tamarack

Looks like longitude (and elevation) was far more important than latitude for this event.  Aroostook had little more than flurries.  The only Maine site I saw that had more than 4-5" was Andover, though I've not seen the ski area totals - SR/SBk/SL probably had 10+.

25 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Def a chilly one. Only a +2 on the day for CON so far. 

7-8° AN here, may pull the month down to an even +10.

29 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Most hill towns have had 55-60 this afternoon 

3 PM readings

BOSTON         PTSUNNY   45  31  58 NW22G41   29.41R
WORCESTER      CLOUDY    36  21  54 W26G45    29.45R
NANTUCKET      CLOUDY    46  27  47 W25G44    29.40R
PROVIDENCE     PTSUNNY   41  23  48 NW23G41   29.49R
HARTFORD       MOSUNNY   45  21  38 NW25G43   29.56F
ALBANY         MOSUNNY   44  20  38 W28G43    29.64S
NEW YORK CITY  MOSUNNY   50  16  25 NW25G37   29.67R

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

Take out a couple widow makers.

Dec 18 cleaned out nearly all of them here, though it also created some replacements.

Gusts into the 30s but that's no real news.  Maybe it can shake out the fir top that's been lodged in an adjacent maple for 2 years, since the rest of that fir was blown apart by lightning.  I was amazed to see it still there after the hours of 50+ gusts last Dec 18.

1 hour ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

The best trick I’ve learned is making a paste of shampoo and baking soda and rubbing it into the dog and letting sit for 20-30 minutes before any water rinsing.

Probably works well, but the bolded phrase would be very difficult for our critter.  

4 hours ago, Modfan2 said:

We are long over due for a 2-3 week stretch of dry weather; who knows when that will come?!?

Last month, only 0.95" total, driest of 26 Februarys here.

Typical upslope conditions this morning - zero flakes, 50% cloud cover, biting wind.  I guess we can't have both big CAD and upslope.

Late report:  Our dog got skunked Saturday night from a critter near our back porch, maybe under it.  First time for her.  Fortunately, either the skunk shot only a small dose or the dog was missed by the worst, but it was bad enough.  She came back tail under butt, very embarrassed.  Then I further traumatized her by dragging her into the shower stall (she's mostly Lab but hates water) and scrubbed her using a dog-deodoring spray and warm water from a pot my wife had filled.  Did not turn on the shower - dog would've been even more unhappy and I'd have been much wetter.  Dog smells normal though there's still a bit of aroma in the house.

Finished with 1.8" SN from 0.41" LE followed by 0.3" IP from 0.10" LE, then 1.02" cold RA that melted very little of the frozen, just saturated it.

Changed to IP/RA about 7 AM, 1.8" with 0.41" LE, nice 4.4-to-1 ratio.  Couldn't top Feb's biggest, 2.1" from 0.07", ratio 30:1.  Lowest snow total from a warned storm since V-Day 2015.

46 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Birch bender/ condo collapser/grid goner/deck destroyer/forest flatener

That was Dec 18 here, with the temp in the low 50s.

10 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

Great for the whole country, except for New England as we watched huge storm dump feet of snow south of us.

The winter when BWI had 7" more snow than CAR, probably a rarer phenomenon than 1938.

One map (GYX) has my locale sneaking into the 6-8 color while the next one we're 3-4".  Both are upped from the morning map from GYX, and having seen only 4.3" in the past 6 weeks (average for the period: 30"), it's optimistic.

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

I hate the billion dollar disaster metric. No shit that will go up as real estate sky rockets. Has to be a better metric to gauge. 

Agreed.  Can't do much about current disaster cost estimates, but at least the older events' costs should be indexed to the present.  And maybe add 10% for each decade prior to, say, 1970, as the compilations are far more thorough nowadays.   (probably won't happen, though)

17 hours ago, mreaves said:

Soooo, you're saying next year will be like 2006-07?  I'll take it! Started somewhat slow but finished huge.

That (the bolded) is very generous; it was awful.  Thru Jan 13 we'd had only 11" snow and 2 months of +8 temps.  After that, temps ran 5° BN thru mid-April, including our 2nd coldest Feb, plus 84.3" snow, capped by 37.2" in April, including 18.5" on 4-5.
Over the past 25 winters, snowfall has split almost exactly on the 1/31-2/1 divide, 49.9%/50.1%.  2005-06 is by far the most front-loaded (85/15) and 06-07 just the opposite (20/80).

2 minutes ago, Torch Tiger said:

btw 150' driveway, sounds like a property/buyer problem more than a shoveling/back problem.  I digress.

Jeff only wants to see you try, as he has mechanized snow removal tools.

This winter seems to be following the 2005-06 pattern.  That winter we had 45.0" thru Jan 31 and only 7.8" after that.  So far this winter, we had 52.1" thru Jan 31 and only 3.7" since then and the weekend mess getting messier plus continued 10-15° AN temps in the following few days at least.

1 minute ago, mreaves said:

Just to make you happy, I reverted back this year.  My snowblower went down with the first wet, heavy snow in December and I never got it fixed.  I don't shovel though, I use a snow scoop.  Much better than a shovel and not much worse than a snowblower.  

