tamarack

37 to 70s here - low dews, bright sun, high angle. May averages the greatest diurnal range here at just under 25°, with April 1.6 behind. Nov-Dec fight for the lowest range at 17.xy. May 2001 and 2018 each had an average range of 29.9°, while at the other end the silly-mild Dec 2015 range was only 12.7°.

IZG 32, same as here. Frozen dew atop vehicles. Whatever survived 25° on 5/18 just laughs at this morning.

32 this morning with frozen dew on car tops. That won't damage anything, as I've not even tilled the garden yet. (Today?) I think I know why the oak leaves were scorched and ash were not. Probably it was because the oak leaves were 1/3 full size while the ash leaves were just coming out of buds. Edit: IZG 32, BML 30, HIE 27

Only one good rumble last month, nothing this month, but the early month flood was not boring, especially for those behind washed-out roads. The 0.29" last evening along with the 1.83" last weekend while we were away brings the month to 6.35, and another 1.2" fell during the last few hours of April. Over 7.5" in 25 days but a 14-day stretch in the middle with only a couple of sprinkles.

The 25° low last Thursday spared the apple blossoms but partially scorched the leaves on the 2" diam. oak outside the back window. No sign of damage to adjacent white ash, which is usually more frost-sensitive than oak. Saw some light (so far) defoliation on tops of oaks along I-78 in NNJ and I-84 in CT. Also lots of dead ash trees, though some in NJ appear to be hanging on. No idea whether they're tolerant or on the way out, though they're in the midst of many dead neighbors, so I'm a bit hopeful. I've read that some white ash tolerates the beetle; green ash/brown ash, no such hope.

D for temps here with the mega-Grinch on 12/23, but no long thaws nor record-warm days. B+ for snow, with AN total and SDDs, 3 storms 10"+ including the 22" dump in mid-Dec. Normally those grades would average C/C+ but due to the big storm and good retention, I edged the overall grade to B-. One of the biggest NNE/SNE discrepancies I've seen; only 2007-08 is competitive, though with all sites N to S getting more that winter than 22-23.

Like many garden plants, an inch per week is often recommended, whether it's from the clouds or applied by the gardener. This month is something of a head-scratcher here for watering frequency - had 5.4" 4/30 thru 5/4 then only sprinkles for 15 days. Then 1.8" the night of 20-21 and another 3 tenths last night. Trees are less quickly water-stressed than veggies/flowers, though newly transplanted trees warrant watering almost daily as about 90% of their roots are left behind when dug for transplanting. I transplanted several small (18-30" tall) white pines shortly after the early-month deluge, and watered them every 2nd day thru the 16th before traveling 17th-23rd. Your oaks should be fine with the 1"/week total as the frost did no harm to the root system. (Also, oaks as a genus are more drought-resistant than most other New England deciduous trees, though adequate water ensures top vigor.)

We do a 2-step, with monthly doses HeartGuard and NextGuard from about 5/1 thru 11/1. Ticks won't go into her fur and her being a yellow Lab mix makes spotting the beasts easy. These meds are wolfed down while Buttercup wouldn't touch Bravecto without a liberal addition of canned cat food. Mr. Tamarack, on another subject, i have some young (5-10 years) oak trees that were budding and had small leaves when the frost hit a couple weeks ago. now all the vegetation is dead/wilted. will these trees come back? a couple I don't care a lot about, but there is one (the older of the 4) that I really don't want to be dead. thoughts? My guess is that they will produce a new set of leaves, possibly a bit smaller than if the frost-kill had not occurred. The 22/26/25° sequence of May 11-13, 2010 destroyed the new leaves of our oak, ash and some of the maples, and all re-grew foliage. It's a strain on the tree, as anyone who's seen the effects of multi-year Gypsy (now "spongey") moth defoliation. Our trees were much older but if yours were vigorous in previous years, they should withstand one year's frost toasting. (Somehow, last Thursday's 25° morning failed to touch leaves or apple blossoms here.)

We were using the monthly meds, tried Brevecto a couple years back and within 10 minutes we were cleaning $60 off the living room rug. Back to monthly.

Arborvitae is usually the trade name for Northern white cedar, Thuja occidentalis. In its natural habitat in the forest, it's a favored food for deer, also an important tree for deer wintering areas. What arboriculturists have done thru careful breeding, I've no idea, but sometimes a single branch can lead to trees with much different appearances and characteristics. I've read that it was a single branch, a "sport" in the trade, that spawned all the Crimson King variety of Norway maple that one finds all over.

Unless I've mis-copied the ENS data presented here by red taggers, we had 3 ninas 1998-99 thru 2000-01 just since I moved to the Maine foothills. The period 2010-11 thru 2014-15 began with 2 ninas then 3 nadas, 5 years with no ninos. Farther back, the period 1970-71 thru 1975-76 included 5 ninas with only the strong nino of 1972-73 breaking up the 6-year run. It`s entirely possible we could observe some daily record lows with values in the teens to mid 20s in the Dacks and Northeast Kingdom and to the upper 20s to lower 30s in the broad valleys. Just when I thought our apple blossoms were safe. Even GYX whispered about possible teens in northern valleys within their CWA. Latest we've gone below 25 was 5/14/20, a very cold spring with phenology running more than 10 days behind. We had 25 on 5/20/02, but that followed 4 weeks of 5° BN temps with 6.2" snow 4/26-29 and another 0.3" on 5/13, again a late-blooming spring. This year is 5-7 days ahead of average so we're vulnerable to late killer frost.

Did some number noodling to compare accuracy of the predictions. DIT only guessed for 9 sites, so I used those sites to compare. There were 8 others who made predictions for the 9 sites, though all 8 also made other predictions. The average prediction of the 9 was 61.9" and the actual total was 33.7". Thus, the average prediction was 184% of the actual. DIT's predictions averaged 46.2", closest to the actual at 137%. Next closest was 151% and the rest were at 171% to 228% of the actual. DIT predicted only one NNE site, Dryslot, who finished at 86.3". Average prediction was 83.7", or 97% of the actual, and ranged from 64" (DIT) to 101". Ginx gets the blue ribbon for his 87", only 0.7" off the actual.

Two weeks ago today, the Carrabassett River recorded its 2md highest peak flow in its 90+ year history and the Sandy marked its 4th highest, similar POR. This morning both rivers are under their 25th percentile flow, the flashier Carrabassett closer to its record low than 25th percentile. Ten rain-free days with low RH and trees ramping up their water demand has made for a rather precipitous (pun intended) drop in those rivers.

Another 31 this morning. May be upper 20s here Thursday morning, probably not low enough to damage the apple blossoms, which will be near full by then. Lots of bee action in the few that had opened last Saturday - good sign. We plan to be in SNJ by Wed night, and they're expecting 40 or upper 30s even down there the following morning.

Fire in the stove, light frost earlier here, possibly more mid-week. Nothing special - median date for last frost is 5/24.

Bumper crop in many places that spring. Oddly, the Friday before our bug-infested trip north, I was in the Rangeley country helping to scope out a snowmobile trail, and there were almost no black flies. On Sunday I opined that the bugs might not be too bad, then next day at Coffins' store in Portage Lake, we were getting pounded in the parking lot despite the full sun and upper 80s. Maybe I should revise my opinion?

Your total ranks 3rd, only 0.4" below J.Spin and 2.6" away from Phin in 1st. 48 forum members signed up (your entry makes 49) and 14 never made an entry, a 15th made only one, so just 34 "real" participants this year. Most of the no-entries were from stink-winter regions, but not all.

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.