tamarack

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.

Try minus 6.5. 12/24/15 ranks (I think) as NYC's greatest positive departure (+32?) for any day, any month. Having CDDs on Christmas Eve at 40 North is truly bizarre. And it's ironic that their greatest negative departure came 6 days later (and 98 years earlier) with the 2/-13 of 12/30/1917 being nearly -40.

On other subjects, I think our TS drought (all of 2 weeks) ended about 3 this afternoon. Lots of 40-50 dbz echoes and Doppler estimated precip near 1" (and near 2" a few miles west.) Hard to get that much rain in 30 minutes or less w/o some bangs, unless one is in a heavy TC band.

My quick search didn't filter out the close to normal months, and I think your +/-0.3C span to be quite reasonable. Though the departures look similar for Feb and Dec 2015, I consider the latter to be NYC's most anomalous month (for temps) since their records began in 1869. Feb 2015 is NYC's 3rd coldest, while the span (6.71F) between 12/15 and their 2nd mildest Dec (way back in 2001) is greater than the span between that #2 and their 60th mildest Dec. (My data is slightly different from yours - compared to 1981-2010 norms, I have 2/15 at +6.5C and 12/15 at +8.3. We may be using different "norms.")

Get them when they're pure white throughout and they're both safe and fairly tasty. Once the browning starts, they're at best very unpalatable, though I don't know if they're actually toxic.

Agreed, though I might leave out "much" for weeks, as I think the high-to-low ratios are less pronounced for that shorter period. In my short-term (starting with June 1998) records, there have been runs of 6+ consecutive AN months several times and, without checking, I don't think there's been any that long for BN months. (Have to check winter 2002-03 and shoulders, off-hand the best candidate.) Edit: Bad guess on my part. I've had 4 BN streaks of 6+ (all are 8 months) and 4 AN (7,7,8,9.) Take it with a bucketload of salt, however. The nearby co-op has recorded temps during my period of record that run 1.2° milder (from 0.2 in June to 2.3 in January) than their 1981-2010 norms, so their AN-streak advantage would be considerably greater than mine. She got lucky. The poison in mushrooms will not tarnish silver. People have died from this mistake Had a friend who was a skilled mycologist (he's since deceased, but not from mushrooms), and his fungus-testing quip was, "Take a bite and wait 15 minutes. If you begin to feel dizzy, don't eat any more." That would work fine with some deadly species for which symptoms don't appear until 6+ hours after consumption.