tamarack

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.

AN October and BN November has led to AN snowfall on average in this region.

Never did a faceplant but several times got top-of-head rammed into the sand. Fortunately my head is hard; was tested at age 5 when I fell backwards 5+ feet on a rocky slope and landed head-first (right side of forehead) on one of the rocks. Friend said I bled "like the Red Sea." And I'd chicken out on 15-footers, even when I was 18. Six was about my speed.

Blecchh! As I've whined before, that brought the ugliest 10"+ storm I ever hope to see, 4:1 mush that splattered off branches rather than loading the trees, and followed by 1"+ RA at 34-35, with the same strong NE winds that brought NYC's 20.9" snowicane. That event was only 5°F from a repeat of what had occurred exactly 41 years earlier, when Farmington got 43". This time they had less than 10", while 6 mile west and 750' higher, Temple had 26.4".

Sure beats my 0.58" here. Biggest 2-day rain for me was actually in 24 hours, in NNJ. 8/27/71 had a PRE dump 3.80" between 8 AM and 5 PM. Then Doria ripped thru that night, with 5.10" between midnight and 5 AM, with tropical storm winds, gusts 60+. (Cheap wedge gauge, with 1/2" gradations above the 1" mark, made more precise measurement impossible.) Because the antecedent was quite dry, flooding was surprisingly minor, though I did stall our Chevy Nova splashing thru Rockaway River overflow in Denville - water was only an inch from coming over the doorsill as I pushed the car out of the flooded part of the road.

To days of constant cool rain, 0.58" total. Getting late enough in the garden season that the low amount may not matter.

It's been close to that here. Annual precip is 48.75" and I'd guess that Dracut is a bit higher. In our 24 years here, we've had 21 such discrete "couplets", with 14 years having at least one (2008 had 3 and there's been no Dec-Jan pairs), though only one occurrence since 2014. By discrete I mean no overlaps - if 4 consecutive months had 6,8,7,6 inches, only 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th would count, not 2nd/3rd. Totals for pairs have ranged from 12.01" to 22.18", this latter Oct-Nov 2005.

Gentle slope doesn't help when it's (mostly) paved.

0.55" thru 7 this morning. Despite no echoes this far north, still have RA/DZ keeping everything wet while adding maybe 0.01" per hour or 2. Nice slow garden rain, except the mid 50s probably shut down growth on tomatoes and cukes. I wanted to finish cutting and dragging out some firewood, related to another project, but I've no appetite for wet, slippery woods work. 40 years ago, it would've been different. Tomorrow for the woods. Aroostook is too far north and Washington too far east, but among the other 14 counties, southern Franklin with 0.47"-0.55" has the least, on average, with more (often much more) in all the surrounding counties. Not quite a hole in the donut, but similar.

Looks like about 0.15" in the gauge and upstream radar is meh. GYX has a flood watch for all Maine zones south of here. Meanwhile, 60 miles north the Jackman area is under a flood advisory with 1-2" down and another inch plus in the works. Rt 2 corridor east of RUM getting the scraps, with October temps (mid 50s).

Up to 0.01" here. 50 miles SW, Bridgton had 2.2" by 7 AM. 20 miles NE, Solon reported 0.49". Some better echoes approaching, so still some hope. Otherwise, it's the worst-case scenario - clammy 50s, just enough RA to keep everything wet but not enough to help the garden. Only a few weeks until 1st frost, unless it's like last year when the veggies just stopped growing a month before the Oct 24 1st frost.