tamarack

Digging into long-term records has been one of my hobbyhorses. However, some of my favorite sites seem to be going offline, very disappointing. Here are some from my area: Site Start of obs Last records Bridgton Nov. 1, 1893 March 2019 Lewiston Jan. 1, 1893 Temp 11/02, All data 5/10 Gardiner Sept. 1, 1886 May 2021 This is the only Maine record for March 1888 that I've found, with an 8" paste dump on 3/12. (ASH had 28") The site I've mined most deeply, Farmington, has but 11 months missing from Jan 1893 on, and only one (March 1970) since 1909. However, the obs were "M" for Oct. 16-30 and no reports yet for Nov/Dec. Maybe Oceanstwx or others at GYX know if that site is cooked.

The real AN was farther north. While GYX/PWM were about 2° AN, CAR/Fort Kent/Van Buren were 6-7.8° and had +/-12" from the mid-month storm. Not often when the foothills are a clear jack - even Rangeley/Jackman had 18"/11.5" while foothills totals were generally 20-28". December stats: Avg temp: 27.2 +5.0 and 3rd mildest of 25 Decembers Avg max: 34.8 +4.0 Mildest day, 49 on the 30th. Avg min: 19.6 +6.0 Coldest morning,4 on the 11th. The 2 milder Decembers were the only others that failed to reach zero or below Precip: 7.16" +2.61 and 2nd only to 12/2003. 80% came in 2 events, 2.41" from the 22" storm of 16-18 and 3.25" from the 12/23 deluge. Snow: 23.3 +4.4 and the first AN December since 2017. The 12/23 event began with 1.2" of SN/IP and there was a tenth on the 1st, slightly adding to the big dog.

D for temp (5° AN), B+ for snow. The total is 123% of average, which normally would be a B- month (would be A or A- for the season) but the 22" mid-month dump is the 3rd largest snowfall since we moved here in spring 1998.

As Paul Harvey would say, "You can run but you can't hide." For the past 10 or so years I've been attracting deer ticks by the hundreds (not all at once!), some of which got their ugly mandibles into my hide, but with no ill effects. Then last month I was feeling extra blah, and 2 days before Thanksgiving had a spell of confusion and blurred vision that had my wife thinking "stroke". At the ER she spotted a tick latched onto my back and that led the medical folk to test for tick-borne disease. Fortunately, anaplasmosis is bacterial and quickly (3-4 days) yielded to doxycycline. Probably the infecting tick had hit me a couple weeks before while I was vainly waiting for a deer to walk by. Hoping your C19 runs its complete course in just a few more days, at most.

Would not mind if the warmth and RA blows out the ice jam in Farmington Falls - if that is maintained (and augmented) until cold wx arrives, it might cork the bottle of the spring ice run. 49/32 yesterday, 21° AN. Slightly cooler this AM and probably little/no sun so more like 44/29 today for +18. Another 20+ AN Wednesday?

Very few hornet nests here so no data. However, in Fort Kent snowfall varied inversely with nest height. (Except for the huge nest in a small yellow birch sapling near Allagash - bent it over to nearly crochet wicket shape, so one would get a different read from a July obs compared to one in September when I saw it. )

Will finish about 5.1° AN here, 3rd mildest of 25 Decembers and 3rd straight AN month, but also AN for snow thanks to the big dump 2 weeks ago. CAR at +6 but GYX a modest +2.5.

2° max at Central Park that day - next lowest is 4°, reached twice. One was on the same date in 1880, the other on Feb. 5, 1918, just 37 days after the record. The period Dec 29, 1917-Jan 4, 1918 is by far NYC's coldest week, with the average day at 9/-4 which was 31° BN.

3 straight days with snow! About 20 flakes Monday, only 10 yesterday but an actual dusting today.

Many years ago (1955-56) in NNJ we had a calm and slightly below zero night about Dec 20 that put 2" on the 95% of our lake that had been open water. A high schooler was skating all over and saw that I'd walked out on the 5% of older, thicker ice to test the new stuff's thickness. He skated over to scold me for ruining that beautiful ice (one small hole on a 50-acre lake). A small snowfall a few days later was wiped out by some 40s, then it was dry and cold for 6 weeks. It's the only time I've seen black ice a foot thick or more.

