tamarack

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.

Unless things change, I think (based on current radar) that precip is mostly gone at my place before any significant changeover. Was planning to take tomorrow off to chase the wily whitetail on snow, but anything less than a full inch (preferably 2 or more) would mean frozen slush on frozen leaves at sunrise, and I won't burn vacation time to hunt in those conditions.

Woke up last Nov. 10 to see 2" on the ground. Did not see bare ground at the stake until April 21 - 162 consecutive days with 1"+, which is 20 days longer than any other such streak here. Not sure that whatever we get today/tonight will survive Sunday's 40s, but if the Tuesday event holds together it might be the start of another long run of white ground. (Unless it's stolen by a super-Grinch.)

Going back even further to my NNJ days, the ice caught on our small (50-60 acre) lake prior to Dec 15 but a warm wind took out all but the cove nearest the house. Then Dec 20 dawned cold (near zero) and calm. I went out on the old ice, 4-5" thick, and knocked a small hole in the overnight catch, 2" of black.. A high school fellow from maybe 1,000' away skated across to berate me for wrecking the beautiful smoothness, though the 2"-wide hole probably didn't compromise things too badly. Next morning was even colder adding another 2" and we then had almost 40 days of mostly BN temps and less than 1" of precip, some light RA maybe 3-4" snow total which mostly blew off the ice, and we could skate or walk on 12"+ and see right thru it. Thickest black ice I've seen. Could you last year? That Thanksgiving time cold shot was nuts. W-a-a-a-y too windy, even with the afternoon max of 9. Might've been able to skate on a lee shore splash-over.

A skilled builder of models for forest growth once told us, "All models are wrong but some are useful." I consider that to be good advice.

Don't know its full extent, but 11/17-18 that year brought 8-12" from PWM to BGR and points west. Only 2" where I then lived in Ft. Kent. During the 70s and 80s the 4 places I've lived in Maine (BGR, Fort Kent, Gardiner, New Sharon) had among them more than a dozen events of 10"-21", and I managed to be in the wrong place for every one. Yes it’s 89. Had a good storm. Rode my sled around the neighborhood that morning before T Day dinner. A good 6 or 7 inches fell. Only a few tenths in flurries, but the T-day max of 17 is easily the coldest for my 13 Novembers in Gardiner. Far more interesting was the thunderblizzard 2 days earlier that ushered in the 6 weeks of brutal cold. Temps for the 41 days 11/22-12/31 were 15.0° BN at Farmington, with 34 of those days at least 10 BN and 7 more than -20. Cold left the building after that but snows continued.

Farmington has recorded only 5 such Novie snowfalls in 125 years, and that includes 21-22, 1961 for which their snow data is missing. However, all stations from AUG/LEW north and west had 10"+ and places like RUM and Andover had 24-27". Farmington did record 2.32" precip so my guess is 18". Their 10.6" on 26-27, 2014 was their 1st double digit snow in 25 years, and the only one I've observed in 46 Maine Novembers (or in all my NJJ Novies.)

Their biggest snows that month came on the 3rd (9") and the 8th (10", north edge of the big mid-Atl blizz) which built the pack top 27" and I'm confident the city had a parking ban in place, SOP for large snow events. Both those storms came with temps mainly low teens but PWM dropped to-10/-12 on the 5th/6th.

Nice hole in zone just about over my home.

Low teens at our place, with 18" powder - doubt I'll ever again walk out for the opening of deer season with deeper snow. And the storm of Jan. 19-20 that winter was 3-4° colder and dumped 20". Nearly snowless, suppressed pattern that crushes NC to DC. It could be worse, we take. 2002-03 up here, though SNE did quite well along with the MA. DJFM had temps 4° BN here, while snowfall was 23" BN. The cold allowed for continuous cover from mid November thru early April despite the paucity of snowstorms.

Temps and snowfall for March & November, Boston, and Farmington, Maine: Boston: MAR 38.6 8.0" NOV 45.0 1.2" Farmington: MAR 28.2 17.0" NOV 34.6 5.4"

Sounds like the MWN/valley inversion sandwich - mostly RA in Gorham, record January warmth (45, topped by 48 in 2013) on the Rockpile, and forest destruction at 1500-2500'.