tamarack

2nd hottest October day for Central Park (94 in 1941) and just the 6th 90+ in 151 Octobers and 1st since that the 94/90 on the 5th/6th of '41..

Had 0.81" last evening, most 8-midnight, with a single loud clap of thunder about 8:15 and no further rumbles except for rain-on-roof. Odd, and we had another one-shot TS in early August.

Mosquitoes give malaria to mammals, mammals give malaria to mosquitoes, and back and forth it goes. From Will's description, the EEE cycle is longer (correct this if it's wrong): Mosquitoes give EEE to humans, humans give EEE to mosquitoes, mosquitoes give EEE to birds, birds give EEE to mosquitoes, mosquitoes give EEE to humans, etc. etc. It's the italicized steps that add the complexity. Agree with the final sentence, as I've not seen one of the little buggers since our freeze on Sept. 19.

Major leaf drop near our place from last evening's rain - ash trees are almost into stick season. However, the maples are showing some lovely reds/oranges, especially along Route 27 on Mile Hill.

Data from CDC. Looks like 2 "epicenters", FL/GA(VA) and MA/NY. I wonder if neotropical migratory songbirds most commonly infected have seasonal concentrations in those 2 areas. certainly doesn't point to a direct relationship between warming climate and EEE; one would think that a south-to-north gradient would be more logical. Or as Will has noted, it's more complex than a simple insect/human interaction. And although the disease nasty - has been about 40% fatal (30 of 72) in that data set, how panicky should we be over 7 cases/year? (Top year in that data was 2010, with 15.) Eastern equine encephalitis virus neuroinvasive disease cases reported by state of residence, 2009–2018

Couple weeks ago there were big headlines of "30 Billion Fewer Birds", I think as compared to 30 years ago. Unfortunately, but typical of MSM, there was no further context. Was it 30 billion fewer than 100 billion birds? A trillion? Given the vagaries of wildlife populations, a 3% decrease is a statistical blip that could result from a single nest-wrecking spring gale running through where the neotropical migrant species breed, but a 30% drop warrants serious investigating. (IMO, the biggest factor for those species is land use in there winter ranges.)

No doubt the climate is warming, but extremes are nothing new. We had mid-upper 70s the 4th week of October at 47N in 1979. (And missed the snowstorm 2 weeks earlier - too far north.)

Lots of falling leaves yesterday, mostly white ash but a bunch from the sugar maples too. Color is decent and will likely peak here later this week.

I think that's the trail under the summit lift - assuming they still have the same general configuration. The then-named Mountain Chair climbed up to about 3,000' (in 15 minutes - excruciating on a bitter day) and then one poled across nearly level ground to climb aboard the summit chair. Back in 71-72, that upper lift line trail was called Scotch Mist, keeping with the area's Highland theme, and it was not only narrow and bony, but had all those steel obstacles down the middle. No thanks! During the '71 ski week I went to the summit about 3 times after the 8" Tuesday snowfall, and it didn't look like more than a handful of tracks had been made by Saturday early (GE used to offer an hour of free skiing 7:30-8:30 for "conditions check.) The trail under the Mountain Chair had poles down the middle too (duh!) but was about 3X as wide and the moguls were all snow, not thinly covered boulders. The day after the snow it was near zero all day with winds gusting to 50 and the sun a dim spot through the cornmeal flurries. I wouldn't even try the slo-mo Mountain Chair that day, especially after getting a touch of frostbite just walking from car to lodge. Fortunately there was a 2,500' lift that gained about 500' elevation in 5 minutes, and I rode that one almost to closing time. After about 2:30 I'd get to the top and say "Last run - can't stand the ride." Then I'd make lots of turns and be warmed up and do it again. I don't think there were ever a dozen skiers on that hill all day, and by late afternoon maybe just one.

Learned to ski parallel there during a ski-week almost 50 years ago. (Incredibly inexpensive - entire ski-weeks were just $45 and they cut that in half for that January!) Went back for a short weekend a year later and still regret not talking Upper FIS. I was skiing as good as I ever achieved, perhaps low-end intermediate, conditions were good, the trail is wide and was deserted. Did ski the much narrower black diamond (name forgotten) to the left of the main lift line - used to be The Cliff - and had a great run.

