tamarack

A few days back it was progged to hit the Nagoya area, where my son and DIL live, as a Cat 1. Now it looks to park at the southernmost part of Honshu and dump feet of rain.

75 here, but that's 2° AN for 8/27.

There used to be an annual article on the weirdest lawsuit decisions, maybe still is done. The one I best recall was about 30 years ago. A guy was driving his RV, put the vehicle on cruise control then went back to the kitchen to make breakfast. He (and passengers? Don't remember if there were any) was awarded a pile of money and . . . a replacement RV.

Maybe they looked at tomorrow's forecast for inland SNJ - 96 with HI 104. That's less than 150 miles away.

The existing stadium was a shambles, the worst of any in the NFL by far. Kraft may have used Hartford to gain permission to build Gillette, but he did put his money where his mouth was. From what I've read, no public money was spent on it, though the state tossed in a bunch for the surrounding infrastructure. Last year died on week 4 when the Pats' 2 best defenders went out for the season. The rest of the defense did yeoman work, but with those losses, nothing would be able lift the crummy offense into mediocrity. Nice sun after early fog, warm but not too much - mid-70s.

For me, this doesn't compute. I don't know if I fed mosquitos during my first 4 years, in East Orange, NJ (30k people, 4 sq.mi.), after which we lived in the Jersey Highlands then Maine. From 1950 on, I've been donating blood to the little beasts (and assorted other flying blood-drinkers) on most days during the warm season. Of course, the things like me - when a group of us in the woods, no one wearing bug dope, most of the biting insects would be visiting me.

After dark the lightning can be seen from a long distance. Years ago, we were heading back from a late meeting in eastern Maine, and as we drove thru Belfast we could see flashes to our west. The wx radio noted a TS in the Rangeley area, 90-100 miles away. Rumbles here since one woke me up at 5:55 this morning. Only light RA here but points 10-25 miles to the northeast are getting hammered. I posted the GYX flash flood warning on the 8/26 convection thread.

Morning wakeup with thunder. Only light rain here but very active just to the east and north. New Sharon shares boundaries with Starks and Mercer. The heavy stuff was moving a bit west at 8 AM but still hasn't reached here. The bright echoes haven't moved much since I first looked at 6:30 (genny started but I had to take off the panel and manually flip the switch - call to the installer upcoming). This system is acting like the one just to our SW in June 2023 - 4-6" in 2 hours, some infrastructure was just reopened this month. The National Weather Service in Gray has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Somerset County in west central Maine... * Until 930 AM EDT. * At 652 AM EDT, Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1.5 and 3.5 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Radar and automated gauges. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Skowhegan, Madison, Norridgewock, Anson, Starks, Mercer and New Vineyard.

Outside of red maple in the swamps, any serious color this early is on stressed trees. Absolutely perfect day yesterday as 2 young men (ages 10 and 14) were baptized at Porter Pond, north from Farmington. Bright sun, little wind, mid 70s.

Every wood species burns far better when seasoned, but if I had to cut one day and burn the next, white ash would be the clear choice. I've read that in NNE, red spruce would be the 2nd choice - crummy heat value but has the lowest water content of any tree native to the region. Very little on our woodlot and I prize all of it. Also, there's white ash that's handy to the road. I don't think black cherry was listed on the burn-green table I saw several decades back, but it would be a contender, likely a better moisture/BTU ratio than the spruce. When we lived in town at our first house, I cut down 3 balsam poplars, and since they landed in the yard they went thru a stove. We'd never load it into the little Jotul 602 on our center chimney upstairs, which would furnish at temps down to about -20 in our 18x20 foot 2-story. We had an old $20 parlor stove (cheap even in 1978) in the basement, not quite as leaky as a lobster trap, and all the balsam poplar went thru that thing on the coldest mornings. Splitting the stuff made me wish for safety glasses with windshield wipers, as water splattered with every strike of the maul.

From the firewood poem: "Ash wood green or ash wood dry; a king shall lay his slippers by." Comment on burning balsam poplar when it's green, from an Allagash logger, "You couldn't afford to buy the oil it would take to burn balm'o'Gilead!"

Jeans are my non-formal pants in all seasons. I beat up my arms enough while working on firewood or walking in Maine's thick woods. Shorts would just result in additional blood loss. 2nd consecutive sunny day. Last time we had that - without smoke - was in April. Ash tree? Or maple? White ash - bark and the mineral stain on the unsplit pieces tell the tale.

Compared to Sandy's 90° turn, the others merely avoided the recurve. Another similarity is that all 4 came somewhat late in the TC season.

Even when the loss is not much of a surprise, the hurt is deep. My parents passed more than 30 years ago. I still miss them but also have some wonderful memories. May your memories provide some solace.

