tamarack

Ice fishing is cooked, at least on Flying Pond, unless we get several near-zero mornings (Unlikely).   Only about 1/2" RA but perhaps the same in snowmelt, raising the pond level 9-10", resulting in 5" water on the ice by the landing and a bathtub ring of water 1/4 mile away where I usually fish.  The big rock adjacent to the island, where I like to sit and wait, seemed okay until my first "dismount", when a 2' by 4' chunk broke away.  Took off one boot and stuck that leg into the 18" water on the narrowest gap rock-to-island, got my other boot on the edge of the steep bank, but something went wrong when I attempted to pivot on the wet leg, and I fell off to the side, once again proving that a 12" boot is inadequate in 18" water.   Drained what I could and stock it out another 2 hours (ice away from shore 11-12") with zero action, but the sunny 50 instead of the forecast 40-45 and cloudy made me antsy about getting off the ice without further drama.

3 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

I kid around, but I appreciate the power of mother nature. Would never want it to cause harm personally or to anybody else...but we appreciate the awe. If that makes sense.

It's sad, perhaps, but I agree.  Last Dec 18 was indeed awesome, even as I was thoroughly drenched (felt like beyond skin deep) as I was chainsawing trees off our road, all having fallen from our woodlot.  Each time I heard the roar, I stopped cutting and looked to see if anything was falling toward me.  I've not seen the east half of our 80 acres except next to the road, but on the west half at least half the big fir were destroyed - makes me wish I'd painted those for the 2013 harvest.

A non-cold comment on the cold season thread - 
We had 3 days, Dec 6-8, with temps 10°+ BN.  In the 85 days since then there's been exactly one - Jan 19 - and 30 days of 10°+ AN.

8 hours ago, ChangeofSeasonsWX said:

I wonder sometimes what the biggest single winter storm possible for this area would be, hypothetically. Five feet? Six? Everyone talks about 1888 but is it possible to see more than that from one storm? What is the largest qpf system we have ever had in the winter?

It would have to be a long-duration event like late Feb 1969 or what hit NS earlier this year.  Pinkham Notch had 77" from that '69 dump and Long Falls Dam (Flagstaff Lake) had 56".

2 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

4 nor'easters that month, one a week. This one was mainly rain, next 3 were snow. 

Up here it was whiff-boom-boom-whiff, with the 2 booms totaling 36.4".  Still dreaming about hitting on all 4, might've threatened my record for snowiest month anywhere, 61.5" in Fort Kent, Dec 1976.

10 hours ago, weathafella said:

No doubt winter is dark and wet but huge snows are not far away.  I went to paradise ranger station around June of 1990.  It is fairly low in elevation but has booked 1000 inches in a season.

In late November of 1996 we tried to drive up to Paradise but were turned around at about 4,000' (Going to the Sky Bridge) as we had neither 4WD nor chains.  At Longmire (~2700') there was mix and 3-6" OG.  We found a turnout maybe 100' elev below the bridge and there was nearly 4 feet OG, with great snowball-fight texture.   Paradise, at ~5500', probably had 6 ft+.

Found ~12" (3" gray, 9" black) on Flying Pond, about 10 miles south of my place, but almost no action last Tuesday.  Maybe try again Monday.  In an average winter there would be 18-20" this time of year.

It’s actually pretty amazing.  Summers are dry and beautiful with long days and light until close to 9:30-10pm in high summer.  You’re within 90 minutes of epic snows in winter with the occasional snower into the city.

I've only been there (actually near Olympia) twice, both times for Thanksgiving week, and there was rain every day both times.  Only about 4 of the 14 days were stormy all day; the others had occasional showers - every cloud seemed to spill a little.  Some say that it only rains once in November, from the 1st thru the 30th.

10 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Makes sense a little bit, but in what world would a forecaster term 18”+ snowfall in a period as “snow showers?”  It happens a lot out there.

I guess the question is why would you say snow showers at 2-4” accumulation and then use the same at 24-36” in a given period?  What differentiates them?

The forecast posted above has 25-31 then 48-54 for today-tonight.  The 24-hour record (76" IIRC) might be in danger.

Good news for those concerned about peaches and pears and what not.

Unless an early spring includes another mid-May freeze.

13 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

S CT near Bethany had a major .75 “ icestorm in Napril a few years ago 

I've seen 0.3" ice in early April - once, on Mile Hill 400' higher than my location - but 3/4" that late is amazing.

The vast majority of Northeast ice storms I can recall were much earlier in the cold season:
Nov 1921:  mostly in New England
Jan 8-9, 1953:  The hilly country N and W from NYC (>1" ice at our NNJ home)
Dec 11-12, 1970: NNJ, 3/4" ice
Dec 17-18, 1973:  Major damage W CT/MA
Dec 13-14, 1983: 3/4-1" N. Maine
Jan 8-9, 1998:  1.5-2.5" ice, terrible (also Jan 6-7 in PQ)
Dec 11-12, 2008:  2" ice?  Centered in ORH area

Jan 1994?  Maybe the 18th as that cold (in Gardiner, the light tower event) storm had a strong warm tongue - 5° at home, 40s with SE gales at RKD.

I'm sure there are others.

2nd pic, too many pixels for both to fit on one message.

Wreckage of a small red pine plantation thanks to December 18th, about 1.5 miles from home.

End of the February flop . . .  It's the first February here to be solid F's for both temp and snow.

