tamarack

A long distance from New York City, both miles and character, the Farmington Maine (pop. ~5,000) co-op recorded from January 1, 1893 thru mid-October 2022. It's sites (several) thru the summer of 1966 were in town. In September of that year, the new observer moved the location 1.5 miles to the north, a site along the 2-lane Route 4/27 with single-family homes generally 100+ feet apart and only small vegetation. Over the years trees grew larger, and by its closure (observer had passed) there was a 50-foot-tall red oak less than 30 feet from the Cotton Region shelter and other trees within 100 feet. Below are the most recent heat records, showing the lowering of most recent hottest: 101 8/2/1975 "Hot Saturday" Even reached 100 at Bar Harbor. (Also all-time records at PWM [103] and BGR [102]) 99 6/20/1985 95 9/9/2002 94 6/20/2020 93 6/28/2021 92 5/14/2022 I'm not sure why the dates (except 1975) are all shoulder season. Forest transpiration would've been relatively low in mid-May and in September, but should've been in high gear by late June.

Low end normal - Sandy River flow has dropped below the 25th percentile (and 0.3% of the flood flow in Dec 2023). The small trib running thru our woodlot is down to wet sand, not even disconnected puddles.

We've had only 2 heat waves in our 27+ years here, and 8/13-15 is one (other is 6/25-27/03). August 2002 had an 8-day run, 11-18, that had an average high of 89 with each day at 87-91. Wasn't too humid as the lows averaged 58, but our car's AC had conked out (at 204k miles) earlier that month. Then 9/9-10/02 reached 93/92. Since then, we've reached 90 eleven times but none later than June 28 - 2 in May and 9 in June. Odd distribution; maybe the taller dews and busier trees of mid-late summer have held down the max temps.

EWR almost always leads the pack. Since Jan 1, 2000 they've recorded 37 days of 100+ (including 3 last month) while Central Park has had only 6. EWR is a bit milder in the cold season as well, with 355 days with maxima 32 or lower over the same period. NYC has had 403.

June-July rain so far is 3.94". Driest June-July 1998-2024 here was 5.02" in 2004. I think that mark is toast.

Gackk! HI must be near 130.

No met here, but if you could hold that event near our home, it's almost a guarantee that the storms would miss.

We have grapes here that look like that description. They only get to 3/8-1/2" in small bunches and are mostly seed with little flavor in the rest. "Fox grapes" is a term I've seen applied to them. When we lived in NNJ there were wild Concord grapes less than 1,000 feet from home. They would produce large (often 100+ fruit) bunches of deep blue grapes 5/8-3/4" and while the seeds were large, the juice was excellent. My older brother and I would fill a couple of buckets, and our mom would make a wonderful jam.

Average here from June 1 thru today: 8.27" Total for 2025 from June 1 thru today: 3.94" Current radar shows RA to both south and north, each heading east.

Tell that to a firefighter in full turnout gear. Or anyone with a job that requires heavy physical labor.

Dews will stay in the 60’s south of pike tomorrow "Pike" meant 40°N

Had 0.10" just before noon yesterday while Aroostook saw much much more. Then clouds hung in thru 4 PM, ensuring that the actual CF produced nada, another quick 20° drop in TD with little or no action. Low this morning was near 50.

Slightly under 1/10" here but enough clouds to probably kill chances of serious RA this afternoon. Still under 50% of average precip since June 1.

And Bobby Richardson, light-hitting 2B for the Yankees - still holds the record for RBI in a World Series.

I've seen a lot of white pines that have shed last year's needles, thanks to the fungal needle disease. June 2024 wasn't as endlessly raining like the year before, but it had AN rain. The fungi (several species) infect the new growth in late spring and the wetter the wx, the worse the infection. Jun2025 had about half normal rain, so I'm hoping next year's needle drop will be much lower. I've not seen any significant problems with other species.

