tamarack

Two TS last evening totaling 0.88".  First one (7-8 PM) began with a few giant drops - sounded like hail hitting the car - then 0.10" in 2 minutes followed by less intense rain.  2nd one came 10:30-11 PM and added 0.33".   

2 hours ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Can you imagine if we ran a full month of +9F? Wow!

June, and especially July and August, probably have never finished at +9 in our part of the country; even +5 is extreme.  Winter is far different - December 1989 and Feb 2015 were 12-14° BN over much of the Northeast, and Feb 1981 at CAR was nearly +15.

Small warned TS passed just to our north, close enough to terrorize our dog but giving us only a sprinkle.  Radar had some echoes of 60+ dbz - maybe some hail in the towns to our east and northeast.

13 hours ago, vortex95 said:

Indeedsnow SEZ otherwise!  Just ignore the NW flow supercell in CT today.  How about that 5.47" in Albany NH ydy?

Beats my 0.07".  June has brought rain on 6-7 days but we're still under 1". 
Last year we had only 5 days with thunder, about 1/3 of the average and only the 2nd (of 28 years) that failed to get at least 10 - 2010 had only 8.

Morning low of 65 here, first 60+ minima of the season.  First TD near/at 70 as well.

10 hours ago, vortex95 said:

March 1960 was epic, and so was Feb 1969 for different reasons.

Two notable storms in Feb 1969.  The late month "100-hour" storm was a New England event; we had 4" of mush at our NNJ home.  The storm of 9-10 was the "Mayor Lindsey" snow.  The NYC forecast had been heavy cold rain, but the 15.3" of heavy wet snow that paralyzed the city as the sanitation crews (plows on garbage trucks) were not alerted.  The head of the sanitation union said of Lindsey, "He played it by ear but was stone deaf!"
Our scout troop was at Allamuchy Scout Camp in NW NJ that weekend, but my 1962 Beetle had no problems even though there was 8-9" new by the time we got home that Sunday.

10 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

December 92 was a rough one. But yeah Feb 2021 was brutal. March 01 was ok here. The month at least produced. We don’t talk about Dec 00 and Feb 01.

Dec 92 was a whiff at Gardiner, where we then lived - clouds, wind (thousands of white ash seedlings that spring) but no flakes.  March 01 is the 2nd snowiest (55.5") of any month I've measured, trailing only the 61.5" of Dec 1976 in Fort Kent.  The early month big dog was almost 20 hours of steady 0.5"/hr snow on 20-30 mph wind, but the capper was the pair of post-equinox storms that totaled 35" and boosted the pack to 48" on the 31st, deepest I've seen that late in the season.  Another even stronger storm had been forecast for 4/1, but it went east and crushed Newfoundland.

8 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Black flies are horrific right now.  Bloody arms and legs, from killing them as they bite.  They are insufferable once you get into the woods and especially at elevation.  Eventually they will die off, and then it will be deer/horse flies as the culprit. 

Very mild black fly period here, but the mosquitos are thick.  Also, fireflies have arrived.
This year makes 30 years since the worst black flies I've encountered.  On Friday, 6/7/96, I was with 3 others at Oquossuc Bald Mountain scoping out a sno-mo trail, and I don't think we saw 10 black flies.  The following Monday-Friday was our church's men's wilderness retreat, that year at Deboullie, about 25 miles SW from Fort Kent, and I predicted a modest black fly population.  We drove to Portage Lake, got out at Coffin's store, and despite the high 80s (black flies tend to hide when it's hot) the area was thick with the little beasts.  I slathered some Ben's 100 before launching our canoes at Pushineer Pond, and by the 75 minutes to reach the west end of Deboullie Pond where we would camp, the bug dope was no longer working.  Another application lasted but an hour - Ben's usually is worth 5-6 hours; no way I would put that stuff on hourly.  Next day when CAR hit the 90s, I was getting bombed while in the middle of the pond, 100+ yards from shore.  (Not enough air space over land?)  Only place to escape, other than the 100°+ temp sun-blasted tent, was in the rock crevices on the NW side of the pond, where there were still ice and snow.  The black flies weren't interested where the temp was under 50.

17 hours ago, MegaMike said:

+6 degrees within 5 minutes. 

Definitely didn't expect that. The first few observations looked suspicious too.

Good call, @CoastalWx

I guess I gotta' torch the sensor to collect on the over

Ancient history (2010) - in late April that year, PWM temp jumped from a cloudy 59 to a sunny 84 in 15 minutes when the east breeze switched to a strong SW wind.  I was at Mercy Hospital overlooking the Fore River waiting for my wife's knee surgery to be finished and had a full view to E (some fog) and W (much haze).

As May 2026 expired while we were in SNJ, I'll put its history here.  Some data are averages from nearby sites, though the 31 on 5/31 is a certainty.

Avg max:    63.9   0.8 BN     Warmest was 86, on the 19th.
Avg min:     39.2   0.8 BN     Coolest was 26, on the 4th and 9th.
Mean:         51.6    0.8 BN     As both March and April were AN, met spring averaged 0.7 AN.

