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Everything posted by tamarack
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Nice. Still 23" here and it's solid, at least 30% water content. Last 2 events totaled only 1.6", leaving the Jan total a mere tenth shy of 30", which is about 10" AN and 3rd most for January 1999-on, so no complaints here.
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With only that 100+ we had no problem consuming them long before they would go by.
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Along with blueberries, my favorite fruit. Our NNJ home was within 10 miles of (and about 500' higher than) several peach orchards. We'd buy a peck and I'd eat 6 or more every day.
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I planted a Reliance peach within days of moving to my present location in mid-May 1998. For its first 3 year it would triple in size then bottom-of-winter temps of -24 or -25 would kill the top half, followed by super growth (but no blossoms) the next summer. Winter 2001-02 never dropped below -12, there was no dieback and we picked 100+ sweet fruit of about tennis ball size in August. Jan-Feb-Mar 2003 included 12 days with minima between -20 and -29, a few of those with significant wind, and the tree was essentially dead. A small sprout appeared from below the graft in summer '03 but all was still after 03-04 (Jan 04 would've killed the tree just as thoroughly as winter 02-03. I just said thank you Lord for giving me one crop before demonstrating that our frost-pocket microclimate was too cold (on the cusp between 4A and 4B) for peaches. Median for winter's coldest is -25 and we may approach that Saturday morning, maybe Sunday as well but without the breeze.
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Old scale. Though -84 on the current scale is awesome anyway. The -34/35mph at our Fort Kent home at sunrise on Jan 18, 1982 was -101 on the old, -72 on the new. The -29/40mph at 9 the previous evening felt even worse. worst part of the 94 cold snap was it flipped warm. -25 at dinner to rain the next day and 40s then back below zero. Allagash went from -45 early on 1/27 up to 44 about 48 hours later. Brain-cracking numbers for CAR below: Jan 26 -13 -32 0 0 5th coldest max and tied for 2nd coldest mean. Jan 27 5 -23 0 0 Jan 28 45 -1 0.69 3.3 Jan 29 43 -3 0.30 0 Jan 30 -2 -20 0 0
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Other than at Fort Kent, where we had 3 wire-to-wires in 9 full winters, I can recall only 2, lifetime - 1960-61 in NNJ and 2007-08 here in the foothills. (1947-48 probably qualifies but I was too young to understand.) 1975-76 only misses because March had snow 1" BN.
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On Jan 17, 1982, the WCI was -70s, about -100 on the old scale. Probably will remain 10-20° above that mark up there.
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Month's high was 46 on the first. Since then, only the 41 on the 18th has gotten past the 30s. Currently maxima are running 5.7° AN and minima are 12.8° AN. Clouds