tamarack

Only -7.8 at my place, but that includes the +11 on the 1st. Since then we've been -9.0.

I've yet to experience even a pair of 2-footers in the same winter, much less 3. My biggest for winter's 3rd best snowfall was 18", the December entry in 1960-61's snowfest. That year was one of only 2 (2016-17 being the other) that had even 2 with 20"+.

Love this image. Among other things, it really shows well the Jersey pine barrens. Cloudy with a raw wind in Augusta while at 10 AM PWM was reporting light rain and 31 - lovely. Yesterday's 29/0 made it 2 zero-or-below mornings earlier than getting even one in any of my other 46 Novembers in Maine. And while I have no doubts about Island Pond's low of -11, that 39° max seems a bit high. I had full sun all day yesterday, and should not have been 10° cooler.

Stayed a couple degrees above zero here - wind was light but still moving at 10 last night, so less time after the inversion sets up. Walking in the woods yesterday was explosively noisy as the Friday "thaw" followed by an 8F low produced a solid crust, and the leaves were nice and crunchy underneath. Every deer within a half mile could probably hear me.

Jeez, below 0 already? Earliest here by 8 days, and 2nd year in a row to advance the below-zero threshold. (T-Day last year was far more uncomfortable and anomalous.) The 14th is even 5 days ahead of my earliest subzero in Ft. Kent, though we had only 10 years there and this is November #22 here.

Today's low was about 20, a slight change from yesterday's -2. Last 2 days departures were -22 and -23, month running -7.

Almost exactly the same temps here (had 19/6), though my max-min instrument is far too small to have tenths discernable. That mean of 12.5 is 22° BN, while last year's T-Day was 11/-3 for 27° BN. Zero or a bit cooler this morning before the clouds arrived.

Near zero or slightly below at home, though temp bumped up 3° between 5 and 6 AM as clouds arrived. Yesterday's 19/6 was 22° BN and that max was 24 BN.

Like probably most hunters, I shoot the first deer dumb enough to give me the opportunity. I've passed up fawns, but never an adult (assuming I have an any-deer permit.) Unfortunately, humans have changed ecosystems so "natural selection" has become unnatural. I'm not sure cougars/wolves would be a solution even if society would allow, as they aren't as people-adaptable as coyotes, and would probably stay mostly out of the southern Maine woods where the deer numbers and related issues are greatest. The other problem in cold and snowy climates is that, if there's 100 deer after the hunting seasons and only enough food for 70, it's not as if 30 stop eating on December 1st. Instead, they all eat for 70% of winter and then comes the crunch. In northern Maine, the back-to-back severe winters of 2007-08 and 2008-09 may have killed over half the deer. (I've read that the 1960-61 winter with its 40-50" pack in NNJ killed 1/2 to 2/3 of the deer there.) And losing the deer is bad enough; the damage to the forest may be worse and longer lasting. When the PA Bureau of Forestry, managers of about 2 million acres of state land, underwent auditing for certification of forest sustainability, they nearly failed and essentially were given a "probationary" certificate. The issue was deer herbivory that threatened the sustainability of those forests by eating most of the young trees, especially the most valuable species like oaks, maples and black cherry.

As with all wildlife, something will exert population control. For deer, I'd rather it be firearms than fenders. Augusta temp holding at 23 thru 2 PM. Given CAA, may not go any warmer, certainly no more than 1-2F if any.

I've killed 3 with vehicles this time of year. #1 was 11/12/96 just south of MHT as I was taking 4 HHS students back to school in Dublin, NH. Had my foot on the way toward the brake (light ahead turned yellow) when deer!-thud-gone, in no more time than it takes to read those 3 words. Small deer, probably that spring's fawn, yet $2,900 damage to our Subaru. No doubt dead but 150 miles from home, pitch dark and water running everywhere from the morning's SE gale/deluge. #2 came on a late October Sunday morning (Maine firearms season opening the following Saturday) in 2008 when a 6-8 pt buck rammed the side of our Outback at speed, $1,900 this time. Neighbor with scanner called the police and got permission to look for it, found it dead about 500' from point of impact. #3 was 6 years later and maybe 2 miles south of #2 on the same road, evening of last Sunday in November, day after the firearms season closed. Doe popped out in front, I slowed to about 15 but hit broadside, shattering the plastic grill into dozens of shards - $1,600 this go-round. Pickup was drivable and the deer ran into the woods. The State trooper who came to the house (no cell, so had to call from home) said I could have the critter if I could find it, so I went back the next morning. Easy to track in 4-5" SN left from the 13" dump 4 days earlier, found a nice doe with small velvet-covered antlers about 500' from the road. Pprobably ended up with 90% of the meat, the rest being bloodshot (impact damage) and discarded by the butcher. Even with our collision insurance, the deductible made it the most costly deer meat ever to reach our freezer. (Note: That's the 3rd hairy-horned doe I've seen. Shot one on T18R12 NW of Allagash Village in 1982 - gamiest deer we've eaten, though the 2014 roadkill tasted just fine - and in 1983 a co-worker bagged one about 15 miles SW from where mine fell.) Still blowing hard in Augusta, struggling to get much past 20.