Precip:   4.17"    0.20" AN.   Wettest day; 1.40" on the 15th.   May 2025 was also AN, but the 10 of the 11 months thru last April were BN.

Nothing out of the ordinary this May.  The 2nd and the 2nd from last were windy and cold (2nd had some IP as well) but beyond those 2 days, little was particularly memorable. 
 

51 minutes ago, vortex95 said:

Bob tracking farther E made all the difference,  If you were in SE MA and CC, it was the BIG BLOW.  You can't expect too much when an accelerating HU passes E of you location at this latitude if you are looking for wind.  R++ OTOH? 

However sometimes wild turkey surprise occurs.  Edna in Sep 1954 BOS G88KT, it highest gust on record (beat G87KT from Carol 10 days earlier), and it was out of the NW as Edna passed over CC.  Edna was going ET rather quickly and I'd bet good $$ it was a sting jet over SNE.  If you look at HU Fiona's epic transition S of NS in Sep 2022, that's what likely happened to Edna.

Bob's landfall at BID was 90 kt, which is considerably above Gloria's (75 kt) and Belle's (65 kt) landfalls -- the strongest since Donna in 1960, so don't dis Bob! 

NWS BOX told me not long after Bob, they had a number of reports of "Scott spinners" on CC, but due to the extent of the straight-line wind damage and resources, they could not investigate those reports.  This was 2 years before the WSR-88D was installed, which now makes it much easier to pin down spinner reports and check specific areas, never mind cameras everywhere.  So the next HU that makes landfall in SNE, we'll likely see a number of spinners.
 

Those 3 1954 storms all had names of my relatives - cousin, aunt, great aunt chronological.
Carol was nothing I can remember, probably some rain at our NNJ home.
Edna was mostly dry.  We flew kites in its breezes.
Hazel had wind in NNJ comparable to Bob in central Maine, dumping some trees and plastering our home with pieces of tough October leaves.

Returned from our SNJ week last evening - #2 granddaughter's recital (plays flute/piano) and HS graduation, also saw the dress rehearsal of her school's mounting of "Annie".  She had her blond hair dyed auburn as she played Annie.  Got stuck in stop'n'go from south of Lowell nearly to Haverhill, no AC, car temp 89-90.  1,136 total miles.
Last Saturday we had wind tossing twigs from the sycamores and temp topping about 65 - norm there for 5/30 is 78-80.  While we were away, our temp ranged from 31 (late frost, perhaps Sunday morning?) to 84 (probably yesterday), and 1.02" rain.

On 5/31/2026 at 12:02 AM, 40/70 Benchmark said:

Bob was a yawner for most.

Maybe we got more than most - gusts to 60, scattered tree damage (some falling on SE winds, some on back side NW winds), and 6.41", greatest calendar day I've experienced.  It looms bigger because the following 43 years have provided only dreck for TCs.

6 hours ago, vortex95 said:

It's going to be that type of event where we may not know until it actually happens, if it does.  The fact that the GFS/ECMWF/GDPS/UKMET has shifted the heaviest QPF into NNE, that makes it more likely.  Look at the cold 850 temps NW of the 850 low.

It's never going to look like a lock, even close to it, for snowfall this time of year.  Fun 'n games watching noodles and cats paws on the car windshield.  Scott may just travel to NNE for one last look at winter 25-26!   LOL.

The 00z ECMWF for after the weekend event?  Omega "Supreme" does not want to go away.  Not 1, not 2, but 3 more cold 500 lows NEUS!  And another weekend potential ruined June 6-8 w/ back-to-back coastals. 

Morning discussion from GYX noted 0°C or colder 850s and the possibility of some graupel and/or snow at elevations this weekend.  Sunny 70s here today.

Rain shut off right at noon, 0.87" total.  Need about 1/2" to reach the May average.  Thought things would clear but there's been more clouds than sun this afternoon.

31 this morning, light frost and no damage to the fruit tree blossoms.  Median here for spring's latest frost is 5/23 - might hit that tomorrow morning (low chance).

Deep blue this morning, leaf development has leaped from <25% to >75% since last Friday - instant spring.

2 hours ago, WinterWolf said:

A 75:1 ratio….sounds almost impossible?  But I guess not. That’s truly impressive. 

That had been my thinking.  When I vertically inserted the snow shovel, I could see it 3-4" into the stuff - not really surprising for snow that's 98.6% air.

26 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

The January fluff bomb had more wind here I think…now it wasn’t true blizzard…but we had very low visibility’s for a good amount of time in that one…with windy conditions at times…went out for a walk at the height(probably was a mistake lol), and couldn’t walk back to the house forwards, which was heading north into the snow, due to the wind driven snow here..and the cold was ferocious with 5 degree air temps, and  sub zero wind chills.  So that’s more what I mean. I took a little video…but I doubt I could upload it here. 

