tamarack

One evening when we lived in Gardiner, I was taking garbage out to the curb when a very young skunk walked right up to me, sniffed, then walked away. I had one black bag and one white, so maybe it thought I was Mother. When my older brother was doing outdoor bivouac during Ranger School, he woke up to find a skunk sleeping on his chest. A few cautious wiggles and the critter ambled off. Brother expressed how glad he was that it wasn't a cottonmouth. I was being a bit sarcastic regarding all this supposed warm water. Not so warm after all. thanks for the charts. SSTs on Casco Bay were near 70 a week or so ago, then Lee brought up water from where the lobsters live. Any TC heading here now would need to be going faster than 1938 to reach PWM alive.

Saw something like that on CNN - smaller resorts at somewhat lower elevations lacking snow.

About 15 years ago when rabid critters by the hundred were being encountered in Maine, we had a smallish skunk wandering around the house in early afternoon, not their usual active time. Our Lab got a small dose - fortunately, she'd had her anti-rabies shot 5 days earlier - and finally my old .22 Mossberg ended the episode. I could've had the skunk tested (for $125 out-of-pocket) but its behavior was convincing. Low 40s this morning, very fallish. Maybe U30s tomorrow?

1816

Doubly incredible - frogs lay their eggs in the spring around here, so the tadpoles can mature well before frost. 2.19" from this event, 42.60" on the year, which is 8" AN, plus any further September rain. Again, the towns to the west were wetter - Farmington 3.15" and Temple with 2.90". Combining this event with last Wednesday's downpour (and ignoring the 0.02-0.03" from Lee), Farmington recorded ~6.5", Temple 4.6" and 2.5" here. Steined.

Finally into steady rain, lit the wood stove about 2 PM as we've remained <60.

That might date you (unless there was more than one trial). IIRC, the only year-round DST was done in response to the 1st Arab oil embargo, beginning in 1973 and lasting 2(?) years. Also was the time of 55 mph limit, plus strong recommendations to save electricity by foregoing Christmas lights. We traveled from BGR to family in NNJ for Christmas, and the near-total lack of nighttime color was sad. About 0.1 after 5 hours of off & on light RA. Heavier stuff will come this evening.

Only time that (slightly) bothered me was the 2 Decembers (1979, 1982) with bare ground on the first week. Combining a 3:55 sunset with drizzle and brown ground made for dreary times. (And those winters were the poorest of our FK years. The 2-year average of 93.7" looks okay, but the other winters there averaged 145".)

Only 40.41" here. Too bad we missed the Farmington toad-strangler last Wednesday - 0.33" here, 3.24" to 3.35" there.

Only 0.02", least water from a nearby TC that I can recall, but genny had to run 4:10-6:40 PM. Some road blockages here and there, including a falling tree causing a fire in the lines near Hammond Lumber in Farmington, closing Rt 2 for a while. From 2-5 PM the wind was 25G40 here with impressive roaring. Was surprised that only small branches were the only damage near the house. Highest gusts were similar to those in a decent TS (none this year) but 3 hours of it is harder on the trees than 3-4 gusts.

Would be a rockin' good ride on the Songo River Queen.

Power off/genny on at 4:10. Gusts near 40, not uncommon in decent TS with no issues, but trees able to withstand 3-4 gusts may not do as well with 2.5 hours (and counting) of them.

Two guys plus a dog went on the Kennebec at Bath in a small (~16 ft) boat. BIW rescue fished them all out of the river. Towed in the boat, too. Strongest winds here, about G35, arrived 2 PM and continue. Radar says it's raining but only an odd droplet hit me when I was outside for 20 minutes looking for what caused a loud pop/crack - found nothing of interest. I wonder if dry air is evaporating the -RA between the NEXRAD beam and the ground.

Saw a clip of a wet-suited surfer at OOB - waves looked about half as high there. Our forecast 1/4-1/2" has so far verified at 0.02". The 55 mph gusts have (fortunately) not reached here either, though we're somewhat sheltered by the 80-foot trees all around.

The anthracnose browning on maple is the worst I've seen here. That plus the huge seed crop yet to fall (before today) from sugar maples makes for a dull appearance. However, the wet site red maples are looking normally bright for mid-Sept. Having a June with the most days with rain and the least percentage of possible sun did no favors to the trees; most of the 10 that I measure biweekly have shown slower than usual diameter increment. Hoping to avoid another 2005. That fall the colors were late, mostly dull yellow - zero reds - and 80% were gone after the 5.7" northeast storm on Oct 8-9.

