tamarack

Black flies grow in clean, cool running water, which I suspect is quite common around your area. If a watercourse is growing brook trout, it's growing black flies. Those snow-dump melt pools are probably breeding skeeters. Black flies here are numerous and hungry, but they've not reached their peak yet so no way to rate the agony. Worst black fly experience for me, by far, was at Deboullie (25 miles south from Fort Kent) in June 1996. Folks wearing face nets had so many critters clinging to them that visibility was seriously compromised, and it's the only time I've been pounded by the little beasts in 90° temps - usually if it's much past 80 they leave the field to the deer flies.

5.5" RA in 5 days, then 5 drops (this morning) in the past week. Black flies doing their thing, bees buzzing around and waiting for the apple blossoms to open, though they're doing fine with the white violets and dandelions in our lawn.

Plenty of 40s afternoons here, just as had been forecast 4-5 days earlier. Minima yesterday and the day before did the opposite of the above - weekend forecasts had those mornings for New Sharon at mid-upper 30s, and by Monday it was 32-33. Since my frost pocket usually about 5° below the GYX forecast for our town, the 28/27 frosts meant the later/colder forecast was the right one.

70/27 here, 2nd 40+ range of the year (62/21 on 4/10). Might've been close today as the low was ~40 but thanks to Alberta I think we stay well short of 80. We're cloud-free but the sun is filtered thru upper-level smoke - at least it's high enough that there's no aroma. Ash and basswood have 1" new growth, oaks with 2" leaves, sugar maple leaves 1/2 full size and aspens near full. Yesterday's frost didn't damage any of the new growth so we've dodged that bullet for another year. Looks like a lot of apple blossoms coming despite the buds lost to deer browse and loads of blossoms opening on the quince bushes - friends introduced me to quince jelly a few weeks ago.

Had 27-28 here, still frosty when I left the house about 7:15. Looks like our first 40+ diurnal range of the month.

3.2" here, 91% of all the May snowfall, 1998 on. Even in Fort Kent we never had a 3"+ May snowfall.

28 this morning with light frost, hoping tomorrow won't get much cooler and fry some of the new growth. Fortunately, the apple blossoms haven't opened yet. When we had low 20s during the 2nd week of May 2010, blossoms were full and 100% were killed - not a single fruit from our 3 trees that year. Puffy clouds against a deeper color than yesterday's smoke-filtered light blue.

Spring pastels aren't as spectacular as fall colors but have their own special beauty. First black fly bite this afternoon after 3-4 days of their checking out the menu. That's about 5-7 days ahead of average here. Phenology was 10-14 days ahead in mid-April but 3 cutoffs chopped that in half. While not liking the process, I'm glad things slowed down, as it lowers the chances of a killer late frost. Also fetched a deer tick while working within arm's reach of the house today - the little demons love me. Expecting Stein in June, as soon as I put in the veggie garden.

Sun! Partly cloudy, at least. Should make a run at 60. Ticks are awake and active - took a walk down the unmaintained road to look for possible washouts (none found) and never left the gravel though I had to push some leaning alders out of my way to avoid a deep puddle. Had to yank one deer tick from just above the corner of my mouth and another from between pinkie and ring finger. Also picked one off the dog; she's medicated so the little horrors wind up atop her fur for easy removal. Bleccch!

Canoe still under the porch, will wait for some sun and warmth.

Only 5.39" here. Stein 36 with drizzle at this morning, rocketed up to 40 so far.

The 1936 event included ice jams on some Maine rivers. None of the current USGS sites for the main Kennebec stem go back to 1936 but both the Sandy and Carrabassett do. 1987 peak flows were 1/3 greater than 1936 on the Sandy and 2/3 greater on the C'bassett, so the Kennebec peak flow was undoubtedly above 1936. Below Augusta, however, the marks on the Cobbossee bridge in Gardiner show 1936 as about 1.5 feet higher than 1987, thanks to a major ice jam downstream at Richmond, hung on both the Richmond-Dresden bridge and Swan Island. May precip thru this morning was only 0.10" below the month avg; it may be AN by now.

