tamarack

It seems strange, as they played close against 2 excellent teams in weeks 1-2 and were easily handling the Jets until late in the game. In that one, the failed tush-push followed by a 4th-and-1 fraidy-cat punt from the Jets' 45 seemed to take the air out of the offense and it's never come back. Then the D lost its 2 best players. Murphy is alive and well in Foxboro.

1.86" total, with about 2/3 falling 8-11 last evening. Jack was Penobscot Bay, especially the west side with some 5"+ totals. End of the 17-day dry spell. Other than the wind-shielded understory, 90% of the leaves are on the ground here.

Can't get too interested until we get a frost. Today we passed 2011 for 2nd latest of 26 autumns, but I'm confident we won't approach 2021 when first frost came on October 24. Maybe if the wind quits Monday night?

If any car attempts to perform an Axel, it's likely to be more than axle deep. (Could not resist . . .) Only 0.05" here so far. The other 3 reports from Franklin County ranked 1,2,3 for Maine's wettest (though all were modest): Temple (2 towns west) 0.33", Farmington (next door) 0.28" and 0.22". My 0.05" tied for 41st most.

Raking leaves today. Contributor trees are 80-90% bare and the leaves are extra crispy. 1-2" RA would make the job 10X harder. from Coastalwx: Lots of color on the maples all around. Norway's just turning brown and dropping. Oaks starting to turn orange, brown, and yellow, but lots of green on them still. My parents retired to Woodsville, NH and had a large (20" diam.) one of those European invaders next to their driveway. Its leaves would stubbornly stay green as the native trees peaked, then it would drop nearly all its leaves in a single day, still green.

Yesterday was the 16th straight totally dry day, probably the longest such run I've had here, though I'm too lazy to look very hard for a longer one. I did look up September 2020, which had only 0.15" thru the 29th (and 1.14" in a howling NE storm on the 30th - ran the genny 10 hours, longest since installation). That month had a 14-day dry spell. Jan-Feb 2010 had a 25-day run with no measurable but with 5 trace days, one of which was a 0.1" dusting. In the 3 days since I posted the "Early Corner" pic at peak, we've had major leaf drop, now at 70% and near total where that pic was taken. All this with very little wind. I guess when it's time, it's time, weather or not.

Many thanks. And because I enjoy deep-diving into wx history, it is especially sad when good long-term co-ops die. In addition to Farmington with its near-complete record (missing just 7 months in 130 yr and only 1 since 1909), 3 other century-plus sites have been lost since 2011 - Lewiston, Bridgton and Gardiner. This last is the only Maine co-op I've found with 3/1888 data. (They had 8" of paste with the day's temp 38/32.)

At the local long-term co-op there's essentially no signal. Nov-May snow after an October with measurable snow is nearly identical to Nov-May snow following a snowless Oct. Octobomb was forecast to dump 12-16" here, verified at 4.5 and the rest of the winter usually did the same sort of thing. (Though Farmington's 8" is their biggest October snowfall, 1893 thru last Oct, when it went off-line. )

Yup. It's the "back-branch" needles yellowing (normally), not the branch tips.

Newer - the ones that grew this past spring and summer. 2nd-year, the ones that grew last year and are falling off as I type. (There's also usually a few 3rd-year needles on the main stem.)

That's a sick tree. The first-year needles are yellow, while this time of year the 2nd-year needles would be falling off and the 1st years' needles are retained. I see green 1st-year needles in the upper right and right edge - different tree?

At my place, 12/23/22 began with an inch of mush followed by a deluge, total precip 3.25", unseating the super-Grinch of 12/25/20 for December's greatest precip. Last 3 Decembers have been seriously AN for temps.

1 PM temps: PWM, 78 with S wind. Probably not today (unless the wind switches to SW soon) CON, 80 Outside chance AUG, 79 Tied, will break

"Early Corner" along Route 2 in New Sharon. Poor drainage = early change.

How much wood would a woodpecker peck if a woodpecker would peck wood? The Foliage Report map looks about right - moderate change here.

2005 redux? (Except the colors are better - that was the year of no reds.) Columbus Day weekend 2005 brought 5.73" on strong winds. In 2 days, foliage went from ~40% color to 90% leaf drop.

Day 13 w/o rain, payback for June? Sky is pure blue, though the smoke may arrive later. Foliage color nearing 1/2, and it's at peak (and quite pretty) on the wetland stand along Rt2 a half mile west from the Sandy River bridge. "Early corner" is generally a week+ ahead of the general area.

September stats: Avg max: 69.5 +1.5 Warmest, 86 on the 7th Avg min: 50.3 +4.5 Coolest, 35 on the 27th. Mildest average low of 26 Septembers, also the mildest for the month's lowest. Mean: 59.9 +3.0 2nd mildest (61.1 in 1999) Precip: 4.37" +0.68" Wettest day, 1.33" on the 19th, with 2.20" 18-19 Edit: What a disastrous weekend for NE sports fans. Tim Wakefield dies, long-time Pats TE Russ Francis killed in a plane crash, BB's worst loss as head coach and their 2 best defense players injured.

At Central Park it's 10/17/1938. 1979 only missed by 2° on the 22nd.

About 30% change here. My guess is a slightly below average fall coloring, but since "average" is pretty spectacular here, 2023 should be very nice. Lots of reds beginning to show, while the leaf-browning fungus on sugar maple hurts that species' contribution.

Reached 4.37" mid-morn on the 19th, and there we sit. Maybe some RA a week from today?

Dense fog early, didn't burn off until near 11 AM, still mostly cloudy/smoky. First 2 weeks of Sept ran 6.6° AN; weeks 3,4 almost exactly normal. That ended the chance to top 1999's 61.1° as it's at 60.4 currently. 2023 should end very close to 60.0, pushing 2015 (59.7) into 3rd place. (And I'm not a fan of the winters which followed 9/99 and 9/15.)

12th straight dry day today - looks like another half dozen on the way. Smoke gave last night's full moon a lavender tinge, first time I've seen that.

Swing about 20° clockwise and Kineo cliff enters the pic. Beautiful spot at any angle.

Of rain??