tamarack

IMO, dendrite formation trumps wind when considering ratios. The 2 storms of Dec. 2003 seem to illustrate this (or something.) Both were 100% snow with temps in the teens. On 12/6-7 we had 24" with ratio of 14.7 and on 12/15 we had 13" with ratio of 8.5. The earlier storm was one of 4 events in 21+ winters to meet blizzard criteria, with gusts to 40+ and enormous drifting. The 2nd storm had modest wind and little blew around. Something beyond wind was going on. OTOH, my most recent blizzard, with winds at least as strong as 12/6-7/03, was Pi Day 2017, and brought 15.5" with ratio 7.3, all snow at low 20s.

Maybe pull another 06-07 reversal? (For more than just NNE this time?) For the 67 days from Nov. 8 thru Jan. 13 our temps were +7.0. Then the next 55 thru March 9 temps were -7.6. On the 13th, Jan. temps were +11.3 and total snow to date was 11.0". From the 14th thru April 18 temps ran -4.8 and we had 84.4" snow. Farmington co-op recorded 36.1" for April, highest by 12.1" since records began in 1893, and that's with the bust on the Patriots' Day storm, 10-16" forecast verifying at 4-5" of mush plus an equal amount of catpaws RA.

Super to see someone from the County - been 6 years or more since N. Maine was represented. I don't own a sled and only ride as part of work, and usually not that far. The exception was 14 years ago in mid-March and trails weren't all that great, with scant snow after the 25-35" post-Christmas dump. We rode Ft. Kent-Eagle Lake-Deboullie one day and down to Perham (Salmon Brook Lake) the next and had decent snow for day 1 (except crossing Lakes - puddles up to 4"deep on Eagle, slush under skinny snow on Deboullie) but real scratchy on day 2. A few weeks earlier some fellow from Corpus Christi contacted the manager of Aroostook Sate Park about snow conditions and was told to head for the St. John Valley. Ironic that a guy from south Texas hears there's crummy snow in N. Maine in February.

Currently on Kevin W's snow table, by state: Top 10: VT 4, MA 4, NH 2 Top 20: VT 4, MA 8, NH 6, ME 2 (including #20) Some of that is numbers of participants (are there more than 4 from VT?) but it still has an "anti-climo" look. A 6-8" dump would be very nice and some current models show that and more, but we know the bullseye will move around run to run.

CAR measured 12.8" snow yesterday, and their temps are +11.6° for Jan 1-12. Now 7.6° AN at my place after +23.4 and +16.1 for the weekend.

The forecast ice thankfully failed to appear - we had none, just 0,1" IP. Did note 12.8" SN at CAR.

After a snowy December and several early January snowstorms (though little from the huge MA blizzard), NNE had 3 warm rain events dump a total of about 4" in 10 days. Farmington co-op had a 40" pack drop to 8", truly freakish for what's normally the coldest stretch of winter. Some ice jam flooding along the Sandy River too.

Pack dropped to 6" but the 4" of bulletproof base held up. Just got dusted in a flurry.

It's in a 4-way tie for mildest January day, with 8/08 standing tall with 56. Still near 40 here with light rain after a bit over 1/2". At 7 WVL was 33 with light SN - can't recall a previous time when they had snow while we were mild rain. Not sorry the ice is underperforming!

Topped out at 50 or a bit above at my place. FVE had 34 with flurries at 4 PM.

The woods pic reminds me of when we drove thru LES on I-80 in western PA early in 2012. That was the view of the thick stand of trees on the median, though I didn't dare more than a quick peek. We could see the 4-ways on the car ahead of us but sometimes not the flashers on the next one in line. I guessed 6"-per in that one but obviously couldn't verify.

20 mm is usually the threshold for serious tree and infrastructure damage. GYX has my area progged for about half that.

I've read and heard from more reliable sources that arson is suspected in a number of the Australian wildfires. That doesn't change the fact that abnormally hot and dry weather (at a time when climo is already hot and dry) is making those fires far more catastrophic than they would be with normal weather, and far harsher to those trying to control the fires.

I'd have thought that 2-3,000' falling thru mid 20s would freeze the raindrops solid, but those in the know say ZR.

Winter storm warnings posted for all but coastal Maine. Big snow up north, siggy ice Rangeley to Danforth? Flood watch for much of VT.

Many years ago I read in Appalachia (AMC's magazine) that folks discussed the "MWN Glacier" after 68-69 but that the Tucks snow didn't quite survive the warm seasons. The Pinkham Notch co-op had recorded something like 320" (MWN over 500) that winter and the co-op's pack reached 164" at the end of the 77" dump in late Feb '69.

I think that a site with MWN's average annual temp but on level ground where the 250"+ snowfall didn't blow away would have glacier-starting potential if it had a several-year run of AN winters. For the 9 winters 68-69 thru 76-77, MWN averaged 420" - might be enough in a cold valley that makes a 150"+ pack out of that much snowfall.

I've yet to have a 5"+ pack go to zero in met winter; closest was the 4" on 12/8/06 disappearing by the 13th. We did have 9" go to bare ground Nov. 23-28, 2011. When we lived in Gardiner (not particularly CAD-rich) a 12" pack on Jan. 3, 1995 was gone after the 16th - 2 days of rainy 50s with overnight mid 40s will do that.

Great fun reading about this event. We escaped without a flake, as there was a wide gap between lighter SN to the north and the whiteouts to the south.

I've been tracking that and call it "retention metric." At my place it's varied from 10.55 (05-06) to 31.53 last winter. This calculation shows well the snowpack difference between my CAD-king/synoptic snow area and J.Spin's fluff/low-CAD site, as my average 07-08 on (start of his full records afaik) thru last winter is 21.80 while his is 9.21.

Hoping for IP. That saved my current woodlot in 1998 - it took some damage but probably less on the 62 forested acres here than on the 0.8 acre house lot in Gardiner where we were living when that storm hit. Zero IP there. (And not just worse on a per-acre basis, but less total tree damage.)

0.5" at 7 AM, maybe a tenth or 2 afterwards. A month of teeny snow events so far, though that's preferable to what Saturday looks to bring.

Maybe a bit more frequent for me. For my area where winter is pretty consistent with regular snowfall, I'm defining "ratter" as <75% average snow and significantly AN temps for DJFM. That omits 02-03, which met the snow criterion but was very cold. Winters meeting those criteria are 99-00, 01-02, 05-06, 09-10, 11-12, 15-16, so 6 of 21. Worst were 05-06 and 15-16 (10-year repeat?) 09-10 had 15-20" more snow than those 2, but is in the race to the bottom due to the frustration factor - 4 EC KUs that winter, and we got 3 whiffs and #4 was the most unpleasant double-digit snowstorm I ever hope to see, Edit: I think 75" would be close to long-term climo for your site, about 20% higher than PWM.

If those are nickels and dimes, my area must be getting ha'pennies. This morning's half inch (maybe 3/4 by the time it ended) marks the 4th snow event of the new year here, and they total about 3", not 14. Keeps the surface looking fresh, at least, though the weekend may leave a bedraggled pack topped by a few IP.

Midpoint for HDDs at my place is Jan. 21, though for heating purposes it's probably a week earlier due to increasing 2nd-half help from the sun. Midpoint for snowfall is currently Feb. 1. Though I'm in a colder climate than that of most New England sub-forum posters, the relationships elsewhere in the region should be similar.