tamarack

33 here, with frozen dew on car tops.

Last time we got 2"+ from a tropical system was Irene. Other deluges have been forecast (most recently Isaias) but either swerved away or underperformed.

Your coolest since we moved here in May 1998 is the same as ours, 2000. However, Sept 1999 is our warmest at 61.1°, leading by 1.4°. Only 2015 and 2017 among the others even topped 59°. 2nd coolest here was 2019, though not much below 2009, your 2nd coolest for '98 on. 9/99 had a stretch of warm/humid wx unmatched by the other Septembers, though it got hotter in 2002. (9/9/02 hit 93, tied for the hottest day here, but the 30 on 9/1 is our earliest frost.)

48 for the low this morning, 4° milder than yesterday thanks to wind blowing all night. High yesterday was only 59, a low diving platform for the overnight but for the mixing. Already into the low 60s today and TD seems a bit higher than it was yesterday afternoon. Wind still bringing in air from the NW, so dews may drop enough for fog-free radiation.

2019-20 is a good example. That November is my coldest of 24 here, slightly below the previous year. Then met winter ran +2.2 with all 3 months BN for snow. After that, the snow season's biggest dumps came on 3/23-24 and 4/9-10, and a month later May surprised with another 3.2". Those 3 events improved a near-ratter to a slightly BN winter. Stochastic

We visited the summit of Whiteface during our honeymoon, IIRC on 6/24/71. We drove to a parking lot at about 4,600' then walked thru a tunnel to the summit elevator. Probably 50s on top but that tunnel was still making icicles. Can't remember if that was before or after we were terrorized on the Little Whiteface chairlift. (Tiny lap bar, no footrest, paint peeling, jackstrawed timber beneath instead of a nice ski trail.)

Not for people. And our Lab mix doesn't like the water. She did have a short swim there a couple years ago, but only because the algae layer was so uniform, she thought it was dry land. Our late lamented black Lab was in there all the time. When she would get all muddied up in the woods, I'd toss a stick into the pond to get her washed. Sometimes took 2 or 3. Given that the pond is all spring fed, its temp now that it's been deepened probably will stay uncomfortably cool.

Digging out the pond by our well. It was originally dug as a stock pond according to a long-time resident of the town, possibly re-dug for fire suppression by the folks who built the house we live in back in 1975. Pine branches, leaf litter and other muck had decreased its depth from 4-5 feet to 2 feet or less, while supporting an amazing algae crop.

Dews already into the upper 30s for many Maine points. A Saturday frost would be close to my average/median for 1st frost, which is Sept. 18. Last year 1st frost came on Oct. 24, latest by 18 days and only the 2nd time Sept. failed to have a frost. Moved the average a day toward met summer.

With Maine standing out as the only neutral temps east of the Rockies. At least it's not the ridiculous deep red of 09-10 when Maine stuck out like a hammered thumb (though that "winter" is a main reason for neutrality).

92-93 was remarkable here for bring snowpack from patches to huge in about 6 weeks. Farmington co-op reached 56"after the superstorm, 2nd only to 1969, and our Gardiner home topped out at 31", tallest in our 13 winters there. We missed Dec 92 altogether, other than a lot of wind, and our 10.3" for 3/13-14 was near the smallest New England total. Warm air must've invaded the midlevels, as that 10.3" had 1.70" LE and heavily rimed flakes. 93-94 had less total snow but easily the most SDDs we had. Pack reached 20" on Jan 18 and didn't drop below 18" until April 2. That would be ordinary at our current foothills location but was the longest period with that much snow on the ground there, with Jan. 22-Mar. 24 in 1987 the only winter in the same ballpark.

And those high dews didn't arrive here until mid-July, and went away first of this month, though with a lame cameo Mon-Tues.

Morning AFD from GYX: A reinforcing cold front crosses the region early Thu. This will both increase winds again...and usher in some much cooler air than we have seen recently. It will struggle to get out of the 60s for the coast and southern NH...while in the mtns readings should remain the 50s. Maybe more importantly will be that elevations above 2500 ft will likely remain in the 30s for the day with apparent temps only as warm as the 20s. This will be a sharp change from recent weather...and fall hikers should be prepared for winter-like conditions at times thru Thu. First time I've seen language like that since Fathers' Day. Only 0.08" from yesterday's system, all during a short TS about 12:30 this AM, enough noise to spook the dog (doesn't take much) but not enough to wake me up. Farmington co-op temps only went up 0.7° with the new norms. Jan had the biggest jump with 1.8° while April was within 0.01. Sep/Oct/Dec/Jan all had increases >1°; Nov only 0.2° thanks to the cold Novies of 2018/19, 2 of only 6 Novembers that averaged <30°. On the other side, the new norms include a 5" increase in snowfall, thanks mostly to kicking the 1980s off the back end.

Grandparenting is one of the joys of middle age.

West was best. Only 2 Maine cocorahs reporting more than 1/2", HUL with 1.53" and Perry (eastern Washington County, on the border with CA) with 0.83". We had enough thunder at 12:30 AM (as I slept) to spook the dog, but only 0.08" to go with yesterday's trace. Big underperformer in Maine.

Had some seemingly decent echoes overhead late morn, got a sprinkle, then another smaller patch about 4, got nothing. Motion on those bright echoes to the west may have too much of a northerly component to do much here, unless something pops up east of them.

But it's actually going to bury the Midwest before turning left up the HV and reprising Christmas 2020 for our region.

