tamarack

We are in the 3rd flash flood watch since last Friday. The first 2 provided 1.43" but flow on the local 4th-order watercourse (Sandy River) has barely stayed above the 25th percentile. The initial watch verified in a small area around Conway NH with reports of 3-5" and quick flooding, while 99%+ of the watch areas had a nice drink.

That 34" dump came at Oak Ridge Reservoir, about 10 miles west from where I grew up. In January that site's pack reached 41", the only time I've seen for NJ pack >36" except for Feb 1961 when Oak Ridge had 50" and 15 miles farther NW, Canistear Reservoir topped out at 52". We probably had 45" after the 3-4 blizzard that year. A friend and I decided to wade thru the pack and it was navel-deep on me (was 5'7 or 8" at the time) and my boots ;likely didn't get within 6" of the ground. The 35" record was set at the state's least snowy site, Cape May, in the Feb 1899 cold blast and storm. Even Tallahassee had 2". Initial reporting from Mt. Arlington (western Morris County) had 35.5" from the 2021 Jan-Feb dump, but QC follow-up lowered that to under 30".

My guess was 24" at our NNJ home, but only a guess due to the wind. Coming 15 cold days after the "JFK inaugural" storm, Feb 3-4 brought the deepest pack in NJ records, reaching 50"+ at 2 locations. The storm arrived on Friday evening and even with the weekend we had no school that Monday. NYC schools were closed the entire week. Closures that winter meant extended days in hot no-AC June.

All true, and the newsies seem always focused on the worst-case scenarios. ("If it bleeds, it leads.")

Though it's now #3, that 1947 storm might've been Central Park's biggest, exceeded due to measurement changes. My opinion is based on snow depth. The 12/47 event pushed the pack from 2" to 26" (NYC's tallest on record), while #2 - Feb 2006 - only reached 17" and #1 - Jan 2016 - brought the depth from zero to 22". I think that Central Park records depth at noon, or why the 26th only reported 4" despite nearly all the snow fell before midnight, and that 26" pack was measured about 10 hours after accumulation had stopped. The numbers: 12/25 33 19 0 0 2" 12/26 31 25 2.36" 26.1" 4" 12/27 35 29 0.04" 0.3" 26" We'll never know for sure.

Two TS last evening totaling 0.88". First one (7-8 PM) began with a few giant drops - sounded like hail hitting the car - then 0.10" in 2 minutes followed by less intense rain. 2nd one came 10:30-11 PM and added 0.33".

June, and especially July and August, probably have never finished at +9 in our part of the country; even +5 is extreme. Winter is far different - December 1989 and Feb 2015 were 12-14° BN over much of the Northeast, and Feb 1981 at CAR was nearly +15. Small warned TS passed just to our north, close enough to terrorize our dog but giving us only a sprinkle. Radar had some echoes of 60+ dbz - maybe some hail in the towns to our east and northeast.

Beats my 0.07". June has brought rain on 6-7 days but we're still under 1". Last year we had only 5 days with thunder, about 1/3 of the average and only the 2nd (of 28 years) that failed to get at least 10 - 2010 had only 8.

Morning low of 65 here, first 60+ minima of the season. First TD near/at 70 as well.

Two notable storms in Feb 1969. The late month "100-hour" storm was a New England event; we had 4" of mush at our NNJ home. The storm of 9-10 was the "Mayor Lindsey" snow. The NYC forecast had been heavy cold rain, but the 15.3" of heavy wet snow that paralyzed the city as the sanitation crews (plows on garbage trucks) were not alerted. The head of the sanitation union said of Lindsey, "He played it by ear but was stone deaf!" Our scout troop was at Allamuchy Scout Camp in NW NJ that weekend, but my 1962 Beetle had no problems even though there was 8-9" new by the time we got home that Sunday.

Dec 92 was a whiff at Gardiner, where we then lived - clouds, wind (thousands of white ash seedlings that spring) but no flakes. March 01 is the 2nd snowiest (55.5") of any month I've measured, trailing only the 61.5" of Dec 1976 in Fort Kent. The early month big dog was almost 20 hours of steady 0.5"/hr snow on 20-30 mph wind, but the capper was the pair of post-equinox storms that totaled 35" and boosted the pack to 48" on the 31st, deepest I've seen that late in the season. Another even stronger storm had been forecast for 4/1, but it went east and crushed Newfoundland.

Very mild black fly period here, but the mosquitos are thick. Also, fireflies have arrived. This year makes 30 years since the worst black flies I've encountered. On Friday, 6/7/96, I was with 3 others at Oquossuc Bald Mountain scoping out a sno-mo trail, and I don't think we saw 10 black flies. The following Monday-Friday was our church's men's wilderness retreat, that year at Deboullie, about 25 miles SW from Fort Kent, and I predicted a modest black fly population. We drove to Portage Lake, got out at Coffin's store, and despite the high 80s (black flies tend to hide when it's hot) the area was thick with the little beasts. I slathered some Ben's 100 before launching our canoes at Pushineer Pond, and by the 75 minutes to reach the west end of Deboullie Pond where we would camp, the bug dope was no longer working. Another application lasted but an hour - Ben's usually is worth 5-6 hours; no way I would put that stuff on hourly. Next day when CAR hit the 90s, I was getting bombed while in the middle of the pond, 100+ yards from shore. (Not enough air space over land?) Only place to escape, other than the 100°+ temp sun-blasted tent, was in the rock crevices on the NW side of the pond, where there were still ice and snow. The black flies weren't interested where the temp was under 50.

Ancient history (2010) - in late April that year, PWM temp jumped from a cloudy 59 to a sunny 84 in 15 minutes when the east breeze switched to a strong SW wind. I was at Mercy Hospital overlooking the Fore River waiting for my wife's knee surgery to be finished and had a full view to E (some fog) and W (much haze).

As May 2026 expired while we were in SNJ, I'll put its history here. Some data are averages from nearby sites, though the 31 on 5/31 is a certainty. Avg max: 63.9 0.8 BN Warmest was 86, on the 19th. Avg min: 39.2 0.8 BN Coolest was 26, on the 4th and 9th. Mean: 51.6 0.8 BN As both March and April were AN, met spring averaged 0.7 AN. Precip: 4.17" 0.20" AN. Wettest day; 1.40" on the 15th. May 2025 was also AN, but the 10 of the 11 months thru last April were BN. Nothing out of the ordinary this May. The 2nd and the 2nd from last were windy and cold (2nd had some IP as well) but beyond those 2 days, little was particularly memorable.

Those 3 1954 storms all had names of my relatives - cousin, aunt, great aunt chronological. Carol was nothing I can remember, probably some rain at our NNJ home. Edna was mostly dry. We flew kites in its breezes. Hazel had wind in NNJ comparable to Bob in central Maine, dumping some trees and plastering our home with pieces of tough October leaves.