tamarack

12 minutes ago, kdxken said:

You are lucky it wasn't worse. When I had it they told me about a woman in rural Maine who contracted it. They gave her antibiotics and she didn't take them. Killed her.

A long-time (30+ years) co-worker - staff biologist - got Lyme twice.  First time he thought it was his worst flu ever but waited a couple days for a long-scheduled wellness appt.  Nice bullseye rash on scapula made for quick diagnosis.  He had a 3rd doxy Rx immediately upon finding an engorged tick - didn't wait for symptoms.

After witnessing all that, following the medical advice was an easy decision.

Morning low here was 57.  If it holds, it will be the mildest minimum here since last August.  Yesterday's 78 was the year's warmest, and the current full sun might push the temp past 80 if the clouds hold off long enough.

4 hours ago, kdxken said:

Three yesterday for me. This strain worries me a bit. The man contracted it a few miles from the woodyard. I've already had lyme a few times and was one of the first to contract anaplasmosis. CDC actually called me. I had a temperature of 106 and was delirious. 

 

https://www.lymedisease.org/massachusetts-powassan-death/

It's 2.5 years since my anaplas experience.  Picked up the tick while hunting on Veterans' Day (clever little monster hid in the short hairs) and 10 days later I was totally miserable - wife thought it was a stroke.  Diagnosis on 11/22, doxy Rx 23rd, felt much better 24th but finished the 10-day regimen.

Another harbinger of spring yesterday - mosquitos and black flies are out and about.  The skeeters are biting but those other things are merely perusing the menu.  Mid-May is their usual arrival; peak attacks will be next week when the younger grandkids are here.  At least the deerflies won't be here by then - June/July for their carpet bombing.

21 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

CAR record broken. 85F. Previous was 83F in 2022. Estcourt Station 88F

W/SW breeze, dews mid 40s.  Recipe for Aroostook heat in spring.

2 hours ago, dendrite said:

A lot of us were ACATT 15 years ago. Then we got older and wiser. 

Still there - guess I'm not old enough yet.

I used to be young and foolish; I'm not young anymore.

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

What a morning though. Nary a cloud. 

Because it's midweek.

16 hours ago, powderfreak said:

74/27

About perfection.

 

Not as perfect here as the clouds won, other than a few late morning sun peeks - high was 63 (right at the average).  Now some clouds are spoiling the full sun after a near-freezing start.

Other than 10 minutes of PC, it's been cloudy so far today.  The clouds that forestalled a frost are also keeping us from approaching 70.

12 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Sun broke out up here too… I will say these evenings feel 10x better after two shitty days.  Definitely enjoy the last couple hours of daylight outside today.

I was wrong too.  The models 48 hours ago were lingering the system much later.  Definitely leaned nicer on the fringes as we got closer.

Ten seconds of sun about 5:30, peeking thru a rift in the clouds.  May 1-10, one sunny day, 2 PC, 7 cloudy.  Just under 3" so no flooding, just endless wet - only 5/1 had no rain.

2 hours ago, dryslot said:

Finally starting to let up some here as the low is starting to move slowly off to the NE, Up to 2.15" for the event.

Less than half that here - approaching 0.9" but we're about done.  Still without a 1"+ day this year.

PWM reported 2.20" from 2 AM thru 2 PM.  Might be a few puddles there.

Mid 40s with light RA, only 0.3" in 12 hours thru 7 AM.  Wood stove doing its thing.

1 hour ago, kdxken said:

46.8 here. Dreadful day. Doesn't get much worse for may.

May 2005, Tip's most unfavorite month, set the bar for yuck.  The 5 days 5/22-26 (almost June!) averaged 48/41 here and dumped 5.14" of wet - with winds to increase the misery.

1 hour ago, DavisStraight said:

You can get there that quick? Takes me 4 hours to get to Stow.

It's faster going downhill.

Day started with ~2 hours of PC, then the clouds closed back in with a few spritzes.  At least it's low 60s.  

1 hour ago, kdxken said:

Absolutely. Not that I enjoy them but I'll take deer flies and mosquitoes over them any day. Black flies  like to chew on your face.

