tamarack

Only -4 this morning after -14 and -15 lows. Last evening looked to be headed for another minus-teens morning until the clouds arrived. At 8:15 it was -6 here then popped up to zero by 8:30 and was locked into that temp thru 11 PM.

This. Jan departures and snowfall: 2023 +9.0° 29.9" 2024 +4.7° 29.9" 2025 +0.9° 3.5" My guess is that we finish +/- 0.5°. This month's highs are -0.9°. lows +2.7°.

We had -42 on Dec 20, 1980 in Fort Kent, 2nd coldest in our 10 years there. Our chief forester had gassed up at the office, climbed in, shut the door and backed up while looking over his right shoulder. But the door latch was stiff and failed to hold, allowing the door to swing open and make minor contact with a parked car. When he tried to shut the door, it fell off, the steel hinges having snapped in the cold. He waited until noon when the temp got up to -20, but it was still a cold 2-mile door-less trip to the dealer.

Dec 30 was an extraordinary date for Central Park. In addition to the -13, 12/30 hit -6 in both 1880 and 1933. The 1880 day had a max of 4, tying with 2/5/1918 (that winter didn't quit) for 2nd coldest. Coldest morning there, -15 on Feb 9, 1934, reached 8° in the afternoon. The Farmington co-op recorded -11/-36 on 12/30/1917. That tied Jan 9, 1968 for coldest max. The daily mean of -23.5 is the coldest at the co-op and was 41° BN. Their coldest min was -39 on Jan 20, 1994, but the high that day was a mere -1 and the mean of -20 is 2nd coldest.

That 1917-18 week set a lot of records. NYC had temps of 8/-6, 2/-13, 6/-7, 10/-4, 10/2, 12/0, 18/-3. Week average: 9.4/-4.4/2.5 A century later (and a lot farther north) we bridged into the new year with 6/-16, -3/-14, -1/-31, 7/-25, 1/-18, 1/-24, 6/-27 Week average: 2.4/-22.1/-10.9

Last evening the temp was 7° colder than the same time the evening before, but today's -15 is only 1° colder than yesterday. IZG hit -21 and we're usually right about the same. Maybe I need to surrender my rad pit badge? I think this winter may be a correction from the Jan-Feb distribution of the 2 previous. Feb is still our snowiest month, but the gap is less than half what it was after 2022, as Jan 23+24 had 150% of its average while Feb had only 45% of its norm. Now we need the usual (or better?) Feb to right the ship.

If we can dodge snow thru the 31st, this will be the least snowy January I've seen since 1969. The next month brought the "Mayor Lindsey" storm that paralyzed NYC, in part because a forecast cold rain turned into 15" of paste.

On full rad nights our frost pocket can be at least 10° colder than the GYX forecast. Wind was still active at 10:30 last evening, so "only" -13 here instead of the -17 that IZG reported - I'm usually close to that spot. Coldest I saw was -24 at BML.

He's in Guilford, not far from the state's geographic center. Fringed even worse than here.

North fringe here, 1.4" with 0.09" LE. It still was this month's biggest dump.

The 90%/most-likely/10% from GYX are as wide as I've seen. Skowhegan's numbers are <1/6/14. Uncertainty continues.

Adjacent zones the S and E have watches while S. Franklin (Z-13) doesn't. All 3 have 3-7 predicted but 13's threshold is 8". We take, whether it's 3 or 7, as it will move us past 2014 for least snowy January.

I'll take 5" and like it as it more than triples January snow here, but it's odd to see the mountains, coast and the I-95 corridor modeled with more than the Maine foothills. It almost never verifies that way.

That's freakishly uniform - all of New England with an H8 within 2C? The entire map within 8C.

For someone. Might be better for my brother near Wilmington NC than for the grandkids in SNJ.

Feb. 2023? Certainly not this winter. That blast 2 years back had MWN gusting over 140 at temps below -40.

About 15" of powder at my NNJ home. While ice fishing nearby a couple days later, I saw 2 snowmobiles come over the low hill and onto the lake - 1st ones I'd seen. 1963-64 was a sneaky good winter, with a white Christmas (7" on 12/23) and a late Feb rain forecast turning into a 10" dump. It ended on a sour note - I was babysitting 4 kids on 3/21 with a WSW posted and was watching all evening as the storm mucked about with no accum. Parents got home at 2 AM (as planned) and by then it was S+ with 1"+ paste on the roads. I slept until 10 AM, got up and looked out to see how much had fallen after I'd gone to bed. Saw . . . nothing. Upper 40s and full spring sun had melted everything but a few patches behind the larger trees - bummed.

Maybe. Saturday's 1" of 17:1 fluff survived Sunday's 30° with full sun, though it settled some. Same conditions a month from now and the new snow would be gone.

I'm too cheap to buy into the Globe, but found Snow Valley on G.E. Trails mostly grown in and looks like only the foundation remains from the lodge. (2022 imagery) I can remember seeing the upper trails of Bromley seeming close enough that skiers there could lob snowballs down on us. (Those trails were about 2.5 miles away. )

Thanks to that ceaseless wind (until last Saturday), January here hasn't gone below 2°. Average maxima running -3° while minima at +4°. Our coldest came during Dec. 23-27, with lows -6; 12 (with 6.3" fluff); -5; -6; -7

I hope to get onto Flying Pond (Northern Kennebec County) early next week, and expect to find 10-12" given when the ice first caught and subsequent temps/snow.

That's why I like ice fishing, though the price of live bait keeps climbing - up around $10 for a good day on the hard water.

In 1970 and 71 (once each) our NNJ scout troop visited Snow Valley, just north from Manchester VT, in the middle of the Stratton/Bromley/Magic triangle. T-Bar and Poma, about 600' vertical with some steeps but no black diamonds. I've looked on GE but the place probably closed a few years after our excursions so the trails have trees 40-50 feet tall.

Or with the liquid salt solution - gets the road down to pavement faster but a slimefest while flakes are accumulating. Reached 1.0" on 0.06" LE.

Some folks think they can drive normally in light snow. They slow down when it's puking but stay at 75 in rates like this event.