Approaching moderate around my place as well, though the significant white ash component gives a bias toward earliness. That species is at peak here with 25% leaf drop while the rest of the trees show lower color and very little leaf drop.

Spent the day on a research trip to Kibby Township, about halfway between Chain of Ponds and Jackman, and color change is well underway. News pegged NW Maine as low but what we saw at 1500-2000' was moderate.

And the deepest it got at my CAD-rich, snowpack retaining yard was 31".

Ever played there in early June when the blackflies were swarming out of the Carrabassett? I think they still spray with a narrow-target biological, but they can't get all of the little beasts.

Lot of purple-y (and early turning) white ash in that pic. Nice

Don't have Eastport stats, but here are those for 33 days (1/25-2/26) at Machias, contrasted with what fell at my place (lol): Jan. 25 6.5 T Jan. 27-28 25.7 20.0 (Would've been nice to have been there) Jan. 31 13.9 9.1 Feb. 2-3 16.0 7.5 Feb. 5-6 5.1 0.5 Feb. 8-10 4.5 4.7 Feb. 12-13 0.8 0.7 Feb. 15 24.4 1.5 Feb. 20 5.9 5.5 Feb. 22 3.0 1.2 Feb. 23-24 1.3 1.8 Feb. 25-26 8.4 0.1 Total 115.5 53.5

Machias total was 174" and I think EPO had a foot more than that. For folks too far N and W, it was the winter of might-have-beens, still AN snow for most but oh those near misses. And it was the winter of 4 major storms forecasted that verified at 1/8 of the low end of the progged snowfall. (One of those was in SNJ, where the 12-16" forecast verified at 1.5" that was gone 4 hours after final flakes, while I was missing the most powerful January storm to hit the home front in my lifetime. As I've whined about before. ) I feel like we do see those repeated patterns over 4-6 week cycles...say March 2001 was just a series of bombs that favored more interior and NNE, with COOPs in VT seeing up to 80" in that month in 3-4 storms. And we narrowly missed the most powerful storm off that series of lows on April 1-2, one that dumped meter=plus snows in Newfoundland with 150 kph winds. As I was looking at 19" new and 48" pack early on 3/31/01, the PWM forecast was 12"+ with high winds for later on 4/1. Fortunately for the plow truck drivers who were running out of space, the storm jogged to the east just enough.

It's all good - thanks.

Thanks for your work in setting up this fun site once again. Will we need new usernames and passwords, or will the ones from last year still work?

That's why my post included "so far"... I've been tracking the 1991-on numbers just to see how big the changes will be when the updated 30-year norms go into effect in 2021.

Co-op average for 1981-2010 is 117", but 91-20 so far is running 122".

No floods at my place in Gardiner, but greatest calendar-day rain event I've measured - 6.41". Also the only TC I can recall that had backside winds as powerful as the frontside, though 90% of RA came before the wind shift. A popple stand on our Hebron lot atop Greenwood Hill was 2/3 flattened, 1/3 of trees pointed NW and 1/3 pointed SE (and 1/3 still upright, surprisingly.)

The friend who introduced me to boletus Betula had a 2-inch-thick book on mushroom ID, stating which were poisonous, which were good eating, and a lot which were labeled "not poisonous" - probably the ones like shelf mushrooms that are hard as wood. His tongue-in-cheek method of testing for poison was "Take a bite and wait 20 minutes. If you start feeling dizzy don't eat any more." (Some of the most deadly ones don't show symptoms until 4-6 hours after consumption, and have no antidote.)

It's the season for birch boletes - stocky 'shrooms, a reddish cap with pores rather than gills, and a stout stem. Likes birches and aspens, and quite tasty. Its relative boletus edulis is said to be even better but I've never found one. They live in the spruce-fir woods. Puffballs are pretty good as well if you catch them early. One bit of brownish interior makes them trash.

I think EPO had more rain and less wind than ACK. Hope that's true for wind; the remains of Arthur several years back had our logging contractor salvaging a lot of windthrow on the land we manage in Cutler. Would prefer not to have a repeat.