Farmington's coldest max during the 1st half of November is 27, reached 5 different times on the 14th/15th. Odds look good for 25 or colder today. The bar drops to 23 on the 16th, set in 1967, to 20 on the 21st in 1896, and last year's high of 12 on the 22nd tied 11/28/78 for the month's coldest max.

Storm total was 4.0" with the 0.8" of afternoon fluff. Total LE was 0.54" with my best estimate that 0.46" was frozen, the rest ZR as the temp never went above 28 during the event. Morning low at home was about 8F and with winds about 15G25 that's WCI near -10. If the winds quit and clouds delay, will make a run at zero tonight. Had a low of 2F on the 15th last year, and the -3 a week later on T-Day is my earliest at zero or below.

That anecdote makes me recall a spill during my learn-to-parallel ski week at the old Glen Ellen back in 1971. It was my final run (also after 4 PM) on Thursday, on an intermediate trail named Black Watch. My goggles had been fogging completely in the cold (single digit max) so I would ski without them, stopping halfway down to let my eyes clear. On that run, as I went into the stop an edge caught and somehow I recovered but was then going even faster. tried again, same story and probably the fastest I've ever gone on skis. 3rd time was the "charm" - really caught the edge and went airborne. The mind races at times like that, and I had time to think in mid-air "glad it's near the end of my ski week before I wreck." Landed on my head (snow was soft) and did the eggbeater thing. One ski failed to release and my knee was painful but skiable. Surprisingly, the pain was gone the next morning.

Engine heaters, preferably the ones installed in the heater hose, not the less efficient ones that work thru the dipstick. In Fort Kent, the Northern Door motel has outlets so guests can plug in and have their vehicles start in the morning. We had a VW Beetle when we lived there - air-cooled engine doesn't offer a heater hose, so I made a small triangular box, lined it with foil and put a "Y" fixture with a couple 100-watt bulbs under the oilpan. Worked great until the night that windblown snow hit the hot bulbs and they shattered.

Moderate snow here in Augusta after 1/2 hour of non-accumulating light stuff. Probably won't last long nor pile up more than a few tenths, but nice to watch.

That's even optimistic. Some years back I saw that Yakutsk, a city of about half a million next to Lake Baikal, had a January average temp of -45F.

Freezing drizzle and upper 20s in Augusta at present. After 6 hours of (very) occasional mood flakes yesterday, steady S- began about 2 PM though it began to accumulate an hour later. Measured 2.7" with 0.25" LE at 9 PM, another 0.5" of rimey snow/sleet with a thin zr cap at 7 this morning, total 3.2" with 0.42" LE, perhaps 0.02" of that as non-frozen. At 6:30 saw that temps were teens up north, 20s/30s elsewhere except EPO, which was reporting 55.

PWM TV met's map this morning looked essentially identical to the one they had last Thursday, with my area in the 1-3" strip. That verified at 0.1" last week due to lack of precip (0.04".) This time it would be due to P-type. Hoping for an inch before the ZR takes over.

That's what I had last evening, upper 20s with the clouds this AM. Big change from yesterday's 14. Still spots holding the 0.1" from Thursday night - late fall sun angle.

That's decent, though that weird little 5.7" blob in Maine is centered on a bunch of 4,000-footers, Abraham to Bigelow. Doesn't work that way.

Already put about 1/3 cord thru our Jotul. Low teens tonight?

Reminds me of Feb. 2017 when some guy from RI noted the 76" depth report from Andover, Maine and drove up there expecting to find giant snowbanks along the roads. He also got onto a back road (East B Hill Road) where his GPS didn't work and his gas gauge was low and he had no idea where the road would take him. He then posted about "fake news" and vilified all things Maine, not realizing that the plow operators tend to push the snow a little farther than they do in RI. (Also not realizing that an old fashioned paper map can be your friend.)

Only measured 0.04" precip for the whole "event". Had a wee bit of graupel yesterday late morning, some light showers during the day with catpaws as I approached Belgrade Village about 5:30 PM. Roads were dry at home but had S- after 7. Only "T" by my 9 PM obs time but had 0.1" (0.02" LE) OG this AM. Temp was about 20, had to pry open the pickup door, some black ice on the roads and small ponds fully skimmed.

Shades of last year? My T-Day high of 11 was 28° BN and that high was recorded at my obs time the evening before. The afternoon max was 30° BN. In 21+ years I've recorded highs that were 30+ BN on 4 days, Jan 14 and 15, 2004, Dec.28, 2017 and Jan 6, 2018. November hadn't sniffed even a 20° BN max before last year.