after Jan 31 with 2.8" in March. However, the 1st half of 2005 was great, with 2 events just under a foot plus 5.5" on 11-12, though that last one had a 12-18" forecast 24 hours before it arrived, backed off to 8-12 and still busted, except for the west side of Sebago with the jack. As Dendrite noted, 2010 was even worse than 2006.

0.1 or 0.2 flakes here - not enough to wet the ground. Still in the running for least snowy DJF or M in my 47 years in Maine - 0.2" so far, record holder is 2010 with 0.6".

Folks who give weight to day 16 on ANY model have left the path of wisdom.

If "full" prefaces the phrase, only your last definition seems logical, and it's what I use (though that doesn't make it right.) Leaf out/full leaf out are pretty nebulous terms anyway, especially since different plant species have way different leaf out timing - you'll see green leaves on snowdrops nearly 2 months before any show up on black locust. Today makes 12 straight with AN temps though I think tomorrow breaks the string. Nothing close to 2010 when Feb-Mar had a 46-day run. In both 2010 and 2012, continuous snow cover ended about 3/18 and this year will easily pass the equinox, though without reinforcements I don't think the pack will survive into April.

Madawaska cocorahs reported 7.6" thru 7 this morning and 44" OG. Somebody's having winter...

Not for here, I certainly hope - not even halfway. We've had 28 or colder in every May here, and usually more than one per month. We could do without a late (given early plant phenology) frost disaster.

Had a coating this morning and it was snowing lightly when I left home. Cocorahs observer about 10 miles to my west and 800' higher reported 1.4" at 6 AM. Still snowing at FVE at 4 PM.

First measurable SN this month, 0.1". Cocorahs from Temple, next town NW from Farmington, reported 1.4". That obs site is listed at 1,224' elev, mine's at 392'. The "plateau" section of Mile Hill had Rt 27snow covered, at about 800' - looked slippery but I tried not to find out.

Hearing stuff like that makes me wish, strongly, for some spells of normal to slightly BN temps. Another reason I despised 2010 was that the unrelenting run of AN temps resulted in plant phenology being a month-plus earlier than average. Then it all crashed and burned on May 11 when the temp dropped to 23, with mid 20s on the 12th and 13th. Apple blossoms, normally opening in late May, had been in full form and got totally smoked. All shoots on ash and oak died and some on maples (1st frost-kill I've seen on maple), forcing those trees to re-set buds and start over, kind of like they'd been hammered by gypsy moth caterpillars. For the fruit trees (and the local bumblebees that love apple blossoms) it was a barren season.

Would not mind another 2012 near as much as repeating 2010, which I see as the more likely (though still low) outcome here. At least 2012 was interesting - 5.5" snow on the 1st and 85% of avg March snow, -10 on the 6th, a week of record-smashing summer right after the Ides, accum snow end of month including the month's 5th day staying under 32, 11 days with BN temps. In contrast, 2010 never got past mid 60s, never got down to 10 much less subzero, had 0.6" total snow in 4 "events" and only 3 BN-temp days. Also very wet, 3.5 times as much precip as 3/12. I'd take warm sun over wet meh any time.

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.