tamarack

90% of 'wildfires' (the accepted term in firefighter land) are started by human agency. That probably rises to near 100% in New England during October. Cloudless and a light breeze. At 2 PM SFM had a 14% RH. (47/-1)

On that day, 4/10/10, Portland's temp rose from 59 to 84 in 15 minutes, triggered when the warm SW wind overcame a light easterly breeze. I had a front row seat for the shift as I was in the waiting room at Mercy Hospital (wife had knee replacement) right on the Fore River.

No flakes (or raindrops) here as the echoes slid to our south. Good decoupling, however, for a low of 18, coldest of the season by 6°. Saw 14 at BML.

And we were about 130 miles east of Quebec City.

When we lived in Fort Kent, sunsets in December would be 3:45 at the minimum. On the rare Decembers with bare ground, headlights would come on by 2:30.

Folks in the eastern part of a time zone often prefer DST. Those in the west part don't like the idea of 8 AM (or later) sunrises in the dead of winter.

In the very dry October 1963, the NJ governor closed the woods completely, even for anglers fishing from boats. I suppose some angler driving to a favorite lake might toss a butt out the window. Late Oct, 80°, near calm - I just knew that the fish would be super hungry on the nearby NNJ lake. In his defense, there was a stubborn (only winter rain/snow killed it) 3,000-acre wildfire that month about 3 miles north of the HS. From some classrooms we could track the hot spots by watching where the smoke was heavy.

Low 20s progged here for both Monday and Tuesday mornings.

Not much elevation when we lived in town at Fort Kent, just some hills 6-700 feet above the flood plain, and in 1979 we had a range of 140°, with -47 on Jan 17 and 93 in both June and July. Just like at Mt. Tolland, our diurnal ranges dropped significantly after we moved to the back settlement 450' higher than in town.

A frozen dead garden isn't fake. Gorgeous out there, just saw a tiny cloud, only one so far today. Mid 50s off the frosty 28.

Maybe. October is our wettest month and is fairly consistent, with only 3 of 26 years having less than 3.46". Those years' precip and the following winter snow: 2001: 1.12" 72.7" 2004: 2.30" 94.3" 2013: 1.23" 101.3" Average snow is 89.4", almost identical for the 26-winter average of 89.0". Also, our wettest October (and wettest month), 14.09" was followed by 52.8" in my only winter w/o a 6" event since 1967-68 in NNJ. It’s the driest period of we lives Too young to have experienced 1963-66.

Snow data is missing for Jan-April 2002. Looking at temp/precip, I doubt BDL reached 20".

Mid-October is oak-spotting time here. Other deciduous trees are bare, and I sometimes spot smaller oaks whose existence had been hidden (including one less than 100 feet from where I sit). One can spot oaks even while driving, impossible when all is green. Pin oak, not native here but often planted in towns, usually offers a deep scarlet. White oak will sometimes have a purplish hue. Best of the rest is reddish-brown, like the 20-foot-tall N. red sapling outside of my window. A lot of Maine sites reported 0.01-0.04". Not a drop here in Franklin County.

We had 55 last December 18, but any awakened bugs quickly drowned or got blown to Canada. 50/50 day, with fog/cloud thru noon then a quick switch to sunny and mid 60s.

Dream on - west Pac has been well BN for ACE. (So far. Atlantic basin was significantly BN until this month.)

The trend looks to be valid but the numbers are a bit hyped. So far in 2024 I've recorded 13 days with means at least +15 and 55 days at least -3. However, the increased minima are a major driver of warming. Last month's average diurnal range was 0.3° AN, breaking a run of 15 months with ranges BN, sometimes far BN.

Long term averages in the NW part are +/-40". Cape May less than half that much, though it had the state's greatest snowfall, 34" in the arctic blast of February 1898. (Tallahassee recorded 2" and -2 at that time, for more state records.) Mount Arlington in NW Jersey initially reported 35.1" in the early February storm in 2022 but quality checking knocked it back into the high 20s. A couple of NNJ sites recorded more snow in Feb 2022 than my Maine foothills had for all of 21-22. The sizable ski area in Vernon depends mainly on the snow guns, no change from when I learned to ski there in the early 1970s.

I'd add Titcomb Hill in Farmington, owned by the town and run mainly by volunteers - only 300' vertical but the T-bar is only 1300' and the hill's midsection is ~35%, steep enough for a good slalom course. there are X-C trails connected as well. Mount Blue HS trains there in both disciplines and they win more than their share of trophies in the state races.

Not native to Maine, either, but there's a planted one about 45" dbh/85 feet tall in downtown Farmington. It has some frost cracks but is otherwise vigorous. It had to have been a big tree (30" dbh?) in 1994 when Farmington set their coldest on record at -39. Produces abundant seeds, too, and the nearby 20-foot-tall tulip tree is likely the progeny of the big guy. The NNJ woods near our home had mostly oaks, maples, hickory and black birch, almost no tulip trees. The terminal moraine is about 10 miles south from where I grew up, and tulip trees become more common south from where the glaciation scraped all the soil from the hilltops and pushed it southward.

Fortunately, it underperformed here. Our 4.5" was accompanied by 4 hours w/o power. Had we gotten the forecast 12-16, it would've rivaled the 101 hours last December, only without the Generac. Fog, <1/4 mile vis, hanging in there. Forecast 72 but mid 60s more likely and a PC day after 7 sunny ones in a row.

Another Nov. 1950 would be interesting, especially if we got what hit Pittsburgh in that one.

The CLIMOD site shows PWM at 79 on both 10/20 & 21 - 1947 for the 20th and 1920 for the 21st. ???

And that's the key. Unless a plant can consistently produce viable seeds, it cannot persist. Many species can be successfully planted well north of their native range, and do well. One might be able to plant a Northern red oak at Chicoutimi and have it survive, and grow well if put in a place with sun and little wind.

When we lived in Fort Kent, the Lonesome Pine area had only a rope tow. As long as there were a good number of skiers on the rope, the 2,000' with 500' vertical wasn't too bad. However, in the low snow winter of 1979-80 weather played catch-up in March, and on a screechingly windy Saturday after 30" in 10 days, there were very few on the slopes. The rope had worn a deep groove in the new snow and with no one else to share the rope, it was dragging out of the groove about 3 feet from my tips - felt like the rope weighed a ton. The wind blew the doctor from St. Francis off the narrower of the 2 trails, and as I passed him, I heard his call. He'd injured his knee and though he probably could've skied down, he thought it wiser to ask for a ride. I went down and alerted ski patrol and rode the rope again. By the time I reached the bottom, the place was closed for safety reasons. The following Monday evening we foresters drove to PQI for a forestry meeting and had to detour 100' east of Rt 1 for about 1/3 mile as the massive drifts from Saturday were still being dug out. Only time I've driven thru a potato field.

The 2 most recent winters here (DJFM) ran 5° AN with all 4 months being AN in each. However, the DJFM average, including those winters, is 21° so +5 retains a margin. Sometimes that's enough, sometimes not, with 22-23 and 23-24 on the good side with 112% of average snow. (And winters like 09-10, 11-12 and 15-16 definitely going the other way.)