tamarack

And more than a few from our house. Temp got down to -21 about 8 last night and stayed 21-22 below thru 7 this morning. Gusts to 40 last evening, uncommon at our forested site. WCI probably near -50.

MWN WCI -101 at 5 PM. FVE a modest -55 WCI.

That line seems way too slanted. Ignoring the zero pips (since those years also have them in the group area) the line probably ought to start at about 115 and drop to the low-mid 90s. A 3-week shift is significant, but that line shows about 7 weeks.

Down to -16 now, probably the coldest pre-sunset I've seen since Fort Kent.

Apartment in Farmington where some friends live has lost water and heat - hot water heating. Probably 10-12 families in the building. Water company is digging in the front yard - they need to find a fix in a few hours or the building becomes uninhabitable. Friends have a small space heater but that's not a safe option after bedtime.

Where is that? Seems a bit chilly for LEW. That was the 3 PM temp at FVE but the WCI was -51 there. Another 3 PM nugget was ALB winds at 40G54, fastest non-mountain reading by 10-20 mph among the hourly reporting sites shown from GYX. Coming our way? Cloudy here with an odd flake or two noted, though they may have been torn off the roof by the wind. 12:30 temp of -2 has fallen to -12 by 3:30.

Sunshine battled CAA to a draw between 7 and 12:30, but it's dropped 5F since then - now -7 and sliding. Windy but nothing special as yet.

14 years POR at 2200' - Dec 1997 thru Nov 2011. Average 228" (median 235), 293.6" in 2000-01 and "only" 181.7" in 2009-10 are the extremes. Pack reached 56" on 3/31/01. 1 PM at FVE: -17 WCI -43. Dwarfed by MWN, -35 and -88 (101G112)

Only happened 3 times since we moved to Maine 50 years ago. Fort Kent in 1978 (only 2" from the KU) and Gardiner in 1987 came when a bunch of strong storms was followed by an extended period with no storms. The 3rd one was in 2006 when only 7.8" fell after Jan 31.

Temp hovering at 2-3° below zero since 7:30. Had 0.3" of fluff during the overnight. Cheap high of 19 from last night's obs, otherwise this would be our coldest Feb max - current record is -1 during the near-blizz event of 2/2/15.

Seems like that 1943 crisper was centered on CNE. Coldest I found for Maine was Scopan at -44. That's at the dam of the same-named lake about 20 miles west from PQI. 1st CT lake reached -41. Their all-time low, POR from Jan 1, 1918, is -45 on Feb 1, 1920. If they had started a week earlier to capture 12/30/1917, maybe that would be the lowest.

PWM reached -39 that day, coldest ever by 13° except for the -31 at 11:59 PM on the 15th. Might be the coldest coastal temp in the US until one gets north of the Aleutian Peninsula. Numbers for that ridiculous cold snap: 2/14 32 -2 0.59 4.0 10.8 BN 2/15 -2 -31 T T 42.6 BN 2/16 7 -39 0 0 42.3 BN 2/17 19 -19 T T 26.5 BN Imagine a -26 day feeling mild.

Ever seen the potato fields there. Doesn't take much to cause a whiteout and they've had enough snow that the roadside piles are high, which leads to snow swirling in the roadway for even less visibility. The only total whiteouts in which I've been caught came on sunny days. The first was in January 1971 as I headed home to NNJ from a ski week in VT and crossed into NY at Crown Point. The wind was north, with a fetch that included Lake Champlain, and it was a mile of stark terror. Met one vehicle and fortunately we each were going <10 mph as our headlights became visible at about 10 yards. 2nd was in April while driving from Fort Kent to St.-Pamphile after the deck of woods bridge over the St. John had been pulled before ice-out. The SW wind was blowing straight downriver on the St. Lawrence and the NW-SE range roads approaching the Trans Canada were at right angles. Several road cuts were so blinded that had I hit something, I would've had to get out to see what it was - literally could not see the end of the pickup's hood. The TC was better, being elevated for most of the 40 miles I'd be on it. However, I found that the throttle was stuck, and my tapping the pedal trying to knock it loose merely floorboarded that pedal. The 40-mph headwind plus my small 6-cyl C-10 held velocity to 55-60 so I rode it to the St.-Jean-Port-Joli, the St.-P exit, where I turned off the engine, coasted to a parking lot and removed the crusted ice on the throttle cable.

Here our +9.1 combined +5.5 on highs and +12.7 on lows. 2006, the 2nd mildest January, had minima +8.6. Jan 2023 mornings were just at another level.