My old Craftsman died at the end of 2006-07; engine ran fine but moved only in reverse due to badly worn - with no replacements - parts.  Next winter included the 24.5" dump atop the 27" pack in late Feb, and we (son was at home and this event helped to convince him to move back to southern Japan) spent 6 hours scooping just the main part of the driveway, creating slanted piles 8+ feet high.  2009-10, the winter destroyed by the early Jan retro-bomb, featured the late Feb slop-fest that, after 10.7" of 4:1 mashed potatoes and 1.1" cold RA, left 8" of 3:1 cement atop thawed driveway, and was a harder push with the scoop than the 2-foot powder dump the year before.  Bought a new machine early Jan 2011.

13 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Snow blower without a question. Screw shoveling. I can get hours of my life back by snow blowing. Besides when the snow melts and only piles remain, that does nothing because deep down I know they're artificial. 

When I was young and foolish (I'm no longer young) I shoveled, and then in Fort Kent graduated to the snow scoop, at least for the driveway (and roof).  Still shoveled the walk and porch.  It wasn't until my dad passed in Dec 1993 that I claimed his Craftsman Trac-26 as part of my one-third of the estate - one brother lived in VA, the other in SoCal so no conflicts.
(I also used an all-metal single-stage machine dad bought after 1960-61 [storms of 18, 20 and 24"] when it was my turn for the driveway.  It was 3 years before we had a storm bigger than 6" but kids like noisy, clunky things.)

2 hours ago, WinterWolf said:

April 82 was more than just decent..it was historic here.  Full blown blizzard and with big snow. 

IMO, April 1982 ranks in the top 5 for anomalous wx events in the Northeast, a step behind March 1888 and Sept 1938 but up with Sandy and the Octobomb.   Other contenders are Feb 1978, April 1997, May 1977, Jan 1998,  Dec 1992, etc.

It was the most powerful blizzard of my experience, with only Feb 1961 even close.  It takes some special winds to have a day with 15" snow, temps in the teens while losing an inch of pack:
4/6/82   24     0       0        0      27"
4/7/82   17    10    1.10"   15.0"   26"
4/8/82   23   13    0.14"    2.0"   25"

It's sad that NYC, having its own crummy winter, had more snow in February than most Maine sites.

2 hours ago, dendrite said:

Nice bright banding over tamarack right now and sinking south. Maybe he can flip for a bit.

Mid 30s here.  Might've seen catpaws during the heaviest if I'd been awake and in the pickup.  1.36" 7P-7A plus an inch or more as pack went from 6" to 3".  Sandy River may get above flood stage but probably not even half the 42,700 cfs reached last December.
 

I remember when our seasonal snowfall used to correlate with the amount of precipitation we got. 

Worked just fine here in January, nasomuch in Dec and not at all this month.

2 hours ago, dryslot said:

When talking to many ice fisherman this year, I've been told that ice thickness on all lakes and ponds looked to be 50% of normal.

About 12" on Flying Pond, usually 18-20" by early March and >2 feet in colder winters.  About 20 years ago I encountered 32" on North Pond (Belgrades) - had to chop away some of the surface ice to get clearance for the crook in my hand auger.  Drove thru Belgrade Village today, and the visible part of Long Pond is about half open.

Hundreds of geese in the fields, Farmington/New Sharon yesterday.  They may know something, since they wager hundreds of flying miles that the ground will be open enough to feed them.  If they're wrong, they're in trouble.  Monday at Flying Pond I saw one lone goose heading north - scouting?

14 hours ago, powderfreak said:

To me the biggest surprise from this winter has been that we are lucky to have had a fairly consistent snowpack (until the past couple days) this winter considering the departures.  I think the winter has been better than the departures would make one think.  I know that sounds like trying to find something to be happy about during this winter, but we've had at least some winter weather and snow on the ground for many in NNE. 

It has been a poor winter but this could have been an absolute record dumpster fire if someone just lays this out to you:

Local departures at MVL ASOS:

November... -0.2

December... +7.8

January... +8.1 

February... +8.4

That is wild.

First five days of March are averaging +12 to +13F at BTV, MPV, MVL, 1V4 (the main climo sites) too.

That string of departures Dec/Jan/Feb could have led to a much worse winter IMO.  But I don't have any stats to back that up, ha.

Temps thru 3/5
Season      22-23   23-24
NOV           +3.6      -2.4
DEC           +4.8      +4.9
JAN            +9.0      +4.5   Mildest of 26 Januarys
FEB            +1.2       +6.4
MAR 1-5    +4.3     +10.2

Snow         87.1"     55.8"
SN since 2/1
                  32.6"     3.7"
Pack 3/5     32"       6"

2 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Its there, NW Maine is where it is, You'll have to get up in the 2,500-4,000' range.

Nothing taller than 2700' north of Baxter, but there's probably halfway decent snow at 1k+ west of Rt 11 and north of the Realty Road.

Pack is down to 7" and dropping.  Earliest that it's gone to zero/trace is 3/14 in 2006; we may challenge that date this month.  The adventure I had on Flying Pond yesterday (noted in the banter thread) was due to the pond's rise and resulting bathtub ring around the shore.  That will only get worse this week, eliminating access on most ponds south of Moosehead.  The Sandy River from Farmington and downstream is essentially clear of ice, also the earliest I've seen ice out there.