tamarack

This illustrates the differing expectations in different parts of New England. At my place or at most other NNE places, we do expect continuous cover, and that deep enough to at least cover the grass. Bare ground between Christmas and St. Patrick's Day is anathema. - in 22 seasons here we've had that in only 3 Januarys (2000, 2007, 2012, a total of 10 days) and so far the smallest pack in February has been 5" in 2006. 16 of 22 years March had 31 days of cover and a 17th had 30. We expect what we most often get.

Maybe. I'd note the 2007-08 snow season, with nothing approaching a KU but loads of low-end warning criteria, perhaps analogous to Cat 1&2 events rather than TCs peaking at 45 to 60, and my snowiest winter since Fort Kent. This hurricane season is more like 2004-05, when I had a bunch of small events through early Feb but none even reaching 4". Maybe our TCs could be like that winter, which broke the meh with 21" (and thunder) on Feb 10-11 and 40" more thru March 12.

I'd guess 2020 ACE is less than half of 2005's to date.

That's a great illustration of the Northeast's vulnerability to even a modest (for a hurricane) storm but doesn't alter my opinion of the West Atlantic season being a long parade of weaklings (so far.) And up here the forecast of 1-2" barely made it to 0.7", though even that was welcomed. And we've not had a drop since.

Most of that snow came with temps about 10, with some wind, though we didn't get the good dendrites of farther west - 15.5" from 1.80" LE. Ratio of 8.6-to-1 from tiny flakes. Farmington co-op reported 23.0" but I'd been in town at the height of the storm and later, and their snowfall looked no different than mine. (Not as egregious as 12/6-7/2003 - measured 24" at my place, 40" reported at the co-op. We got to church - 1.5 miles SE from the co-op and 100' higher - during the final flakes and the parking lot had about 2 feet. I'd believe 30, maybe. I had 6" by 9 PM with SN+ and 18" after. Co-op had 14" by midnight - 8" in 3 hr was reasonable - but 26" after midnight was not. With a midnight measure my snow probably would've been 12" in each day. Lots of drifting in that one. )

I should've checked before posting. Hanna (80) and Isaias (85) are the only ones with winds above 65 mph, and the current pair aren't likely to join those two. Meh. In fact, other than the post-equinocal snows, the past 12 months have been one long meh.

Two more in a bunch of dwarf TCs. How many of the 11 so far this year have exceeded 50 mph sustained?

Most abrupt and amazing flip I can recall. Nov and Dec each my mildest here, though 2015 eclipsed Dec. Then Jan was +11 thru the 13th and season total snowfall thru that date was 11". The rest of Jan and all of Feb was -7 with 3 advisory events plus V-Day. 1st 9 days of March were 12° BN with -2 aft max on the 6th and daily mean 32° BN on the 8th (my greatest departure here) plus a warning-criteria snowfall. Had 37" in April to cap the comeback - 11" thru Jan 13 and 84" afterwards. Farmington's snowiest April in its 128-yr POR, 50% more than #2.

Location dependent, of course. First one here was pretty good despite the ratty December - no blockbusters but long snowpack that reached 40" in March. Last winter didn't rate ratter status here, more like meh - not much happened until after the equinox.

That's almost too narrow for a kick turn. I thought that Scotch Mist (Glen Ellen's name for the upper lift line at Sugarbush North) was a pucker-power trail, but it's about twice as wide. And though it's steep, it may not be as vertical as that chute, though it has a number of very hard vertical obstacles down the middle. Back when Glen Ellen was a thing I got to where I could ski some black diamonds, but would never set a ski on that one.

As a NJ expat I can relate. However, in 47+ years in Maine only once have I had someone take issue with my being from away, and he was a politician with an axe to grind. CTS (consider the source.) I've never expected to be considered a native, however. Unlike what Skivt2 posted about born in VT vs growing up there, in Maine there's still some of the "Those kittens being born in the oven doesn't make them biscuits", or as a (humorist) Tim Sample fictional routine, "Chester Gormley was 6 months old when he and his family moved to Maine. All his adult life he could never understand why folks considered him to be from away. When he died at age 97, his tombstone was inscribed 'He was almost one of us.'"