This is my 25th September here, and this month has averaged the highest percentage of available sunshine, 3% higher than #2 August. Despite its shortening days, September has the greatest average hours per day of sun, though August isn't too far behind. Short-lived, however, as OND comprise the 3 lowest percentage months, with Nov-Dec in close competition for last place.

Probably true even in Ft. Kent now (as lawyers rule), where schools used to almost never close for weather - from Jan 1976 thru late October 1985, one full day (1-3" forecast for the overnight surprised with 16-18") and one half-day (kids dismissed at noon at the height of the 24-30" storm - all bused home safely).

The 2 severe/catastrophic ice storms I've experienced came on Jan 8-9, 1953 and 1998. '98 was not only worse at my residence but must be a contender for the most widespread severe ice storm on record. Both storms made iced twigs well over 1" diameter and I saw a 1st-year ash twig in 1998 that was 2.2" by 3.0". Next 2 in line: --Dec. 11-12, 1970 (NNJ) with twigs to about 0.8" and significant though not widespread tree damage and only brief power outage. --Dec. 13-14, 1983 (Ft. Kent back settlement), comparable accretion to Dec. 1970 but with considerable IP and 20 hours without power. It created a 3" crust that had 1.90" LE, with top and bottom layers of ice-welded IP 1.25" thick (looked a bit like Rice Krispies treats) surrounding 1/2" clear ice. Once 6" of snow fell atop, the crust in the woods could carry a running bull moose. Downtown Ft. Kent, 450' lower, had mainly RA. --Probably next is the March 7, 2011 mess I described in an earlier post, with 1/2"+ twigs and 24 hours w/o power, the only time I've seen accretion greater than 1/4" later than January.

Our school let out at noontime so of course I walked over to the main beach to watch the 50+ gusts kick up the waves - large, considering the lake was a mere 50 acres. One neighbor took out his Sailfish (small sailboard) and had to paddle back as a gust snapped his mast. Low of 61 this morning with mid-60s dews, very summery but likely the last 60+ minimum of the season. Might be 60 tomorrow morning but I think we'll cool down below that mark late in the evening.

That limited effect seems similar to Jan. 1953 (trivia: 45 years to the day before the 1998 event), which affected mainly the hills N & W from NYC. Our home was about 30 miles west of the Big Apple at 700' elev and we lost power for 6 days though the ice fell off on day 3. Every large tree lost branches, and some snapped off below the branches, leaving a stub. The town to our north was lower in elev, about 450' where we shopped next to the Pequannock River, and they had mainly cold RA. The taller hills, ~850'+, had numerous "asparagus trees", naked stems with all branches piled about the base.

Our last "decent" ice storm was 3/7/11, with 2" IP followed by 1/2"+ accretion. (Eustis had 19" SN.) I was at a forestry meeting in Orono that day and my wife was house-sitting 2 towns south from BGR. When I got home about 8 PM all was dark, and the inside temp was off the thermostat scale, probably mid 40s as it was upper teens outside. Perhaps a side effect of my spinal stenosis (fixed late the next month by fusion surgery), my usual high tolerance for cold was totally absent and I had a miserable night even as the Jotul was warming the house. The 1973 storm was one of the weirdest of my experience. We lived in BGR at the time and the event began with 4" snow then changed to cold RA during the overnight. The next day RA became heavy with a few IP (liquid precip was about 3" with trace IP), then the temp shot up to 54 in 2 hours and by 6 PM it was 56 with howling SE wind. Hearing that NYC was 25 with ZR, we called my parents in NNJ and they said it was 15 there with ZR. At 11 PM we were still 51 and news noted that NYC was 18 so we called NNJ again (knew they would still be awake) and learned that it was down to 9 with IP. That -1 (2008) actually ruined that (or saved it depending upon one’s point of view) from being truly extraordinary. Either that and/or a much thinner layer of <32 saved us in 2008. We had similar precip, about 2.2" after switching from SN, at similar temps (30-31) but only 1/4" accretion. For about 3 hours RA was heavy - probably well more than half that 2.2" fell during that period.

In my experience, when the wind direction is north of east, elevation increases ice (to a point - MWN had RA in 1998), but when the direction is south of east, valleys hang on longer, especially if there are hills to the southeast. Apart from the Gorham to MWN elevational sequence (RA-ice-RA), the 1998 system had an amazing N-S gradient. --Northern Maine had 20-27" of 8:1 cornmeal over 5-day period, with temps ranging from singles at Allagash to near 20 at HUL. --Western Maine mountains/foothills had significant ice but most of the precip was IP at mid-upper 20s and catastrophic damage was avoided. --Central Maine and inland Downeast had almost all ZR at 28-32, damage bad to historic, and within those regions, higher elevation and/or northeast aspect meant more ice. --Southern Maine had a mix of ZR and cold RA with temps 30-35, with some places getting a lot of ice, like NW York County, and some coastal sites little ice at all. --SNE had cold RA at 30s and 40s. --NYC and areas nearby had moderate RA at 50s/60s.

I've read, from experienced landscapers, that transplanting usually leaves about 90% of a tree's roots behind, hence the importance of daily watering in T-plus a year. One nursery owner would give purchasers of trees two small bottles, one of green liquid and one of red. He guaranteed all trees, replacement or money back, if the buyer would put 3 drops of green and 3 of red daily, as watering was done. Water plus food coloring - it was just a reminder to water.