Perhaps Cheektowaga took cores while Snyder measured what was caught in containers. With 40-60 mph gusts, might make a difference.

As a general statement, that's not even debatable IMO. Specific to, say NYC, I think that March 1888 took more lives in the city than did any hurricane. (Sandy is tops?) Maybe some extended heat wave would be the closest to that blizzard.

Currently +4.5F here, will likely be +5 by month's end, with one or two +10 (or milder) days on 30-31. Only the 3rd December of 25 that failed to go below zero, unless we get some super radiational nights tonight or tomorrow night. Minima have been consistently above the forecast, as nighttime clouds do their thing. I think Aroostook will be even more AN than here.

More like BUF's repeat of 1977, only moreso.

Comes from playing OL. I'm o of those, too, though I played 50 years before you. For TBlizz: As others have noted, NNE is different, and this month is a good example. Since mid-November I've had 5 RA events and one big snowfall. The month will finish about 5° AN and either 2nd or 3rd mildest (2015 will rule forever) of our 25 Decembers here. Yet we'll finish with nearly 125% of average snowfall even if the next 5 days adds nothing. Even with Friday's 3.25" deluge, there's still 12" at the stake and enough for the groomer to be working on the local club snomo trails. And I'm at 390' so no big elevational advantage.

Saw it on FB. Just looked on Google, found an article (brief) w/o pics

Bigger and more damaging dam on the Androscoggin at the top of Rumford Falls. Route 2 is closed, looks like 3+ feet on the road (with a few large ice cubes) based on an abandoned vehicle and some of the flooded buildings.

At noon, NYC was 12° and the coldest hourly reporting station in Maine was IZG at 15. Not often one sees that temp regime. Significant ice jam on the Sandy River, from the Farmington Falls bridge down 2-3 miles into New Sharon. 2nd smaller (~1 mi) jam in NS, above the quick water one sees from the Route 2 bridge and up to where Muddy Brook enters the river. Would be nice if those ran before the flow calmed down. Those jams are probably 3-4' thick and would remain, and increase, until the spring run.

Reminds me of Jan 1985.

Lost 4" but still have 12, and it's got a lot of meat. Fortunately, about 3/4 of the 2.84" RA (after 0.41" LE in SN/IP) came with temp 32-35. CAD was defeated about 1:30 and an hour later it was 46 with RA+ and gusts to 40 - had been light wind prior to 1:30. The 3.25" total precip is a top 10 for a calendar day here and easily takes Dec record, pushing the 'real' mega-Grinch (12/25/20) into 2nd place. Power off for just 2 hours, early yesterday morning. It's chilly today but our low of 12° is 5° milder than at NYC - not often to see that relationship.

Power went off early yesterday morning and we thought our first long-term run of the generator had begun. That machine shut off, surprisingly, just 2 hours later and other than some blinks, we had power from then on. Wind gusts here probably topped out near 40, still 12" OG after 3.25", 7/8 of which was RA with several hours at 45-46°, after the SN/IP start. Morning low here 12°, one degree AN. Low at NYC: 7°, twenty degrees BN.

Had some moderate RA washing the window on the SW side of the house. Also, the sending unit lives - temp dropped a degree.

Precip thru 4:45 here is 2.84", the first 0.41" in SN/IP/mush thru 7:30 this morning. CAD lasted to about 1:30, at which time the temp went from mid 30s to upper 40s in one hour and gusts into the 30s began, though no real screechers like others are having. That temp pegged at 48; it's still mild but if the instrument stays up there once the cooldown arrives, I'll know the sending unit's batteries got drowned as the NE side of our house has gotten a washing. Hopefully it didn't wreck the instrument. Given the upstream echoes, we might make a run at 4". It's already replaced 12/25/20 as the biggest calendar day precip event in December here, though our deep and cold pack has only dropped from 16" to 13" (so far).

CAD here finally was broken about 1:30 - 1st gusts over 20 (approaching 30) and temp into the 40s.

Still lower 30s as CAD hangs tough. Probably howling winds at 925 overhead but unless/until the RA+ blows away these 30s temps, wind will remain modest.