tamarack

3 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Prob been since 1/28/10 since we had overperforming squalls this good down in SNE. That event was better in western and central areas whereas the squalls this time overperformed in east and southeast areas. 

That squall was the best I'd seen since living in Fort Kent.  At RUM (for a meeting) it lasted less than 45 minutes and dropped 2" horizontally while chopping the temp by about 15°.  Only 1" at home.  Unfortunately, that was the last 'genuine' winter event for that cold season.  The 10" of grayish-as-it-fell 4:1 glop modified by 1"+ cold RA doesn't qualify as snow, for me.  Neither did the 3" of paste in the 3rd week of April.

Nice if short squall went thru here just after noon, with a few minutes of visibility below 100 yards with some 20s gusts.  Only 0.4" from 0.01" but fun for a bit.

2 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

although, Jan 2014 was fantastic for SNE

Biggest snowfall that month was 1.9" on 2-3, at temps 10-12 below zero.  Farther north, CAR got no snow but had their 2nd coldest daily max with -15/-28.

Just had a quick squall, visibility briefly under 100 yards.  It's letting up but might approach the forecast 0.5".

December 2025
Avg max:   26.5    -4.2     Mildest:  49, 19th
Avg min:      6.8    -6.6    Coldest:  -18, 9th
Mean:         16.7    -5.3   3rd coldest (#1:  '17, #2:  '13)
Precip:    3.85"   -0.98"   Wettest:  1.26", 19th
Snow:    22.4"    +3.0"   Biggest:  8.0", 24th    Deepest pack:  10" 24, 25

2025 YEAR
Avg max:   52.24    -0.35    Hottest:  92, 6/24 and 8/12.  Tied for hottest in June, hottest day in August.
Avg min:    31.54    +031     Coldest:  -19, 2/2   7th year w/o -20 or colder  (Also, 3rd year bottoming at -19.)
Mean:       41.96     +0.05  (Some illogic, can't find why.)    Coldest year since 2019.
Precip:  37.22"  -11.61"   2nd driest year, only 2001 had less.  Wettest day:  1.53"  9/25.  9 of 12 months were BN.
Snow (calendar year)  70.0"   -18.8"   Biggest:  12/24

2025 had perhaps the fewest of standout events of our 27 full years here.  No double-digit snows, no 2"+ rains, the fewest days with thunder (5, previous low was 8, average is 15), no especially heavy winds.
Ironically, the only real standouts were the hot days in June and August, especially the heat wave of August 11-13, only the 2nd one here - in the coldest year of the most recent 5. 
The very low precip doesn't fit my idea of "event" - more like watching grass grow.  Fortunately, we had no problems with our shallow dug well, though the garden suffered, as my late-June total knee replacement
hindered my ability to overcome the lack of rain.


 

27 minutes ago, MJO812 said:

Winter 2013-14 was excellent overall, but January was major frustration.  It was significantly BN for temp, AN for precip, and the 2nd least snowy of 130 Januarys at the nearby Farmington co-op.  That's a near-impossible trifecta.

31 minutes ago, SJonesWX said:

before 2018, i averaged ~2 double digits storms per year. Since then i have had 5 in the last 8 years.

1/4/18, 12/17/20, 1/23/23, 3/4/23, 3/14/23

it's no coincidence that the winter of 2022-2023 was my only above-average snowfall season in that 8 years.

Depending how close to 2.0/winter, you're doing better than here considering our considerably greater average snowfall, currently 88.5" thru 27 full seasons.  We've had 47 storms of 10"+ in those 27 winters, or 1.7 per.  Maybe we do better on 20"+, currently 8 plus 19.9 in March 2018.

Early January looks cold (~8-10° BN) and dry.  Maybe, like December, it can be BN for precip but AN for snow (22.4" vs 19.3" avg).

50 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Last year got on late, Previous 2 yrs, There was no ice at all, Been many times and filled up half or a full 5 gal bucket in the past, Been many times and came back with a few or an empty bucket, Good chance we should have some luck as they tend to spawn early season, Went a few times last year but did not get on the ice until Feb and caught a few dozen, Nothing special.

Only tried once, Jan 2008 at Randolph, a half-dozen miles downstream from AUG.  The 4 of us caught a few tommycod but nothing else. A kid about 10-y.o. was showing everyone a nice smelt.  Might've been the only one caught among the 20+ occupied shacks.

3 hours ago, dryslot said:

Thank god we had a bit of snow last night to add some grit to the ice.

Only a tenth of graupel, but it made the porch steps accessible without sprinkling ashes.  Put most of the 5-gallons of the stuff on the driveway as water was oozing from the mess as the frozen precip landed.  (Otherwise the mail carrier might not hazard to try.)  Had 10" pack at 7 yesterday but 0.2" ZR and 0.5" of 32 (plus a tiny fraction) RA left us at the pre-storm 8".  But it's a more bulletproof 8" now.  Total precip 1.08".