I've never seen anything like that widespread mortality. No sign of a surface fire (little fir with thin bark, very susceptible). No idea what happened; most fir death is from something like balsam wooly adelgid and that almost never attacks trees so small. 46 this morning, TD about 10° higher than yesterday but still shy of the stickies. Four consecutive mostly sunny days in July is a rare occurrence here.

Have to concentrate on the cool season veggies - cole crops and root crops. When we lived in Fort Kent we had damage to our pumpkins on July 31, 1978 and the neighbor's beans were killed. Hit 28 late that August. We were then at the edge of the built-up section of town at 550' elev. Moved to a back settlement at 970' in 1981 and on August 28, 1982 we had slushy flakes. In both places we had to ripen 90%+ of our tomatoes indoors. In 1983 we reached Sept 13 without getting below 39 and the forecast low for the next morning was 40. That verified at 25 and our green tomatoes were fit to use for croquet.

43° of fake cold here. Yesterday's max of a sunny 66 wasn't fake.

Cool and wet. The month had measurable rain on 23 days and the average max was 69.9, our only sub-70 July with only 2021 even close. Thru the 16th, maxima were running -8.4, and for the month -6.4, both incredible departures for a summer month. That was an awful summer but August was salvageable. True, but it was way too late for my garden.

Multiple showers here but not enough to make puddles. Severe-warned TS arrived - and died - at 4 PM, distant rumble, couple of 20-mph gusts, 0.01". Act 2 at 10:30 was a bit better with 0.09", nearly all in a pair of 30-second downpours. Not much to show for the 20°+ drop in TD. Since June 1 we've had 3.28" RA. Average is 7.12". Would be nice to catch siggy RA on Sunday before the next coolish dry days.

Close. BDL forecast shows 84.

We're running +2.5 here, with minima closer to +5. If the month finishes +2.5 it will rank 4th, but only a 28-year POR. At the far longer Farmington co-op (RIP OCT 2022), +2.5 would not make top 20 (of 128). However, temps dropped when the obs site went to a new observer 1.5 miles north of town center in Sept 1966. For that spot, +2.5 would rank 7th of 56.

Given the numbers of mouse and vole species plus their huge populations, that seems like shoveling sand against the tide.

Might roll differently if one hid in your short hairs and gave you Lyme or anaplas. We're in the woods with forest close to 3 sides of the house, so the tactic below would likely be futile here: Years ago I read of using drier lint (or cotton) mixed with pyrethrin - safely, with gloves - and stuffed into TP rolls or the like. We call the main disease-carrying tick a deer tick, but small rodents - everywhere in the woods - are the main animal vectors and they love that stuffing for nests, thus eliminating the ticks. However, one must place rolls no more than 10 feet apart near the lawn edge and cover them to prevent rain from soaking them. A lawn with 100 yards of edge would require 30 rolls, and they would need to be replaced every few weeks.

My 2022 adventure with anaplasmosis came when a tick crawled into my crotch while I was on our woodlot unsuccessfully waiting for a deer to come by. A week later I picked off the fully engorged little monster but was already feeling awful. Tuesday before T-Day my vision went screwy - could not read the words on the desktop screen - then I staggered into the living room, nearly falling. Wife called 911 for my 2nd ambulance ride (1st was 2018 with A-fib), EMT couldn't puncture my dehydrated skin at first. Got to ER, wife spotted a fresh tick on my back, tests followed and then the doxy had me feeling much better within 24 hours of the first pill. I've had to pull off well-attached ticks many times (resulting in several weeks of itch but no diseases) but only that one got any of my blood. I have so many Lyme stories. Atrocious disease. 3 timer here. One time 105 fever, in the hospital for 3 days. A young man died from Lyme while I was there. I don't go in brush or the woods unless on a trail. Paranoid as fuck My forester job didn't allow that tactic, and I was very fortunate to find/remove hundreds of ticks safely over the past 30 years. Coworker wildlife biologist, who was doing as much or more bushwhacking than me, got Lyme - times 3. He's still going strong, will turn 84 in October.