From 7 AM thru 1:30 PM on Jan 26, we enjoyed some of the prettiest, and slowest falling (<2 ft/sec) feathers we've seen - 6.0" in 6.5 hours.  Walking on that 6" was like walking on air; I figured that the 6" had less than 0.2" LE and was shocked that it melted to only 0.08", or 75:1.  Twice I've had storms of 4.5" with just 0.10" LE, 45:1, and once a 1" dusting had only 0.01", but 6" at 75:1 was something I thought impossible. 
Jan 25-27 data:
25:    2  -13   0.17"    2.0"   15"
26:   10   -1   0.55"   17.0"   28"   (peaked at 30")
27:   15   -4   0.05"   0.6"   25

51 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

uhmm ... can you help me parse out this sentence ^   ?

Maybe scratch out the 2nd thru 5th words?

54 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Huh….?    You are wrong.  
 

2025-2026 winter was pretty dam good, two blizzards(one with single digit temps of 5-6 degrees), a 12/26 evening 9”er also with frigid temps. and very good cold all season..with good pack….that was pretty dam good imo.  

Even though we finished a couple inches below our average and missed the 2nd blizzard (0.2" - OceanStwx thanked me for establishing the north cutoff ), it was still a plus winter.  Most sustained cold since 18-19, good retention, 8.5" on 12/24 plus the Jan 25-27 fluff bomb, 19.6" from 0.77" LE.  Can't label it as blizzard as there was very little wind.

15 hours ago, powderfreak said:

So dry all the sudden.

72/37 for 29% RH.

Time to plant veggies, which usually means bye-bye rain.  Happens about 2/3 of years, with the other 3rd like 2005.  Or 2025 - 9 straight cloudy days 5/17-25 and 19-25 temps were 50.6/40.4 (that max is 16° BN) with no sun.  Pollinator punishment.

Yesterday's 16° AN (82/57) brought the month's temp right up to the average.

12 hours ago, vortex95 said:

A waterspout also occurred not far offshore from Rye Beach.

When I saw this and the radar loop, I said, "you've GOT to be kidding me, since when in New England does a tornadic supercell form on a edge of a gust from from a decaying squall line?!"  And SSTs on the NH coast are still pretty cold in mid-May, yet that did not impede things at all.

I think the only other time I was flabbergasted like this was the two mini-supercell tornadoes occurred in the Brunswick ME area on Thanksgiving in 2005.  This was after a couple of inches of snow has just fallen here in the previous several hours!
 

The Brunswick tornado was a brief ER-0 event about 4 miles SW from town center, and did minor damage.  The Phippsburg tornado formed just past noon about 15 miles SE from the first one.  It was an EF-1 with winds to 100 mph, tracking 3.8 miles with width to 75 yards.  Many trees were blown down and several buildings damaged, but no injuries were reported.
Meanwhile 65 miles north, we had moderate snow and 20s at the same time. 
Day's data:   27°   14°   0.39"   3.8"     The snow fell straight down, barely a breath of wind.

The official report:

A pair of waterspouts/tornadoes moved northward from the Gulf of Maine during the early afternoon of Thanksgiving Day. The waterspouts/tornadoes formed along a warm frontal boundary that was associated with an area of low pressure which was bringing snow to much of the state of Maine.

The first waterspout/tornado moved ashore over the southern tip of the Phippsburg peninsula near Bald Head, crossed Small Point, moved over The Branch, went ashore again on Hermit Island, lifted, reformed over Tottman Cove, and then went ashore once again near West Point.

The second tornado/waterspout reportedly touched down as a waterspout south of Brunswick in Middle Bay, then moved ashore near the northern end of Mere Point Neck, moved back over water at the northern end of Maquoit Bay, then moved back over land and crossed Bunganug Road before dissipating.

Just now, dendrite said:

Highs through 2p

Looks like EWR has that 97.   Warmth reached into Aroostook - HOU 82 at 2 PM, was 84 earlier.  Didn't get to northern ARO - FVE tops at 53 with RA.

41 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

It has happened before.  Highest temp in May (maybe even April for someone on here one year?)

April 28, 2009 hit 89, tops for that year.
In 28 years, we've had two months tying on 3 occasions and in 2010 the warmest (88°) was reached 5 times - May, July(2), August and September, hence the fractions below:
APR:    1
MAY:   3.2
JUN:   10
JUL:    9.4
AUG:   3.7
SEP:    0.7
Hottest here of 93 occurred on July 3 and September 9, 2002.

Low of 44, now approaching 80, but clouds have dimmed the sun.  We've gone from 5% leaf-out on Friday to 50% now and climbing; might be the quickest leaf-out I've seen.

2 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

Same here. Forests definitely help with cooling. Really hating all the stripped Forests to put up Solar Panels farms

Some of that in Maine, but nearly all the panels are being installed on idle farmland.  Only advantage comes when the panels' life are done - quicker to revert the land to farming than to create a mature forest.

10 hours ago, vortex95 said:

Thanks for quantifying it w/ hard stats.  I had never looked them up.

So clearly the driest period in the last 60 years in the NEUS?

Looking at NYC and other (somewhat shorter record) sites, I'd put the mid-60s as the driest in a century or more.