A day (actually, 2 days) to remember. Our staff biologist and I made a 3-day trip to see northern Maine sites with BPL's North region foresters. The afternoon of the 14th we were on the Soper Mountain public lot, next to Big Eagle Lake in Allagash country. It was mild - low 30s - when a snow squall arrived and the temp began to fall. We then drove to Portage Lake as we were staying at the Maine Forest Service building on the east shore of the lake. By the time we got back there from dinner it was -2 with howling wind. Next morning the temp was -32 there and the wind gauge was hovering above/below 30 mph. (MFS has quality instruments, important for fire control purposes.) CAR reported -20 with WCI -85 (old scale - probably near -60 on the new). When one drives 250 miles to see something, one goes out, or as one UM forestry professor used to say, "There's no such thing as inclement weather, only improper clothing." In the morning we were mostly sheltered from the wind. Not so after noon, at the Bald Mountain public lot about 20 miles west of Ashland and 800-1000 feet higher than CAR, where the max was -9. We were okay in the woods, but about 4 when we got back to the sleds, the wind was still roaring with the temp likely in the -15 range. The ride back included 2 miles on plowed road due to the only place we could park, and I was riding 2nd up on a tundra behind a regional forester about 5'1" tall - no place for me to hide. 1988 Tundras maxed out at maybe 45 mph and the quartering headwind probably meant an apparent speed closer to 60. I held my fists against my cheeks, which helped but left me with hourglass-shaped white spots, fortunately 1st degree frostbite with no lasting impact. Day 3, at Deboullie, was cold but not very windy, just another cold day in N. Maine.

This is what I've read for HWA but I'm less optimistic on EAB. Maine has two EAB invasions and the smaller one is in Northern Maine, having crossed the St. John from Edmundston, NB. Van Buren, one town east from the infestation, has gotten down to -38 in recent years and crosses the -30 threshold in about half its winters. Fort Kent, two towns west of the critters, generally runs 2-4° less cold than VB but has also been under -30 recently. It's essentially all brown ash up there. One of the auditors for our (Parks & Lands) forest certification lives in Sault S. Marie, ON, and 7-8 years ago he said that EAB had killed essentially all the ash in town. Mostly green ash out there, and that species has shown no resistance/tolerance to the beetle; some white ash - most common ash in the Northeast - have shown tolerance. Brown ash, a critically important tree to indigenous peoples in the Northeast, reacts like green ash. I will look into the linked research, but in the Northeast and adjacent CA at least, enough EAB seems to survive those colder temps to maintain a population.

Farmington co-op, with 7 AM obs at the time, had a max of 16 with winds gusting to near 50. Very short cold snap - highs on day before/after were 36/39. Only one other April max under 22 there since 1893, 18 on 4/8/82.

GYX latest temps for this area compared to this morning's numbers - Friday same or a bit colder, Friday night 1-2° less cold, Saturday and Sat night 6° less cold. Daytime forecast went from -2 to +4. Last subzero max here was Jan 6, 2018. In 24+ years (25 Januarys) we've only had 9 subzero highs plus 2 more at zero.

Also, January's average diurnal range was lowest by nearly 3°. Cloudy and mild. Lowest range of all came in Dec 2015 - same c & m pattern.

Agreed. After we moved west to the Jersey Highlands in 1950, we went 5 winters with no 10" storms and only one over 6". Then March 1956 happened.

January numbers here: Avg max: 31.3 +5.5 2nd mildest behind 2006. Mildest day, 46 on the 1st Avg min: 17.2 +12.7 Mildest by 4.1°!! Coldest morning, -8 on the 22nd. Only 2 subzero mornings; previous low was 4 in 2002 Mean: 24.2 +9.1 1.7° milder than 2006, and greatest positive departure of any month here. Next is 7.6° in March 2010. Precip: 5.26 +2.04 and 3rd most Biggest day, 1.25" on the 13th in a SN to yuck storm. Snow: 29.9" +9.9 and 3rd most. Biggest day, 8.8" on the 23rd. 22-23 totaled 10.1" and brought the pack to 24", tops for the month. Avg depth of 13:" was 1" AN. Dec-Jan cumulative: Temps were +7.1°, precip was +4.65" (160% of avg), snow was +14.2" (137% of avg).

Can't say what happened there, but 1st half Feb 2009 had nada here, except for a thaw. Then 19-23 had 2 storms totaling 33". We can dream.

I don't think last year's -30 on Jan 27 will be reached - colder H8s but poorer radiation this time. Best chance would be if things slow down a bit, so Saturday night gets the rad.

At least nothing will fly off with the peaches, except maybe some "finger blight" from the neighborhood kids. First double-digit subzero this morning, with -12. Saw PQI with -26.

One more little event like this past one and he'll be in 3rd place on the snow table, with #1 and #2 way out of reach.