tamarack

Got low 40s RA from that one - typical. Same today, only it's upper 30s. Saw some catpaws and "almost-flakes" coming over Mile Hill on the way in, only Maine report of accumulation was 0.1" in Temple, and I found out that cocorahs site is above 1200'. Numerous 3-5" reports from VT cocorahs.

Just under 400' here, maples are about 1/3 full size, probably 1/2 by Tuesday, oaks barely breaking bud, ash still asleep. Only aspen/willows would be past the halfway point by the time that Euro goes crazy, and we're not getting 6-8 here (unless it's 6-8 catpaws.)

I've read that oaks can harbor the chestnut blight fungus without taking damage; hence the inoculum remains in the forest waiting for its real food. Tough roots for sure! On the state lot (gifted by Gov. Baxter's nephew in 1969) near Merrymeeting Bay in Topsham, there are several American chestnuts. A white pine plantation was established in 1959 on 15 acres that earlier had been a market garden for about 20 years. We thinned the plantation early in 1989, and that fall I saw a 5' tall American chestnut growing in a skid trail. After 50 years (at least) under a plow layer, the roots still had sufficient vigor to sprout 5 feet in one growing season. 22 years later the tree was 11" diameter and over 50 feet tall, but now it's been blighted - dead above 15' and soon down to the root collar as well. Welcome to the regulated world of gas cans. they are designed to prevent you from catching on fire from spilled gas. and they suck And the irony is that I've spilled far more gas using the crummy thing that I ever did with the old "unsafe" ones. They're evidently designed so that one needs to employ both hands to use them (unless one unscrews the entire spout, which I'm tempted to do.)

Dumped 0.18" from the gauge at 7 AM, but the heaviest was still to the west. At this point we'd need a 3-4" RA to threaten even moderate flooding, and that's not in the picture.

That's only valid for elevations above 5,000'. Gorgeous full sun day, and mild enough that the breeze isn't a problem.

Aspens showing some green at home, sugar maples in Augusta in full flower - looks like a good seed year for them (assuming tomorrow morning's freeze doesn't hit too hard.)

Agreed. The gray fur sprouts greenies.

Maybe -depends on lawn size. 32 yards will put 2" on 5,000 sq.ft.

Watched a short video on FB of Small's Falls, headwaters of the Sandy River, up towards Rangeley. Roaring in good shape, and still a significant amount of snowpack there. Going fast, but should keep waters fairly high for a few more days.

Some near-green on the south-facing field across from the house. Our lawn was fully snow-covered 3 days ago, so still brown (with about 99% fewer molehills than last year - yay.) Aspen catkins full length - at a distance look like mud-colored foliage. Wood frogs began "quacking" last evening, along with a few peepers.

That proves that "scents sense" can vary hugely. I find the aroma of both foliage and wood to be quite pleasant, though eastern redcedar is even better. I'm no fan of some of the weird arborvitae cultivars sold by the nurseries, but as a forest tree (Northern white cedar) it's a critical component of deer wintering areas and makes great shingles, too. (It's also the siding on our house - 3-sided "logs" that add 3-5" insulation.)

On the south side of the house, maybe.

I think parts of our lawn will become visible this time next...month.

Not if done with some intelligence added. Think of a hypothetical town that's 400' along the river and 800' on low hills. In a marginal event the lower elevations are reporting 10-12" while the hilltops run 14-16"; then an obs of 19" comes from a known-to-be-riverside location - it's probably not cherrypicking to toss that one. Knowledge of local geography is crucial. In the messy event of late Feb 2010, the Farmington co-op at 420' recorded 8.8" from 3"+ LE at temps low-mid 30s. Five miles to the west and 200-250' higher, the cocorahs observer in Temple reported 26.4", exactly 3 times as much. That observer's reporting, for as long as I've been in the program (started 8/09) appears to give logical/reasonable amounts of snow/rain. (Unfortunately not snow depth - imagine it gets quite high there.)

Elevation can be huge in marginal events. Almost 33 years ago we were visiting a friend in Blairstown, NJ, near the Del. Water Gap. Her house was at 1200' and late evening on April 22 the cold rain began mixing with SN. When it stopped at 8 next morning we had 13" of paste from a mongo deformation band. 2 miles away at 700' the small downtown had 5" of slop. No elevation factor at my place - light/mod snow midnight to dawn brought 5.0", just another storm here but noteworthy for a couple reasons. First, there was no mixing, a rarity this season. Next, it was just the 2nd 3"+ snowfall with a ratio above 10:1; 1st 2.5" had 0.29" LE but much nicer flakes for the 2nd half gave another 2.5 on 0.19" LE. Also memorable because much of snow-starved SNE got a real dump.

Not far enough OTS - clear champion in GYX jurisdiction is the 12" reported at Matinicus, about 10 miles farther from the shore than Isles of Shoals.

Just avoid the higher points on those rocks, as it'll be too far ASL to compare with Logan.

Final flakes (of continuous snow) ended about 10 minutes ago. Other than atop the snow, accum ended about 3 hours back.

