tamarack

Coastal wx. Here in the foothills we've had May minima of 27 or cooler - lowest is 21 - every year except 1998, and our mid-month move from Gardiner meant the NS records started on 5/17. Had 32 on the 27th, also 32 in Gardiner on 5/14 (day before the move) so it was almost certainly 20s here that day.

Typical GFS day-10 map. How often have we seen the like since 12/1, and how often has it verified? Once? First day in a week that I could report "sunny" to cocorahs, but the mostly sunny forecast busted when clouds rolled in about 10 AM. At least that few hours of (filtered) sun pushed the temp from 28 to low 50s.

Oops! That's similar to the DD price, ~$8 for a 16-oz bag. (Unless they repeat their 3-for-20 deal.)

Temp was 30° under starry skies at 11 last evening and I figured on low 20s this AM. Like yesterday, clear evening was followed by clouds, kicking the temp up a few degrees by 6 AM. Cloudy 40s here - in fact all Maine sites are 40s at 11 AM - though the clouds are thinner than earlier. Brief sprinkle about 8 AM. BDL was mostly sunny and 61 at 11, no 79-80 today though 70 is certainly within reach.

Yikes! Medium (12-14 oz) hazelnut from DD has gotten more expensive but still <$3. Only buy coffee there (or anywhere) when traveling, however.

As chief forester (retired July 2021) for 600k acres of Maine public lands, I was tasked in 2018 with writing an essay on how climate change would affect Bureau of Parks and Lands timber management. It was presented with two sections, the first being effects on tree species and silviculture, the second being effects on timber harvesting and specifically on frozen-ground harvesting. An excerpt is pasted below, contrasting climate before and after the year 2000 for selected winter data sets. Operational Considerations: A warming climate promises to shorten the length of the frozen ground season and of continuous snow cover. Some of these phenomena, along with lengthened growing seasons and earlier ice-outs, have already been recorded. Models predict that a greater proportion of winter precipitation will fall as rain, though some models indicate that cold climates such as those of Maine may see a temporary increase in snowfall due to the overall increase in precipitation. The above cited report [sorry, not included] covers the entire Northeast, defined within as New York and New England. As Maine has the coldest climate among those seven states, I thought it useful to look at in-state data, using Caribou to represent Northern Maine, Rangeley for the Western Maine mountains, and Farmington as representative of lower elevation sites not in the far north. These sites have records beginning in 1939, 1961 and 1893, respectively, though Farmington’s snow depth records only extend back through 1940. I looked at snowfall, snow cover, and cold, the latter being both the numbers of days during December through March that reached lows of zero or below (for freezing down roads and trails) and days with maxima 32° F or lower (for keeping them frozen). For the three-site average, snowfall during the 21st century has been above 20th-century averages by 6%, supporting the hypothesis that the effect of increased precipitation where winter temperatures average well below freezing is greater than the effect of warming a few degrees. Duration of snow cover has declined 3-6% at Caribou and Farmington in the past twenty years while increasing by 5% at Rangeley. The temperature records show a clear twenty-plus year period of colder temperatures centered on the 1960s and 1970s. However, average temperatures for December through March are 2-3° milder this century than in the previous century, and cold days (zero/32 thresholds) have decreased, down 3% for maxima 32° or below and lower by 21%* for mornings zero or colder. Overall changes have been greatest at Farmington, least/mixed at Rangeley. * Decrease of zero/below by site: Rangeley 11%, Caribou 18%, Farmington 34% (Sadly, the wonderful data set for the Farmington co-op, 99.5% complete and missing only one month [March 1970] since 1913, has apparently ceased reporting since mid-October 2022.)

More than 95% for me, and it's almost always hot DD hazelnut, black - usually 2 cups/day. The few times I buy at the store, it's usually quicker to park and go inside than to pollute the air while waiting in line.

On our trip to southern Japan, we noted that 10-15% of pedestrians wore masks. In 2016

Little/no pack near the coast when the Feb Arctic blast blew thru. My low forsythia opened 5 days ago while the taller one next to the driveway has zero blossoms. 4th straight cloudy day here. April has had AN sun so far despite that spell, but this coming Sun-Wed may repeat the mank, also might include enough qpf to be interesting. It's a rare April that features neither days of promise nor days of crud. It's when the latter hits in May that hurts more.

Nice mottling below the knee. MY ablation last year involved equipment entering each femoral vein and thence to the heart, where the specialist zapped the rogue electrical sources. Afterwards, half of my right thigh turned that deep purple then eventually spread to below the knee and went thru the usual purple-to-ghastly-yellow sequence over several weeks. Oddly, there was none of that on the left side.

Our forsythia is supposedly an extra hardy variety, but -20 or lower (which occurs in 80% of our winters here) generally kills all the exposed flower buds. Fortunately, there was 4 feet of snow, much of it from the snowblower, atop the forsythia during the early Feb howler. I don't remember when they bloomed in 2010, the only milder late winter/spring, so the 4/14 blooming might be our earliest.

