tamarack

12th consecutive subzero morning, near -5. Might break the string tomorrow.

Sun did good work here, temp reached 31-32 from the morning low of -2. Bit of wind, though.

Agree. No matter how thick the ice, it's always cracking, which allows water to seep up into the snow layer when that snow is sufficiently heavy. Usually, the slush layer is only 1-2" but I've seen it change the entire snow layer when ice thickness is modest and snowfall is heavy. Then the re-freeze leaves the upper part of ice as less-rigid gray.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Groundhog Day Gale in Maine, not much snow but lots of drama: Southwest Harbor (on Penobscot Bay) recorded a gust at 115 MPH. --BGR had one at 83 MPH --The wind blew so much water up the Penobscot estuary that the tide at BGR rose 15 feet in 15 minutes, drowning over 200 cars in the Kenduskeag parking lots, as the temp dove from 57 to 1. --CAR temp dropped from 49 to -7 in about 8 hours, and the 957 mb there is the station's lowest, perhaps 2nd lowest (behind the 1978 Cleveland Crusher) for non-TC storms in eastern US. --At our place in Fort Kent, we had 1.5" RA (only 0.5" SN) with temp 46/-11. The CF drove the temp from 44 to -6 in 5 hours. --Roads had horrible ice holes (especially in the woods) until late March when temps got into the 50s.

We've reached the minus 30s 6 times. -36 Jan 16, 2009 (Big Black River in NW Maine sets a new statewide minimum with -50, eclipsing the -48 in Van Buren.) -34 Jan 17, 2009 -31 Jan 4, 2014 -31 Dec 29, 2017 -30 Jan 22, 2005 -30 Jan 27, 2022 We've also had 4 mornings at -29, 3 in Jan and one in Feb. Fort Kent had some impressive cold during our 10 years there. -41 in Jan 1976 (11 days after we moved there), -39, -42 and -47 in Jan 1979, also -42 in Dec 1980.

-51 in Franconia is impressive. -52 at tidewater in Bath is incredible (if real) - blows away the near-impossible -39 at PWM on 2/16/1943. Just missed a 40° diurnal span yesterday, 21/-18. Slightly below zero for today's low, while BML and HIE reached -19.

As long as it's not like CAR in 1980-81 - Dec -9, Jan -5, Feb +14. 2/81 tied the February record max twice and broke it 7 times.

Temp got over 20 today, first time since Jan 22nd. Nine straight maxima in the teens or singles - been a while since that happened.

Pure sun here today, 16/-21. January 2026 numbers: Avg max: 23.1 -2.6 Mildest: 42 10th Avg min: 4.0 -0.7 Coldest: -23 28th Mean: 13.5 -1.7 Mildest mean: 10th, coldest mean: -5.5 24th Precip: 2.23" -0.97" Greatest day: 0.55" 25th Snow: 30.1" +9.9" Greatest day: 17.0" 25th We had 19.6" from the 25-27th storm and 12 other distinct snow events, 0.1" to 3.0" - a dozen midgets plus a monster. Temperature had 4 distinct periods: 1-6, all BN: 18.0/1.7 -9.7 7-16, all AN: 35.0/19.8 +11.3 17-23: AN/BN: 23.7/4.3 0.0 (Rounded up from -0.04) 24-31, all BN: 11.5/-11.6 -14.2

Check around the bathroom stack. We had a leak from cracked tar around that pipe one snowy winter. Shoveling the snow away from the stack was a temporary fix and when things warmed up a quart can of tar made it permanent. Reached -21 this morning but the max will be well above yesterday's windy 9. Maybe another 40° diurnal range today; the 28th was 17/-23.

Certainly not me. Monday morning's 6.0" with only 0.08" LE (75:1, unbelievably) is 5" of settling all by itself, and the rest of the snow was near 20:1. Average depth here for Jan 30 over 28 years is 15".

Depth has receded from 29" to 22" in 4 days, but no melting (warmest since last Friday is 18) and probably little sublimation. 19.6" of 25:1 SN is apt to settle a bit. If the wind quits soon after dark, we'll have another dive thru the minus teens.

Or 1960s galvanized steel.

Central Park hit -8 that morning, 3rd lowest since 1869 there and 6° colder than anything since then. CON touched -37 on 2/16/43. It's a good radiating spot, much better (usually) than PWM where an incredible-39 was recorded. I'd guess that among US towns on salt water, one would need to go north of the Aleutian Peninsula to find a colder morning. 2nd coldest at PWM is -31, at 11:59 PM on the 15th. 3rd place is -26 in Jan 1971. Both the 15th and 16th were 40/41° BN, with temps -2/-31 and 7/-39. NYC's longest 32-or-lower run of 16 is the same Jan 19-Feb 3 timeframe as at Boston, but in NY the mildest max of the 16 days was 29. BOS' max in that run was 31, on Feb 3, but had maxima 28 or colder on the other 15 days. Modest -3 here this morning, after -23 and -18 the previous days. However, the 15-25 mph wind probably puts the WCI near those 2 calm mornings.

"Why can't they be like we are, perfect in every way. Oh, what's the matter to kids today!" (from Bye Bye Birdie) IMO, it's more the lawyers that the kids.