I certainly don't like black flies - some years ago I tripped in the woods north from Flagstaff Lake and cut my palm.  The little horrors thought "It's a buffet!" and landed by the dozen.  However, I despise deerflies even more, especially in the far north of Maine.  Imagine 50 of them swarming around, accompanied by 100+ similarly sized but non-biting "sweat lickers" on a hot day.  One cannot tell which of the little bombers carry knives, nor can one run fast enough to escape.  I've never been chased out of the woods by bugs, but that scenario has come the closest.

Sun!  (peeks only)

15 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

More rain. Might be good up north for the black flies to come out and chew the arms off people and fly them back to their nests.

That's deerfly behavior.  Black flies scrape down to capillary level and lap up their dinner while the dainty mosquitos take their nourishment thru a straw.

Leaves emerging all over.  The various pastels of different trees aren't as spectacular as autumn, but the muted colors have their own charm.

44 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

.62 on the month here. It’s rained for probably 30 mins the last 4 days

Probably rained (with skips) 48 hours this month, and we're up to about 1.25".  Keeps the fire danger low, if nothing else.

21 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

They don’t look third world, they are. 

It's 9 years since our Japan trip to see our son and DIL.  United works with ANA but the service quality between the 2 airlines was enormously different - the Japanese attendants were far more polite and helpful.

Just now, powderfreak said:

What year was that ridiculous May heat… was that 2020 or 2021?

Like 95F at SLK at 1,600ft.

May 22, 1977.  The day I chose to add 6" fiberglass insulation to the attic of our first house in Fort Kent.  Fortunately, it was a small house - 2-story 18x20 - and I was done by 11 AM.  Temp was probably 120+ up there by then.  CAR temps 22-24 were 96, 95, 94 and the low on the 23rd was 69; that 82° is just 0.5° below their hottest mean.

23 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

What’s the statewide record there?

Thanks, Dendrite.  All 3 NNE states set their all-time highest in July 1911.  ASH hit 106, the other 2 105.

1 hour ago, Typhoon Tip said:

There's a low amplitude heat signal now for the 12th thru ~ the 18th ( ending is open )

It's showing up in all three major ens systems, EPS/GEFS/GEPS.    The numeric equivalents, the teleconnections, have a negative PNA with a ( important distinction ) easterly limb -NAO... If that NAO does materialize but corrects west ...we'd be back door boned but that's not actually modeled to be the case at this time - just a precaution.  

Otherwise, there's not much else that looks capable at large scales of controlling the circulation identity.  The major players will be a height rises NE of Hawaii over the E Pac Basin, which transmits to the western N/A trough response =>  eastern CONUS ridging. 

It just not huge at this time... but it is identifiable.  If the wholesale gets a little more robust, than that weird weakness rattling around over the TV probably becomes less coherent/fills in - but it's not clear that's affecting up this far N anyway.   Have to watch these... Sometimes these May heat surges can over perform because we're still tending to recover soil sourced theta-e, so the kinetic side of the temperatures can get nasty from rather tepid looking warm patterns - think synergistic over performance.  This sort of thing happened up in NNE since 2020 a couple of times, sending them into the mid 90s when NY and Boston held at 85

Kind of a 564 to 569 thickness over 850s intervals to 14C for now. 

CAR's hottest is 96, reached once in May and twice in June.  Modest dews, a bit of downsloping from west wind (not SW, too much water to heat), heat records.

Light (mostly) rain and low 50s all day.

1 hour ago, BrianW said:

It's interesting that you can see from the rings even with treatment the tree pretty much stopped growing around the same time EAB hit. 

 

Growth rings usually get thinner as the tree gets bigger, in part because adding diameter on big trees adds more basal area than the same diameter growth on smaller trees.

Forest researchers I respect have stated that some white ash can tolerate EAB and the western blue ash has even more tolerance, but green and black ("brown" in Maine) apparently have almost no tolerance.

On 4/19/2025 at 11:41 AM, alex said:

Just flew on Emirates on my way to Maldives for my first time and holy cow. They make our airlines look like third world.

Case in point:  EWR.  Consistently voted the least pleasant major US airport and now it can't even accomplish some of the routine AP activities.

Barely over 50 here; I think the warm-up is cooked for today.