Probably waiting for some interesting wx. Light rain, maybe 0.02", and gusts about 30 - trees are getting their exercise but no more than that so far.

23 of 25 Septembers have had frosts, all but 2011 and 2021. Those Septembers only reached 33 and 34. IDK about this year - 12 straight AN days, have not gotten below 42 yet.

Eastport is on the north side of Cobscook Bay and will get wind but probably not the big waves. Lubec isn't much farther, and West Quoddy Head will be wild. Or if you want to rough it, a mile-plus hike on the Cutler bold coast trail (trailhead parking off Rt 191 about 4 miles past the town) might be even wilder, getting splashed while atop a 60' bluff facing Grand Manan. Edit: Ninja'd by Powderbeard. 2nd edit: Schoodic Point might be open, and it's closer than the above sites.

Northern Maine had 2-6" on Sept 30, 1991. Ironically, on that same date in 1986 a supercell flattened 600 acres 10-12 miles south of Fort Kent. I've never seen any evaluation from CAR, but the straight-line damage suggested 90-100 mph - perfectly sound sugar maples were snapped off before they could be uprooted. The swath was 4 miles long and up to 1/2 mile wide, ending as it blew trees into the north end of Square Lake.

Probably some road damage in Farmington last evening - 2 hours of blinding rain 6-8 PM, had to go 15 mph while going thru the UMF campus about 6:20 and at 8 waded at 5 mph thru the huge pond in front of Giffords. Some cocorahs numbers for my site (NS), Temple, and the average of 2 Farmington sites north of town center: NS Temple Farmington 9/13 0.26" 1.26" 0.48" 9/14 0.33" 1.71" 3.34"

Seems like every TC encounter I've had was followed by CoC the day after. Got sprinkles from the west edge of the patch now pounding Dover-Foxcroft, looks like the bigger bunch will slide by to my west. If it's going to be cloudy all day, I'd prefer that something happens.

Jay Maine, 10-15 miles to my SW, had 5-6" in 2 hours on June 29. (We had 0.43".) State highway 133 just reopened this past weekend and some back roads are still in bad shape. There was a cautionary note with the 133 reopen: "Drive as if you've never been on this road before." There are unpaved patches, low (or no) shoulders, steep drop-offs next to the road, those sorts of things. We've had 15 calendar days with 3"+ precip since moving here in May 1998. Three came in the first 26 months, then only 8 over the next 22 years. The most recent 4 fell in just the past 12 months, Oct 14, Dec 23 (Grinch!), May 1 and August 8. During the nearly 6 years previous, Nov 16 thru Sept 22, the biggest event was 2.54" on 12/25/20, less RA than last Dec but a bigger Grinch, with record warmth (28° AN, 1° higher than 3/22/12) that wiped out every trace of snow. Today's cocorahs report was 1.22", 2-day total a comparatively modest 1.53".

Consumer Reports puts USAA head-and-shoulders above the rest of insurers. Unfortunately, my brothers being vets doesn't qualify me, but our carrier has used us well, though our rates have (unsurprisingly) gone up. Our Forester got hit in Nov 2021 and again the following April, and we were technically at fault - in both cases we're confident the other drivers were going too fast for conditions, but it's not provable. Each accident did about $6k to our car and the insurance company approved the repair costs and cut the check in timely fashion. We highly doubt that our insurance will be an issue due to Lee.

Maybe. More likely it's what white pine does, and though it seems a bit early, so do leaves on most of the other trees around here - more tired-looking than colored. Needles on white pine grow in year 1 then are dropped at the end of the 2nd summer, usually around the end of September. Needle cast (there are several fungal species involved) generally takes out the overwintered needles while the new ones are partially grown, with the infected needles falling mainly in June. I would be a lot more concerned if the brown was at the branch tips instead of on the 2nd-year foliage that's about run its course anyway. (Trivia note: Some needles on the main stem hang on into a 3rd summer.)

Well said. Where I live has tiny earthquakes, small (or no) tornados, modest tropical storms and (occasional) big snowstorms. My preferred mix, though any extra snow is appreciated.