With great scenery and good attractions, rain is tolerable. Every one of our 8 August days in Norway 7 years back had some rain and 2 were all-day rains but we had a wonderful time. The one in Oslo was fortunately our planned museum day. The rain started with sunrise thunder and became a mid-50s downpour in late afternoon as we waited 45 (not nice) minutes outside the Viking Museum until the right bus arrived. The rainy day in Bergen (which calls itself the rainiest city in Europe) was quite light and only made the coffee taste better. Full sun this morning, first time in almost 2 weeks to see that at 7 AM. Have not checked the max-min but suspect it dipped under 50. Since today's average here is 74/52, that's not unusual.

The other differences are the longer hind legs and furry "snowshoe" feet of the lynx, the former being much easier to spot. They are slowly replacing bobcats north to south in Maine, with both species occurring on the same range mostly at the line of advance. When we lived in Fort Kent (76-85) only bobcats were being trapped there. Those golf course animals look like bob-kittens.

Six days with lots of clouds and forecasts of significant rain. What we got was six days averaging 68/56 and a whole 0.11", not enough to make a puddle. We don't really need the rain, but if it's going to be cool and cloudy, I wish it would do something. "Pee or get off the pot" as the old saying goes.

That's a dandy, no limbs on the first log and the bark indicates it's not all that old (100-120?) for a 34.4" dbh tree. Our 2 dozen or so pines near the road are 20-30" dbh and 100-120' tall. Unfortunately, the Dec 18 storm reduced 2 of those to 60-foot "masts" with a couple weak-looking branches near the breaks. There's a limby 40"+ monster just to the neighbor's side of the boundary stone wall back in the woods, probably a sentinel retained when the high-quality pines were harvested. Nice oblique pic of your woods. Doesn't seem to have much oak, which is a bit surprising, but a nice puckle of pine in the middle.

As you already know, departures are greatest in the cold months and the difference is large. Our greatest August daily departures are +13 and -14. For December it's +28 and -36.

PWM averages high 60s, and Brunswick would be a bit above that - farther NE and its airport isn't right on tidewater. Like most of SNE, PWM's snow has been pitiful this decade, running in the 40s. If he's entering Bowdoin, check out the nearby Bowdoin Pines. Not true old growth but very impressive. Cloudy night kept temps above 50 instead of that SNE fake cold.

I had just begun my freshman year when Donna roared thru, and 1960-61 reached triple digits at my place, though the Feb 3-4 storm was estimate only (24") thanks to the wild winds. Depth increases at nearby sites point to at least that much. Essentially nothing thru 12/10, then: 18" Dec 11-12; 20" Jan 19-20; 24" Feb 3-4 plus a surprise paste bomb (12") on 3/23. Messy snows into mid-April and a few IP seen on 5/27. From March 18-19, 1956 thru Feb. 3-4, 1961 we saw 7 storms of 18" or greater. Even Fort Kent can't begin to touch that. Closest is at our current place, Jan 2015 thru March 2018, with 6 storms of 15.5" to 21", but that run has 4 years before and 4 after without reaching even 14".

Also had significant flooding from Connie's 5-7" but missed even more by a whisker as Diane was 2-3" here, far more to the north and west. We were let go from school at noon during Donna and I went down to the local beach - good place to watch the whitecaps and not much rain was falling. A guy several years older went out in his Sailfish (sailboard that was a teens favorite) and promptly watched his mast get snapped.

I'm glad we have forced hot water (domestic hot water and back-up to the Jotul) as I'm usually full of hot air. Sun tried to burn thru the clouds about 1:30 but it's back in hiding.

We've had 6 sub-60 maxima in 26 Augusts here, and all but one had significant RA. Now concerned for flash flooding from last night's 0.06", barely missing a classic 7-10 as the heavier rain avoided the Route 2 corridor from Bethel to Lincoln. We don't really need lots of rain as August 24 is already a half inch above the average, but nighttime lightning is fun to watch.

That works with equal sunshine, as that's what runs the factories, and a day of 77/55 is likely to have more hours of sun than 70/62. You can already envision the early morning posts from the usual suspects. 48.2.. Feels great.. windows wide open .. hoodie on in August .. 50.8 for the low so far… hoping to sneak into upper 40’s 44.2 .. coldest since last May .. pool temp down to 69 47.6 .. gonna be chilly in the wood yard SLK down to 34.2 Chilly day at 3k hiking with the dog today..bluebird skies but hoodie required even in mid afternoon GYX discussion this afternoon included the possibility of WCI's near freezing on the summits of the Whites tomorrow, cautioning hikers not to dress for the base conditions.