Had 3.5" in 2 hours in NNJ from "Doria", August 1971. Storm total was 5.1" and with the previous day's PRE dumping 3.8" we had nearly 9" in about 20 hours. Things had been quite dry so flooding was surprisingly modest.

Weak ENSO has generally been good here, with some obvious exceptions.

38 44 54 (X2 or 3 - does Hazel count?) 60? (Did Donna make landfall in New England, or offer Cat 1 winds in the region?) long jump 85 91 That's 6-8 from 1900 forward (assuming none 1900-37) - looks more like a 20-year periodicity unless I'm missing something. Of course, 20 yr period isn't 20/40/60/80 due to the stochastic nature of wx.

Longest in my adult life was 4 days in 1998, plus 4-5 hours next day - probably intentional shutoffs to protect lineworkers nearby. Had anything broken in the 400' between Brunswick Avenue and our place, it would've been more like 14 days than 4. The 1953 ice storm in NNJ took out our power for 6 days, but we didn't worry about losing internet or charging our cellphones back then. At my age (almost 7) it was a great adventure. Have yet to lose power due to a TC, only ice storms, wet snow and traffic accidents.

Our 54-55 double play - 5 TCs for New England.

Not all that much blew down from those storms. I'd guess than 98% of damage was from the epic flooding. BDL had 21.3" RA that August, 4" from Connie and over 14" from Diane less than a week later. Farther NW, Norfolk had 9" from Connie and nearly 13" from Diane.

NNE did a little better, at least in Maine. Oddly, 3 of those 6 NYC ratters, 52, 54 and 55, had big dumps on Feb. 17-18. The 1952 event has been pushed back to #3 at PWM but it was a far more powerful storm in Maine than PWM's bigger snows of Jan 79 and Feb 13. When I read "Their Finest Hours" (have not seen the movie) I was reminded that the Maine Turnpike had about 1,000 stranded vehicles at the height of the '52 blizzard. Not much snow at CHH but it was plenty exciting.

To find another winter like 05-06 with no 6"+ storms I had to go back to 67-68 in NNJ. To find a third I'm probably back in the early 50s before I began to even measure the stuff. (Looking at the stats, winters 1949-50 thru 54-55 were a sixpack of ratters in NYC and anyplace in the general region.)

Those choices would be 2003-04 and 2007-08 up here. Dec 03 brought storms of 24" and 13" by the 15th and the rest of the winter only added another 35". Given the comparative regularity of snowfall thru the 4 snowy months, having more than half the season's production coming that soon is anomalous for sure. Then 2007-08's biggest event was 12.5" and only one other storm cracked 10, barely. But for nearly all 4 "winter" months (here) we saw 2 [or more] storms per week and finished with 142.3" and over 3800 SDDs.

48.2" when we average 90.6" - awfuller. I think some VT sites take the booby prize. IIRC, a couple places had their biggest 2015-16 snowfall on May 16, with about 4". I thought we were deprived here in 05-06 when we failed to have a 6" event; can't imagine not even reaching 4.

That Christmas night + storm is CAR's biggest at 33" and change. Same at Fort Kent where the co-op recorded 32". Eastern had a member from FK then and he measured 37". Given the one-a-day and seemingly lackadaisical reporting from the co-op, I think the higher number is more accurate.

2005-06 was my only winter in the past 50+ years that failed to produce a storm 6"+. It's a member of my bottom 5 Maine winters, with 1973-74, 1979-80, 2009-10 and 2015-16.

Finally floated the canoe in North Pond (Belgrade Lakes.) Lots of small white perch but I was after what's eating fish that size. Never a bad day on the lake. - saw a fawn bouncing thru the brush next to a shoreline lawn and had a large snapping turtle surface within 5 yards of me, twice. Water is cloudy with algae so couldn't see the whole animal but its head looked like the 40-pounders I caught in NNJ eons ago.

Stat padder.