tamarack

Met summer was warm, 6th warmest of 29 here, but September is running 1° BN so far and the GYX forecast doesn't show a warm-up. Had 0.27", not a drought buster but the forecast was less than a tenth. First time since early last month to get more than the forecast. baby steps

The Farmington co-op reached an incredible pack of 84" after getting 43" from the late Feb 1969 endless snowstorm. (For 48 years that was Maine's tallest, until Chimney Pond reached 94" in 2017.) Second place is 56", recorded in both 1971 and 1993. In that latter winter, they had only a trace on the ground at their Jan 31 obs - 7 AM at that time. Feb-Mar brought a total of 97", with Feb storms of 13", 14" and 17" followed by a 15" dump and 18" from the superstorm, to build all 56" in just 6 weeks. The 12" storm early in April capped the season.

5.88" here with gusts in the 40s, our most recent significant TC. Only 0.11" from being our biggest rain event, which came in June 1998, our first full month after moving here.

Feb-Mar 1993 was epic, with 7 storms 7" to 14.5", totaling (with some small events) over 80". The superstorm brought the pack to 31", tallest in our 13 winters in Gardiner. That capping event was a bit disappointing at our place, if a double-digit snowfall can disappoint. Listening to "1-3 feet with life-threatening conditions" had me primed for a storm of the lifetime. Instead, we had 10.3" of heavily rimed 6:1 flakes, almost the lowest report in New England and 3rd biggest of the winter. (BHB and Block Island had 10.0".) Temps during the storm were upper teens to 20. The storm did bring wind 30-45 mph. A favorite wind report at 8 AM - BGR was calm while 50 miles to the SE, Mt. Desert Rock reported 60 knots.

Latitude can help. January 2023 was +8.8, warmest for that month in 28 winters, but had 29.9" snow, 9.7" AN. The 4 months DJFM ran +4.7 with each month AN - Feb closest at +1.5 (and least snowy of the 4). The snow season total was 101.2" (avg currently 88.4") and 96.3" came during those months, 123% of average. That said, the only very strong Nino since moving here (2015-16) was our worse snow winter, 48.2".

Looking from my 0.23" total, 1.92" seem like 'about 2'.

Except for the lack of rain, today was perfect early fall wx - sun, 70, light breezes.

The morning's forecast for here of 1/4"-1/2" has been lowered to 01"-0.25" this afternoon. It seems that the latest QPFs immediately before events get reduced from earlier forecasts 90% of the time. Sandy River is below the 10th percentile. Last Thursday's 0.40" has come and gone by.

We're at 34.76" to date here. Lowest of 29 water years is 34.44" for 10/01-9/02, 2nd lowest 35.86" the following year(s). I think we'll get more than 1.1" by the 30th to climb into 3rd driest. Next step is 38.08" last year and I think that getting another 3.32"+ this month is unlikely. 39 this morning, season's first sub-40, and now struggling to get past the mid-50s.

Many of those millions were voting against HRC, Biden and Kamala more than voting for Trump.

2009-10 was the winter that BWI had 7" more snow than CAR. 100-year event? Even longer?

For eastern US it's probably the Cleveland Crusher in Jan 1978. IIRC, that reached low 950s.

Southwest Harbor (Penobscot Bay) recorded a gust of 115 mph in that storm. The 957 mb reading at CAR that day is a contender for lowest pressure in New England from a non-tropical storm. At Fort Kent we had 1.5" of rain plus 0.5" flurries with wind gusting to 50 and temp 46/-11. At 1 PM it was 44, 4 PM 14, 6 PM -6. By the next day the ice holes on most roads were awesome.

Pack at Machias (20' asl) reached 74" in March 2015, likely a top-10 depth in Maine records, and by far tops for saltwater shoreline sites.

August numbers: Avg max: 76.2 +1.4 Warmest, 87 on the 6th Avg min: 54.9 +1.7 Coolest, 43 on the 31st Mean: 65.5 +1.5 Met summer: 64.6 +1.2 6th warmest of 29 Precip: 2.46" -1.58" Wettest day, 1.05" on the 3rd Like July, August 2026 started very warm then spent the rest of the month near normal. Days 1-11 were 4.4° AN, had the 6 warmest days and had 1.83" rain Days 12-31 were 0.2° AN, had no days warmer than 78 and had only 0.63" rain.