Looking at the major sites on KI-95 from DCA (actually DC itself, as its record snow probably pre-dates that AP) to HUL, the top snowfalls are remarkably similar: "DCA" 28.0" 1/1922 BWI 29.2" 1/2016 PHL 30.7" 1/1996 NYC 27.5" 1/2016 PVD 28.2" 2/1978 BOS 27.6" 2/2003 PWM 31.9" 2/2013 BGR 30.9" 2/1969 HUL 29.2" 3/1981 Get down to 15th largest, and the more southerly sites (DCA to PHL) drop to under 15" while farther north it's 17-18" (except for poor PVD, also <15.) Lolz. 3 or 4:1 snow isnt even a real thing. Uncommon but it happens. The slopfest of late Feb. 2010 dropped 10.7" from 2.68" LE, with all RA (there was 1.14" of that) excluded. Big clumps falling at hailstone velocity would just splatter upon hitting branches - wouldn't stay in the trees at all. Pick up and squeeze a handful of fresh snow, and water would run out thru one's fingers. Most unattractive 10"+ snow I ever hope to see - hardest to move, too, with no snowblower and a thawed gravel driveway to make pushing the scoop nearly impossible. Running the scoop thru the 24" of 13:1 snow almost exactly one year earlier was far easier. Adding to the yuck factor was that a much better result - 26.4" of workable paste - was just 10 miles (W) and 250' (up) away. Also that at the same time NYC was mid 20s with a 21" snowicane, on the same NE winds we had.

I've had 2 double-digit-ers, but pending a late bomb, this season will be the 7th of 21 not to record a 12"+ event. I've had 5 that failed to reach 10", led by 2005-06 with a top event of 5.9". Last such observed season before that was 1967-68 in NNJ. At my current location, season's biggest has only a fair correlation with season's total, due to some real outliers, though the 6 in the under-11" group include the 5 lowest season totals. My snowiest, 07-08, ranks 8th lowest for top storm with 12.5", while my 2nd biggest snowfall, 24" on 12/6-7/2003, made up nearly 1/3 of the season total (8th lowest season), a facet that was common where I grew up but much less so in the more consistent snowfall region where I now live. Measured 2.5" at 6:30 with SN-, but I'm fairly certain the 3-6" forecast has verified. Little flakes = low rations (usually) and the 0.29" LE results in 8.6 to 1. Augusta had SN+ (barely) when I arrived, pretty much by myself (never checked to see if there was a late opening), but now moderate - probably about 5" outside the office. Grandkids in SNJ got nothing but some slushy flakes, but the NNJ town where I grew up reported 9", near jack for the state. Good to see the SNE folks get some real snow, though the Cape and WMA kinda missed out. No jealousy here, but would've liked about 6" so the pack would get into the 40s. Might make it anyway with this event if things haven't melted/settled by obs time.

21 years ago we had 2-3" qpf of ZR with some IP in central Maine, and some folks went 3-4 weeks without power, including the VP of Central Maine Power. Signs of that disaster are still visible if one knows what to look for.

Just checked out that site. 2/16/43 was 1/-43, quite the span. Their -35 on 2/17 was probably a 7:01 AM reading.

Certainly incongruous for PWM itself, not so much for the general area. In addition to the -37 at CON, Bridgton - 30 miles NW of PWM - also had -39. Gardiner, 50 miles to the NE, had -35. However, LEW, 30 miles N from PWM, only got down to -21, and the usually colder Farmington had -28. Their all time low is also -39, in Jan. 1994 (thanks, Pinatubo) on a morning when PWM was -10.

I'm not sure there are any year-round homes above 2000' in Maine - maybe in Rangeley, and if so, only marginally higher. Nobody's even close to 3500. In our almost 10 winters in Ft. Kent, we lived in 3 different spots, 2 in town at about 520' and the 3rd 4 miles to the sw at about the same elev as FVE. All 10 mornings with temps 35-47 below during those winters came at the lower spots. Those 2 sites averaged over 5 mornings/winter at -30 or colder, while the back settlement had only 1.5. WCI records depend, of course, on where observations are being taken. With the exception of MWN, those places usually are not the spots where the lowest chills have occurred. (As you infer in the above post) The state record low temp set in 2009 was at Big Black River, near the St.-Pamphile border crossing, at about 900'. However, I think that Estcourt Station, at 700', may actually get colder, but there's no official obs there. (Maine's coldest WCI is certainly atop Katahdin, 1000' lower than MWN but also 115 miles closer to the North Pole. And Governor Baxter's deeds of trust would probably be violated by having permanent wx instruments there.) C'est la vie.

Revisiting this - Clayton Lake lies in a broad valley at 1000' elev, about 400' higher than CAR. Clayton was -31 that morning, and given the full mixing, was probably at least as windy. I doubt they recorded wind speeds, but -31 at 20 mph converts to WCI of -62. Another revisit, that -85 (old scale) I mentioned in an earlier post. CAR temp was -20 at the time I heard that WCI from the radio, and that would require wind speeds in the low 40s. It was indeed very windy - the gauge on the lee shore of Portage Lake, about 20 miles west from CAR, was wiggling above/below 30 - but the low 40s had to be a gust. We spent that day in the woods another 10-12 miles west of Portage, and sustained 40+ would've had us dodging from crashing spruce trees the whole time. Mid 20s is more likely, for WCI (new scale) around -50, so not a contender.