Family on the way south, roads are decent.  I hope my son-in-law can send some videos of the Saturday sledding party.  The audio is hilarious.

4 hours ago, dendrite said:

I drove up to Lyndon with my father during it to work on my shitbox 87 Cavalier that died in the LSC parking lot before break. I remember the Lakes Region looking like a disaster area from 93…mostly from about here through the woodstock area. We gradually lost ice through the notch until it looked like mostly just wet trees on the other side toward Cannon. 

Our 0.8-acre houselot in Gardiner probably had more large branches on the ground than the 60 acres of forest on our current woodlot, as the Farmington area had mostly pingers.  Elevation was often the key.  On the state lot in Hebron, 10 miles NW from LEW, ice at the top of Greenwood Hill was almost the size of a Pringles can.  I brought 2 pieces home to show family, each centered with a first-year twig.  One was 3.0x2.2 inches diameter, the other 2.5x2.5 inches, about 2 lb per linear foot of branch.  Some large white pines had a near-continuous sheet of ice on their NE exposure and others had cascading breakage on that side as top branches landed on the lower ones.

OT:  Sad your Cavalier was a lemon.  Our 1983 wagon (1st year they had fuel injection, also our last new car) was wonderful except for its unibody frame.  Just under 150k, 33 mph on average, engine never missed a beat, but the frame was rusted such as we might end up like Herbie in the Love Bug.  Also the finest 2-WD vehicle in snow and mud that I've driven.  With aggressive tread snows and spike, it would go thru almost anything.

2.0" snow then light freezing rain.  Probably cold rain this afternoon, as the CAD underperformed the forecast.

Yesterday's temp was 30/-11, the rare winter 40+ range day without a strong CF/WF.

Hoping for more IP, less ZR.  Impressive diurnal range today, 30/-11.

27 minutes ago, rgwp96 said:

I ended up with 3.8.  Can’t complain I’ve have 11.4 for December but every  storm I’ve had has been under  in the forecasted amounts lol. 

Decent, though no blockbusters.  Same here, proportionally to climo snow - now 20.3" for the month (no flakes from yesterday, as forecast). 
Tomorrow night/Monday looks to be mostly IP/ZR here.

10 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

I do think, it's subjective of course, that 13-14 is a massively underrated season. It had a perfect D-J-F. The last minute March rug pull did burn a lot and ended the season on a very sour note which kinda spoils it, and the storm you just mentioned. Otherwise it was phenomenal from NY to BOS. Some really cold storms too that year. 

Excellent winter capped by a cold and snowy March that brought the pack to 43".

Surprise 0.9" on the board this morning, total now 24.0".

Up to a surprising 8.5".  The overnight 5.5" ratio was 10.5:1.  The 3.0" since 7 AM had ratio 43:1.  Still watching mood flakes.

50 minutes ago, moneypitmike said:

Wow on brunswick…just a 10 minute drive from here.

Actually across the bridge in Topsham.

Added another inch+, high ratio feathers.  Some decent echoes overhead but leaving, should pass 7".  Getting a breeze, temp still upper teens.

Loving it when friends getting jacked, especially when we have a decent amount here.

5.5" and 0.52" LE at 7 AM, currently light SN, might reach 6".  That death band extended to within about 5 miles of here, but the 8" at the stake will be plenty for the grandkids.

Rooting for 20"+ in south LEW!

2 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

thats Butler, NJ

I grew up in Kinnelon, the next town south, but I went to Butler HS.  If I'd been a year younger, I'd have been in the first graduating class of Kinnelon HS.  Most of Butler is 200-400 feet lower than where we lived, and that difference occasionally was dramatic.  The ice storm of Jan 8-9, 1953 ripped trees apart near home and took out our power for 6 days.  Most of Butler had cold RA.  In late March 1961 we had a paste bomb to cap our 100"+ winter, 5-6 sloppy inches outside the HS, most coming in 4 hours.  School closed at noon but no buses heading south so a bunch of us walked the 5 miles, finding 12" at home.

Cut the Christmas tree, now waiting for the water in the stand to freeze before I try to do anything else with it.

9 minutes ago, The 4 Seasons said:

Nice band of 2-6" in Orange and Rockland counties 

Looks like 2.1" (NNJ along Rt 23) near where I grew up.

Cloudy with an occasional flake and low 20s.  One noon news station has us at 5-9.  Might reach the low end.

1 hour ago, Great Snow 1717 said:

At one time I had family in the Fort Kent and Caribou areas. One of my uncles said in all the years he lived in Caribou there was only one school closing  that he could recall and that was because the school bus doors were frozen and could not be open

That's a new one for me.  The single full day's closing in FK was due to a busted forecast.  Folks went to bed that February evening expecting the 1-3" that was forecast and they wouldn't even bother running the plows for that.  Then we got 18" in 9 hours and by the time roads and especially parking lots were cleared, the day would be shot anyway.
The half day came 6 week later, March 14-15, 1984.  Forecast was 6-12", the 6" new had fallen by sunrise with moderate snow - no cancelling for that.  By late morning the new snow was 14" with 3"/hr rate, so the buses loaded up at noon and all of them made their runs with little problem.  You've probably been on Rt 11 between Portage and FK so you're familiar with the hills.  CAR recorded 29.0", I had 26.5" (Biggest I've seen) and FK 24", but they measure 1/day at 7 AM, 6-8 hours after accum ended.