Avg Max:  34.4   +5.0    Warmest day:  48, 28th   Mildest avg Feb max, 1999-on
Avg Min:   14.4    +7.8    Coldest day:  -6, 20th.  Ties Feb 2013 for most modest cold day.
Mean:       24.4   +6.4    2nd mildest, behind 2010

Met winter mean:  23.80   Mildest, replacing the 23.64 last year

Precip:  0.95"   -2.02"   Greatest day:  0.35" on the 10th, all coming in a 10-minute TS.  Driest February, eclipsing the 1.04" in 2012

Snowfall:   3.7"   -18.2"   Greatest day:  2.1" on the 16th.   2nd least snow (3.3" in 2006)   Only 19% (0.18") of precip was frozen.

Note:  If the cold front that arrived late on 2/28 had come a mere 8 hours earlier, the month average would've been 23.7 and met winter 23.59, leaving 2023 as mildest.

CF arrival was sudden, with a brief downpour and some house-creaking gusts, probably near 40, but then things quieted to 20s-30s gusts.  Nary a flake.  The late (10:50 PM) passage and slow temp drop at first resulted in it still being 43° at my obs time and thus the max for 2/29, even though it may not reach 20 this afternoon.  Had the front come thru 8 hours earlier, the February temp would've been nearly a degree colder than what it actually will average.

15 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Mine is almost gone       2 months of mud incoming

Still 12" here (with 4-5" SWE) but that may be cut in half by the end of next week.

11 hours ago, ChangeofSeasonsWX said:

Oh yeah for sure. But New England is mostly close to the ocean so realistically it's going to be humid most of the time whenever it's hot. When is the last time we had Arizona type dry heat around here? I cannot even recall.

In NNE some of the hottest days come with modest dews (hard to cook all that water), often in late spring/early summer on W/NW winds before the humid SW flow carries the heat.  Hottest temp at CAR is 96, in May 1977 and June, 1944 and 2020.

GYX has an hour-by-hour chart of winds for many sites in its CWA, and for our area the strongest winds come with CAA and continue into tomorrow evening.  Only ~40 gusts compared to the 50+ in Dec, but they're from the NW and may pick out some trees partially tipped by the stronger SE winds back then.  Bad winter for the woodlot. 

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

That would be about right as the 07-08 season was one of my top 5 all time up here.

Tops here since moving from Fort Kent, and only 95-96 in Gardiner and 00-01 here are even close.

18 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

It did last spring too and we know how nice last spring ended up bring. Blocks in spring don’t mean nasty weather like some folks on here think lol

Meh.  1st half of April was indeed nice.  2nd half had one sunny day, 9 cloudy ones, and segued into a downpour that caused the 4th greatest peak flow on the Sandy River (relegated to 5th in Dec).  May had a mid-month dry spell but the month was way AN for RA, then June 1-18 had only a single day w/o measurable RA.

16 hours ago, NW_of_GYX said:

All time rat. Still think 15-16 was worse here though. Anyone have temp departures for DJF that year? 

15-16 DJF here was 23.45 and a year ago, 23.64.  With 3 days left, we're at 23.53.  I think we'll sneak ahead, maybe around 23.7, though a lot depends on when the CF crashes the temp, as that will likely determine Wed's min and Thurs' max, which will probably occur at the same time.

16 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

I didn't realize how bad it is in Northen Main this winter.

Lack of snow cancels longest sled dog race in eastern United States (yahoo.com)

Snow on the course is thinner than usual, but IMO it was the forecast between now and start time that nailed the coffin shut.  (As noted in the linked article)

8 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

thanks, but how do you tie up and attach on a 12/12 roof? 

Metal - won't stay for long on 12/12.  (The 5k+ is a bit harder to take than buying a roof rake.)

Nice relaxing day on Flying Pond, no strikes to make me hustle until one (stole the bait) as I was picking up.  Seemed like cloudy/full sun exchanged the sky every hour or two.  Max here was 38-39 but on the ice it felt like 50 when the skies were blue.

11 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

About an inch dusting last night coating the trees this morning. 

0.7" of 35:1 fluff in the pre-dawn hours, thus passing 2006 for least snowy February.  Wednesday's RA should push us past 2012 for driest, so terrible month for RA/SN but no records - lose-lose.  We'll end up close to 2010's mildest February.  

2 hours ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

 Oddly last summer was not bad for mosquitoes here.  The larvae probably all drowned from the constant rain.

As usual ticks were bad spring and fall but fairly scarce in the summer. Interestingly there were a lot of pet owners having flea problems last year. Our vet said it was unlike anything he’s ever seen.

The ticks seem to go away, or estivate, or something from mid-July thru August.  Our Parks and Lands peer review forest trip in 2019 was in southern Maine - Newcastle, Swan Island (with its huge deer population), Hebron and Skowhegan, 40 people walking in tick-infested areas in mid-August.  I figured we would have a tick-pickin' horror show but, if anyone saw a tick, I never heard about it.  (And I was responsible for listening and writing up the trip notes.)  Since then, the tick-free Augusts have continued.  My personal record was 26 deer ticks at the Topsham lot, but that was in late October.  I was tossing them out the window as I drove up I-295 toward Augusta.

3 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

This is going to to be an epic bug and insect spring/ summer. Warm winter with zero cold, wet winter until Feb / tons of water in ground and a torch Morch/ Napril.. They’ll be out over next few weeks splatting in car windshields and grills . Not looking forward to that 

Maybe.  Last year we had a wet May and a near-constant rainy June, and we feared the worst.  Instead, black flies and mosquito populations were less than usual, and we had the fewest deerflies since we lived in Gardiner.  BN tick attachments also.