tamarack

3.34" thru 4/13 but only 0.14" since.

Another morning at 21° but this one wasn't fake - air was stirring all night. Month is +1.8 thru yesterday and today's 8-10 BN will drop that to 1.4. Tomorrow's average is 57/33 and the fake cold will probably lead to a 60/23 day. We'll finish the month ~2 AN.

Five minutes of partly cloudy and then the CF roared in at 4:30 with gusts into the 30s. RA underperformed, bucket caught 0.03" plus a red maple blossom.

Wet 40s, quite the change from yesterday's sunny 60/21 - couldn't quite get the 40° range. On another topic, yesterday the arborists did a great job dropping the 20" diameter/80-foot-tall basswood that was leaning strongly toward the house. It had serious internal decay about 12 feet off the ground, such that the first good NW breeze after leaf-out might've been a disaster. Now it's a cord of not very good (but close to the stove) firewood. The head honcho took 5 feet of sound upper stem for a woodcarver friend.

Fort Kent would do that sort of thing occasionally. Jan 11, 1980 had 38/-21. Day before that was 10/-30 and day after 44/4. Most spectacular, however, was Groundhog Day in 1976. At 11 AM it was 46, pouring and screeching. By 8 PM it was -11 with a 50° drop, 44 to -6, between 1 and 6 PM. CAR had 49/-7 for the day (with 957 mb) and BGR 57/1 plus 200 flooded cars in Kenduskeag Plaza as strong southerlies (gust of 115 mph in Stonington) blew water up the Penobscot estuary, raising the water in BGR 15 feet in 15 minutes.

Had a 39° diurnal range on Eclipse Day (62/23). Forecast max is 59, which would be a 38° range so that 4/8 span is in play. Greatest range here was 52° (29/-23) in Feb 2002.

Low of 21 here, tying 4/1 for coldest of the month. Just as fake as forest-enhanced dewpoints.

Numerous NNE sites with RH <20%. At 4 PM, PSM was 55 with TD 7, RH 14%. Chilly up in the County - FVE 32, west wind 20G35. Rest of NNE is fairly close to 50. If it were a Saturday and 10-15° milder with the breeze and low RH, we'd be reading about brushfires. Might be having some in the NJ pine barrens even on Monday.

I hope it was Whiteface that got some improvement cash. Back in the stone age (early '70s) I read an article about Whiteface in Ski Magazine, presumably compiled by an expert skier. At the upper lift the attendant had to let a few chairs go by before seeing one fit for the writer to climb on. The Ski guy said that the trail (Skyward? It's been a long time) was obviously ungroomed and w/o any manmade snow, with numerous dark things sticking up thru the snow. After several stump/rock near misses in 100 yards, the writer swallowed his pride, sidestepped up to the top and rode down on the lift.

Some forsythia starting to bloom next door in Farmington, but ours are still asleep. Chilly in northern Maine - FVE 24 with WCI 9. Nice day to summit MWN: 5F, wind 53G65, WCI -25.

Not sure whether tomato plants can tell the difference.

Norway maple is native to Europe but is widely planted in urban settings, as it's relatively tolerant of conditions there. It's also brittle and subject to frost cracks in cold climates. It is very shade tolerant and an early-season seed producer, characteristics that give it an advantage over native species. Since silver maples and red maples here have swelled buds, it's no surprise about the Norways being early. The most recent month with BN temps here was November, so phenology is understandably early, which to me is suspect. Somehow my apple trees dodged the killing frost last May 18 but many NNE orchardists were less fortunate. We've had major damage from late frosts in 1999 and especially 2010; that one toasted all the ash and oak shoots and some on the maples, along with frying every apple blossom.

Partridge drumming nearby, using the horizontal fir left after Dec. 18.

I think it's still the greatest vertical in the east. When I saw it way back in 1971 (rode the lift* during our June honeymoon) it was state-owned and suffering from chronic underfunding. It was spiffed up for 1980 but I've no idea what condition it is now. *Only the Little Whiteface lift was running for sightseers, and it was the scariest one I've been on - no footrest, teeny (9") lap "bar", and the final span was the scariest of all: About 2,000 feet between tower and summit so the catenary seemed almost straight up as we approached the top. Also, no trail beneath that span, just a sidehill 40-60 feet down and covered with the criss-crossed spruce cut and left when the lift was built.

Looks seasonal - average temp here on 4/29 is 58/34.

Some SN mix in the forecast for NW Maine, Wednesday night and Thursday. No mention of accumulation and it's 5-6 days out. However, a few late April flakes there isn't really news.

AN precip might mean that the AN temps would be mainly in the minima, 86/75 rather than 93/68.

We were driving our 1971 Beetle from NNJ to northern Maine that day, stopping at my BIL's apartment in Boston for dinner (meat and potatoes - a salad would've been nice.) and that little air-cooled engine was so hot that when we stopped, we could hear the pings as it tried to cool. Outside the apartment a rat ran across in front of us and tried to go into a hole by the steps but was too fat and had to back out and go elsewhere. (We were not impressed.) When we arrived home in Fort Kent, it was 40° and cloudy. After the sweaty marathon 16-hour trip, we loved it. I'll be at Pittston Farm north of Moosehead next Thurs-Sat, in time for the cool down. May see some flurries?

From the Franklin County Sheriff's weekly report on the Daily Bulldog. It took me 2:20 to cover the 22 miles from Flagstaff Lake to Kingfield. Without their work, it might've been more than twice as long. 04/08/2024 1200hrs, all available Sheriff’s Deputies as well as the Sheriff participated in traffic control in the Rangeley area and from Kingfield to Coburn Gore.

Frontline - the tick was on the outside of Buttercup's fur, which is the usual. We tried the 12-week product, Bravecto, and 10 minutes later $60 was on the living room rug.

Nice! Only a trace here from that one, but we had 3.2" three weeks later. On a completely different subject, our dog brought in a deer tick Sunday evening, earliest I can recall.

2010 was the earliest here. Unfortunately, 3 straight mid-20s mornings May 11-13 toasted the ash and oak leaves, along with every blossom on our apple trees. Last year was early, too, and many NNE orchards got hammered by the May 18 freeze.

My numerical system lands in D+ territory, with temps approaching F-land. However, the 22" overperformer in late March and the 13.9" dump earlier this month leave a better taste than the numbers, even though snowpack was BN. Also, the flood/windstorm of December 18, while not wintry, was one of the most notable events of my experience, even if it butchered the fir on our woodlot. C- I've gone thru only 4 notable floods, August 1955 and May 1968 in NNJ, April 1987 when we lived in Gardiner, and last December.

The great New England-wide flood was in March, 1936. The December flood on the Sandy pushed 1936 (38.6k cfs) down to 3rd greatest. Perhaps the most striking debris left by the December event were the hay wraps - 500 pounds of hay wrapped in white plastic - that came floating down the river. Along US Rt 2 there are dozens caught in the brush, and some wraps were ripped apart in the flow, leaving plastic "banners" waving from the trees.

Sneaky flood - only 1.16" RA plus mountain snowmelt. The Sandy River peaked at 20.9k cfs, which would rank 22nd of 96 water years but was a comparative nothingburger after the 42.7k last December.