1 hour ago, weatherwiz said:

This didn't happened when I was in school (although maybe it was being discussed when I was in high school and implemented shortly after) but do they use days from like February or April break to make up for snow days instead of going deeper into June? I know some districts had done this. 

Back in the stone age (50s-60s) NNJ schools would schedule a few "snow days" to avoid early summer classes.  (No schools had AC then.)  I think only 60-61 required the extended days, as we lost 6 days to snow.  Fortunately, the Feb 3-4 bomb was Fri-Sat.  If mid-week it would've closed 3 days instead of one.
I'm sure that Fort Kent has been lawyered away from the 70s-80s when our 9.7 years there included only 1.5 days of closes, all in 1984.
 

Based on the 12z runs, I'd bump Jeff's hood up.

He's close to the Pike, so already in the 8-12 color.

5 hours ago, tamarack said:

GYX has a watch for the counties just to our south, advisory level here, about 3-5 with high ratio.  Family in SNJ is planning to head up tomorrow and can't start before noon, so may be driving their 15-passenger van in snow from Hartford north.  Last time they were here for Christmas was 2 years ago, and they didn't see a flake, not even a dirty snow pile (4"+ RA at 50-55° wiped everything), until the day they headed south.  Assuming they don't have any "adventures" tomorrow, they'll see fresh white this year.

Between the increasing snow forecasts for our area and the kids running thru norovirus (some at peak, some all better), the trip will be on Wednesday.  Dealing with Christmas Eve traffic seemed the better choice. 
GYX afternoon added an inch to the above 3-5.  Hoping for nice dendrites and 12-15:1 ratios rather than crummy flakes and 8-9:1.

43 minutes ago, NW_of_GYX said:

Ya the last one that really jacked my area was in February 2017? I think. Great ratios with that one iirc

Feb. 17 was a wonderful month, but if the event you've noted was the storm of 15-16, it was one of the most disappointed 6"+ snowfall in my memory, as it had been forecast as a much bigger dump.  On Feb 11 a forecast 1-3 turned into 8" of 30:1 feathers with single-digit temps.  Then 12-13 brought 21", bringing the pack to 47".  The morning of the 15th, with depth at 44", our forecast was 12-18 - I thought "easy 50s pack, maybe even 60".  As flakes began that afternoon, GYX chopped our forecast to 6-10, with the jack moving to west of Sebago.  That 6.2 was heavier, temps were milder, and it only raised the pack to 46".

My area (wherever I've lived) has been good at dodging IVT.  We did get a surprise 2.4" on 3/21/92, but PWM had 11.4" and parts of Kennebunkport 2 feet.

2 minutes ago, weatherwiz said:

That's a pretty good hit from SW ME into S NH on the GFS...easily warning criteria there

GYX has a watch for the counties just to our south, advisory level here, about 3-5 with high ratio.  Family in SNJ is planning to head up tomorrow and can't start before noon, so may be driving their 15-passenger van in snow from Hartford north.  Last time they were here for Christmas was 2 years ago, and they didn't see a flake, not even a dirty snow pile (4"+ RA at 50-55° wiped everything), until the day they headed south.  Assuming they don't have any "adventures" tomorrow, they'll see fresh white this year.

16 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

 

At least it appears to be solidly lodged in other trees so not about to fall soon.  We still have several tall (60+) roadside fir trees lodged since 12/18/23.

Finished with 1.26".  Gusts at home got into the 30s, but we were in WVL about 5:30 PM when a blast of RA+ was accompanied by gusts that had to be well into the 40s.  By the time we left Governor's at 6:20, the wind was less, and the rain was nearly done.  Nothing frozen here, beginning or end.  Still have a white lawn, 2" of armorplate, but the nearby fields are almost all brown.

On 12/18/2025 at 9:51 PM, J.Spin said:

 

Interesting graphics.  My shaded lawn holds pack well and though we get less total snowfall, we usually have more SDDs than your spot.  Early snow season is different, with your totals through 12/15 topped mine 12 of 19 years.  Of the 7 where mine were higher, only 3 were significantly above: 

2014-15, 193 (13" pre-Thanksgiving storm)

2018-19, 339 (Snowiest November by far)

Last year, 177 (8" T-Day evening, 9.3" 12/4-5.  The 2 biggest storms that season).
 

Wind arrived about 1 PM, not too strong so far, gusts 30+ but nowhere near the 40-45 forecast for the general area.  And not even close to 2 years and one day ago.

BTV had 44 at 1 PM, down 18 in 2 hours.