tamarack

2014, up here.

I did it backwards. My first coffee experience was at age 10 while visiting grandparents one summer, and it was iced coffee. Never had hot coffee until after my 21st b'day, regular (cream & sugar) at break time with the carpenters for whom I was working. Within a couple months I went to black, and 50+ years later that's still the way. Tried latte once - hot milk with some coffee flavor, no thanks. I do like espresso, however. Also like DD's frozen coffee - coolatta was a better name, IMO - though even with skim milk it's a high-calorie indulgence. For my age 19 and 20 summers I worked at Curtiss-Wright's company lake resort in NNJ, flipping burgers and brewing coffee by the gallon. Iced tea consumption there went up and down with the wx, but coffee varied directly with the head count at the gate. As a non-drinker of coffee, that puzzled me. By far the most we ever sold came on the busiest day of those 2 summers, July 3, 1966 when NYC hit 103 nd EWR 105, with most NNJ sites in the 100-103 range. Our wall thermometer, one of those cheap coil critters, was about 140-150 ("about", because the needle had gone a fair distance beyond the 120 mark, the end of the scale.) What it was where I worked, 3 feet from the griddle, it was better not to know.

IMO, lampooning others whose taste in beer differs from one's own seems a bit silly, though it livens up the banter forum. (Stated by a non-drinker, a choice many here would also think silly.)

This month will finish AN here, probably enough to make met summer AN by overcoming June's -2. However, the chances of it being the warmest August in our 21 here have pretty much evaporated, axed by the past 2 weeks being slightly BN. Would need for the last 5-6 days to run +10 to have a chance, and while I expect some heat, it won't be that hot. Edit: That "Tallying up the heat" table suggests that the BOS/PVD 70s minima records are in play. All the other numbers look AN but not all that noteworthy.

After 330 days/year like this, you would probably be bored. Yesterday finished up our annual peer-review field trip, and between the gorgeous wx and the on-site discussions, it was a day for the ages. (Especially compared to day 1, with our final field stop conducted in a downpour, and dews turning non-Gore-Tex raingear - like mine - into steam baths. We were downeast, where the rain ended about the time we headed toward our overnight at Grand Lake Stream.) With temp 54 and dropping at 9 last night, I expected low 40s this AM but was closer to 50, with a thin cloud/smoke combo probably limiting the radiation.

They'd have a hard time competing with the crabgrass. That Oak on Lava Rock is a good looking specimen tree. I'd try some hostas - many different species/colors/patterns available - in the spots that get the most shade, and blueberries probably would do okay in 6-8" soil if fertilized (Miracid or another formula for acid-loving plants), as they're somewhat drought resistant, though a dry season would limit fruit production.

1954 was the year for "family" 'canes - cousin, aunt, great aunt, in that order. (And Hazel is one of only 2 storms I've experienced that plastered leaf pieces on the sides of houses. The other was a June storm near Ellsworth, Maine, but tearing up those tender pre-equinox leaves is lots easier than it is for leathery early October foliage.)

Warm is fine. High 80s with midsummer dews after the equinox, like last year, not so much.

And under that tree, imagine the dews!

If that backfill includes much of the ground around that oak, I fear you can kiss it goodbye, though if you really want to keep it, you could either exclude it from the fill or build a dry well around it. Most trees have the vast majority of their fine roots, the water-nutrient gatherers, within the top 12" of soil, and they have a tough time if those roots are suddenly 2' or more underground. (Not that anybody asked)

I think both storms had gone mainly ET well before reaching 40 North. I can't remember any serious wind from either at my (then) NNJ home, where we got 5" or so from Connie and escaped with about 2" from Diane. Bob retained TC character a lot farther north. We lived a few miles south of Augusta then, and that's the only TC of my experience in which the backside winds were near/at the same speed as front side, though 90%+ of precip came before the wind shift. It was odd seeing blowdowns with trees pointed in opposite directions.

Cocorahs wants reports each day, wet or dry. They can't always tell when a non-report is a no-precip report, or merely observer oversight. That "always" is italicized because the site has some fact checkers. One morning when I awoke to dry grass and never checked the gauge, I got an email questioning my 0.00" while nearby sites reported a tenth or two. Afternoon check (with no precip between) found 0.13" - good catch by the auditors. August 1955 at BDL had 21.30". 2nd place 2011 way back at 11.67". Edit: Ryan's write-up has 21.87". (My numbers came from Utah Climate Center.) Random but do you think it's unreasonable to think that some portions of the Hawaiian Islands could see potential winds gusts of 75-90 mph with Lane? (Assuming something like the GFS pans out). Morning check of Wunderground (even though their hurricane/TS site has become wonky to the point of total frustration since TWC stepped in) showed a northward bend in the day 4-5 track. If that verifies, the Islands might be in play, especially Kauai.