The Kennebec watershed must've gotten the greater amount of rain, as it peaked at 133,000 cfs. IIRC, in 1987 the Androscoggin's peak was near 70% of that at the Kennebec, rather than less than half. People have commented on the debris from up river that is going over the falls, They've seen Tents, Tires, Ice Shacks and numerous trees, Some one i know had a vid of a tree that was 4' in circumference or so at the base that went over the falls and he said it sounded like thunder when it hit the bottom. At the Gage Farm (the big silo) along the Sandy in New Sharon, the last of the shoreline pines disappeared yesterday. Years ago, there were three big pines, about 2' diameter and 90-100' tall, on an outside bend - that's where rivers eat at the banks. On Sunday the final survivor was leaning at 45° and by 2 PM yesterday it was gone. Whether it snagged along the riverbank or is piled up against the dam in Skowhegan, I have no idea. Since the NNE cold season thread is probably dead, I'll put our April numbers here: Avg temp: 42.7 +2.3 Avg max: 53.7 +1.7 Highest, 78 on the 14th Avg min: 31.6 +2.9 Lowest, 17 on the 3rd and 9th Precip: 3.76" -0.35" Wettest day, 30th with 1.26". 1.20" of that was part of the 4/30-5/1 4.45" deluge. Snow: 1.5", all on 4/1 -3.3" Pack: 119 SDDs, 89% of avg but more than twice the median. Total SDDs (assuming none this month ) came to 2,059, which is 116% of avg. When the last 4" went to "T" on 4/12, that ended 116 consecutive days with 1"+. Avg is 117. Nov had 14 more 1"+ days and the 130-day total is 8 days AN. Again, a very strange winter - mildest DJFM of 25 years here and a 4-month departure of 4.8°, but snowfall a foot above avg.

May 1 provided 87% of the month's average precip, with 2-day totals in central Maine ranging from 4" (4.45" here) to over 6". Local rivers got well above flood stage and caused a lot of road damage - several schools are closed today due to uncertain road safety. Carrabassett peaked at 35.5k cfs, 3.9k above the previous #2 flow, from Irene. Sandy reached 31.3k, their #4 peak flow. Both rivers have data starting in the 1920s. Highest since 1987 but far short of that flood, 51.1k and 51.7k respectively. Kennebec was 8.4 ft above flood in Augusta and 113k cfs at the gauge in North Sidney, also tops since 1987, though the earlier peak of 232k dwarfs all other flows.

Finished at 4.45", a penny short of #6 and the same margin ahead of (now) #8. Water was coming on to Route 2 in Farmington where Temple stream joins the Sandy, but the level is all river. The town baseball diamond, Hippach Field, looks ready for water polo. Route 27 is impassable at the foot of Mile Hill in New Sharon where the brook makes a right angle turn just before the bridge. May 1 provided 87% of our monthly average.

Had 4.42" by 10 AM. 6th highest in our 25 years here is 4.46" and will probably be exceeded (maybe already has) while #5 at 4.61" is probably safe. Top 4 are 5.43" to 5.99", way out of reach. The athletic fields of U. Maine Farmington are under water, and the Better Living Center (organic products) is adjacent, so they're renaming the place "BLC by the Bay".

Reminds me of the year that the Seattle Mariners won 116 games, tied for the most ever, and then lost to NY in the league championship series. 1st team to win 110+ games and not reach the WS.

Reported 4.09" thru 7 AM, about 4" since 6 PM yesterday. Maybe another 0.3" since 7 but the heavy rain is done. There are puddles in the yard where I've never seen them before. Temple, 2 towns west of here, reported 5.21" by 7 AM.

Beats my 0.06.but then your area is progged for significantly more than here. GYX discussion has 5-7" for the east slope of the Whites - could get interesting along the Saco. I think the rivers to the north Andy and K'bec, should stay within their banks

5 of the last 9 days have been ugly here - 17, 18, 19, 24, 25. I thought today would make 6-of-10 but we've had nice PC and 50s this afternoon after chilly clouds earlier.

The only 2 near-severe TS here, 2005 and last year, came in the 2nd week of June. And the massive tree-stripping hailstorm a few miles to our SE was on Aug 30, 2007. Top TS months, avg/yr: JULY 4.4 JUNE 3.3 AUG 3.2 MAY 1.3 SEPT 1.0 Annual avg: 14.9, but only 11.2 over the past 5 years.

The bolded phrase describes the past 2 days here, though we had a few hours of 42-44 yesterday. Actually had some sun this morning but by 7:30 the clouds had taken over. Friday 60s at Pittston Farm (north from Moosehead), top of the week. Then another dive into the frequent eastern New England wx during the 1st half of spring. Maybe we can get a 2009 repeat. Bite your tongue (or keyboard)! April and May 2009 combined were near my average for precip and sunniness. June and July were terrible - each had the least sun for those months in our 25 years, with June 2009 tied with Dec 2020 for least sun in any month.

Low 40s showers - maybe not.

Who knows? However, my only 1° range was 54/53 on 6/3/2001 - had 0.50" RA after 1.44" the day before. (52/47 that day). In the 25 years here we've had 6 days with 2° range, 3 of which came in Nov. Temp has risen 3° from this morning, so no records there; still dripping.

Another 0.42" reported this morning, total thru 7 AM is 0.90". Since very early yesterday morning, the temp has wiggled between 38 and 40. The annual Pittston Farm men's retreat is this Thurs-Sat. We get the nicest day in the 7-day on Friday but Thursday's drive up will be a sloppy, slimy mess on the final 20+ miles on gravel roads. Probably the least snow there for the retreat since 2006, sometimes there's still 2-3 feet in the woods.