Shingrix #2 gave me moderate soreness around the injection site, which is a big reaction for me. Had a COVID booster and another pick (Prevnar? can't recall) in the opposite arm at the same time, with the usual no issues.

With the lone exception of 4/9-10/2020, SNE has done better than here for April snow during the past 10+ years. (Of course, other than events like 1975, 1982 and 2007, April snow is no big deal.)

Mid 40s and dank here, more like Aprils past than last week's treat. Two days of this hasn't quite reached the 1/4" mark yet. Probably the gentlest ice run and snowmelt on the Sandy in my 25 years here - all the drama was the jam in Farmington Falls from the pre-Christmas deluge. Runoff this spring hasn't gotten within 5 feet of the river's level back then.

Had 0.05" overnight - man the boats!

Cloudy all day here, though thin enough in early aft to get temp up to 60. Driving to Farmington late aft for evening service, I could see the distinct edge of clouds, with clear blue sky <10 miles west. Black cherry buds have opened, red maple and elm blossoms out full. Maybe 10 days ahead of avg - now can we avoid the dreaded May freeze/apple blossom killer?

My favorite wildlife experience was seeing multiple bears in trees chomping beechnuts. In late Sept I was scoping a spot for firewood cutters 10 miles west from Allagash Village when I heard rustling and went to sneak mode, hoping to see a moose. Didn't look up until I was only 15 yards from a tree with a bear and instantly froze. Soon I saw bear #2 in a tree farther away. After 10 minutes of watching/listening to breaking branches and beechnuts being crunched, my awkward position led to a slow sitdown. But not slow enough - bear #1 came down at top speed and I was confident my only danger was being trampled, but the bear headed the opposite way - she wanted OUT and her crashing thru the brush lasted surprisingly long. There was a 2nd bear in tree #1 which backed down slowly and followed mom, but the bear in tree #2 went south instead of west, climbing onto a maple limb about 15 ft off the ground. I walked over to that tree but soon left, as that bear was sniffling and whimpering piteously. It was mom and 2 second-year cubs. Sow bears in Maine usually breed every 2nd year and will chase off cubs if she's bred and approaching hibernation. I wondered if she used the incident to make the break from the kids.

I've read that black bears can reach 30 mph. Over 30,000 of the critters in Maine, possibly the most in the lower 48, and even with very liberal regs (including use of bait) the numbers are climbing. Very few bear-human incidents here, considering how many bruins.

Wow! I only paid 13k for mine in 2014 and have added 108k since then. However, I doubt the local Ford dealer would offer anywhere near that much in trade, not even the 12.

No transpiration, little shade and also usually low humidity means big differences between H8 and 2 meters. In 25 years here the year's hottest has been in April once, May 3x (plus a tie) and June 8x. Despite the fact that the warmest temps here run July 10-Aug 10, 49% of those hottest days fall weeks to months prior to summer's peak.

Five weeks later but 400 miles northeast, on May 22, 1977, the evening news stated that the 96 at CAR was tied with a site in AZ for the nation's hottest. (That 96 is also tied with 2 June days, in 1944 and 2020, for CAR's hottest.)

They've done it thrice, 91 on 4/19/76, 90 on 4/28/90 and 90 on 4/17/02. Only one 89, 4/28/09.

I find 19 days at BDL with 90+, including today. POR from 1/1/49. Chronologically: 1962: 27th, 94 1973: 22nd, 90 1974: 29th, 91 1976: 17-19th, 92/95/96 1977: 22nd, 90 1990: 27-28th, 92/94 1991: 7th, 90 2002: 16-18th, 90/95/92 2009: 25th,28th, 91/94 2010: 7th, 93 2012: 16th, 92 2023: 13-14th, 90/95(+?)

BDL has done that, twice - 16-18/2002, max 95; 17-19/1976, max 96. However, it appears that 13-14 this year is their earliest 2-fer. We were returning from NNJ to Fort Kent in that 1976 spell, and our poor 1971 Beetle had to be near to overheating - we could hear the heat pinging in the engine when we'd stop and shut it off. Spent that Sunday (the 96 day) overnight with my B-I-L in Boston and his Hawaiian wife had cooked up a massive meat and potatoes feed - she's essentially immune to heat - when a salad would've been better. Next afternoon when we got home there was still some snow on the ground and the max-min had barely gotten over 60. Relief!

Made another 40° range with 75/35, down to 43 this morning. GYX advertising a BD arriving here early aft, otherwise we'd make a run at 80. Spring progress: Forsythia blooming, partridge drumming and COC bird on display in our garden (dog noisily interested) for his lady friend in our apple tree, wood frogs "quacking" in our small pond. We had the muck hoed out last fall, deepening the pond from 2' to 5', and I wondered how that would affect the amphib population. Evidently, little if any.