Couple more decent TS and they could threaten to pass 2011 for 2nd rainiest August. I think 1955 is safe. Weekend deluge brought 0.03" here as we got 7-10'ed twice, and that total appears to be the lowest 2-day total (cocorahs obs for 18th-19th) of ay of the =/- 100 Maine observers who reported during that time. No complaints, as my 0.58" ranked 3rd from the top for the 15th.

Forecast here for the Octobomb was 12-16", verified with 4.5" of mush. My chief memory of that event came 2 days later, as our forest inventory contractor and I were check-cruising near Rangelely in a day-long icewater bath as snowmelt dripped off the trees. We've had 1" or more in Oct only 3 times in 20 years. 1st was 6.3" in 2000, followed by a great winter, especially Feb-March. Next was 1.4" in 2005, the winter w/o a single storm 6" or more - only one of those in my 45 years in Maine. Oct 2011 was the 3rd, and that winter was well on the way toward ratter when summer visited during March and confirmed that status.

I think so too. Played at Hopkins 1964 and 65, after which my GPA dropped low enough that I had to make other plans. Freshman team was undefeated in 64, varsity 1-6-1 the next year, and only a major upset against W. Maryland in the final game prevented a winless season. There was a reason the varsity lacrosse coach took frosh FB, and varsity FB coach did the opposite.

Gypsies all done eating, probably pupating. Something else is at work now- any browntail moth over there?

Would those things even been given a name 20 years ago?

Just within Maine things can vary greatly. Last month was AN here but nothing special, while CAR notched its warmest month on record, going back to 1939.

The high end of that would be a major torch for my area, as met fall temps have been relatively stable for my 20 years here. Average is 45.20, coolest 43.10 in 2002, mildest 47.24 last year. Even the low end would be 3rd mildest of (then) 21 years.

Swamp maples are turning, and the paper birch alongside our driveway is dropping a few brownish leaves, things that always begin by mid August. Given that this month is contending to be the warmest of 21 Augusts here and with many fewer than average cool (sub-50) mornings, I think those changes are linked more closely to shortening daylength than to sensible wx.

Looks like hickory nuts, bark too, though not all that shaggy for shagbark hickory, the family member found farthest north and the only hickory native to Maine. American chestnut hulls are armed with painfully sharp spines which tend to soften a bit when nuts ripen. (And local squirrels have that softening timed to the minute.)

Upper 40s this AM, only the 2nd sub-50 minimum this month - may bag another Monday AM if clouds don't get in the way. August average minima here shows 8 in the 40s and one 30s. Won't get anywhere near that many sub-50s, but should pass 2003 (4) and avoid last place. GYX hinted at autumn-like air being "within shouting distance" later next week.

So much for my theory that the better retention here is due to "meatier" snow. Without including the little events, my ratio (for 20 winters, thus not perfectly comparable) is 10.51 - haven't run the SD, but gross average is essentially the same as yours. I think it's colder at my place, certainly in the morning at this frost pocket, and our small lawn is fully surrounded by tall trees in every direction but northwest - mostly hardwoods, but even leaf-off they block 25-40% of sunlight (or so stated the info I learned from my year in Urban Forestry.)

Does that 22.97" include all-liquid events? I keep LE records only for SN/IP, tossing any RA/ZR for mix/mess storms. Also, I haven't collated the data for mini events <2". Storms 2-3.9" have had an average ratio of 9.4-to-1, while for storms 4"+ it's 10.7. There's a greater proportion of IP in those lesser events. That high 10s ratio holds true for 6"+ thru 16"+, only climbing above 11-to-1 for storms 18"+, for which N=9, so not a robust set. My 2 biggest snows here, 24.0" on Dec 6-7, 2003 and Feb 22-23, 2009, averaged 13.8-to-1 (13.0 and 14.7, respectively.)

But only the JV version. I've not been in "The Armpit of the East" (for both its summer climate and its position in the Bay) during July/August, and never wish to be. However, dews 80+ in early Sept 1965 were just wonderful for full-pads two-a-days. I doubt it's gotten cooler since then.