tamarack

The town is mostly under 400' elevation, but once you get up near Rip dam at 1,000+ I think the snow will be a lot better. Same thing goes if you ride in KWW east of Baxter. At least it looks like winter out here this am with some Lt snow falling, -SN, 32°F Mood flakes all morning in Augusta, enough to whiten the brown grass exposed by the recent warmth. The 1/10" of gritty snow at home makes 11 events with measurable snow this month, though the 9 smallest total a mere 4.3" and the month's total will finish about 4" below average. January will be about 6° AN and either 3rd or 4th mildest - it's neck-and-neck with 2017 but way short of '02 and '06.

At my then residence in Gardiner, we had 5 warning criteria storms in Jan-Feb that totaled 45.5". No blockbusters (biggest was 11") and none of Dec's brutal cold, but AN snow for those months as latitude was our friend.

My Ranger isn't great, but with nearly 200 lb of firewood in the back it's always made it over Mile Hill - average 6% grade over that mile with a couple hundred yards of 10% about 3/4 the way up, and a sharp corner at the bottom so trying to get a run for it risks a ditch visit. Lowery day in Augusta, radar showed precip overhead (would be RA with surface at 40 unless heavy) but neither drop nor flake has appeared. In winters past, When i would be riding this area, The snow would be up to the bottom of the sign, Not this year so far, There was more snow up here this weekend then down home, But that's still not normal for the Eustis area........ Fair number of sleds on the club trail thru our woodlot yesterday - fewer than usual for a late Jan Sunday but more than I expected. Must be some sloppy going at unbridged little dips as our pack isn't deep enough to soak up all the RA, at least not where slope concentrates runoff.

Less in Farmington than here - corn stubble sticking up thru the snow. Not holding my breath for the weekend (doubt anyone here is) as last Wednesday I was hearing "foot or more for the foothills" and by the next day forecasts had - accurately - gone into the crapper. Wake me Friday morning (though I'll be peeking from now until then. )

Not like last year when almost every snowstorm (until April) had a fair amount of IP/ZR/RA. November started the same way this year but that's par for Novie. Since then it's been black or white - Dec 1 on I've had 4 RA events drop 3.62" with 0.2" total frozen, and 6 events 1"+ plus a bunch of smaller ones that totaled 2.82" LE and 31.1" SN with essentially nothing but flakes.

The king of Norluns came on March 21, 1992. Lived in Gardiner then and was surprised to find a totally un-forecast 2" that morning, then learned that PWM got 11" and Kennebunkport up to 24, most falling in a 4-hour period.

That's amazing. I've had half your snowfall but twice the pack (though it may lose an inch today.) It's where upslope goes to die but is great for CAD. I wonder if some of the southerly warmth running up the CT River spills over the NH notches but can't pass the Mahoosucs. There have been several times during warm-tongue events when I've been 5-10° cooler than BML/HIE here at 390'.

Nearest Home Depot is 30 miles away, not practical for hauling a half ton of firewood a couple hundred yards, or other similar short-haul trips. Since 1994 I've driven 2 Rangers separated by a Ranger clone (Mazda) and put about 375k total on the 3 vehicles. All 3 have been 2WD and mileage runs 28+ in summer, 23-25 in winter. Unfortunately the reborn Ranger is about 1,000 lb heavier and gets 30% poorer mileage. Had a hard time finding a mid-range miles Ranger closer than PA 5 years ago - not sure what I'll choose when this one is done.

136.7" in 54 days, Jan 25-March 19, with 74" pack in mid Feb, at 20' asl. My prime pack-retention locale had 47" less at that time.

33° dz at 7 AM. 0.64" precip, starting with a tenth of IP.

We were visiting family in SNJ farm country 25-30 miles south of PHL and evening of the 26th had a 12-16" forecast, snow to start well before midnight,. We were thinking we'd wake up to a real pounding. First flakes came about 6:30 AM and last fell before 11 with 1.5" at best, all gone by 2 PM - grandkids were quite disappointed. It's 130+ driving miles from NYC, perhaps 10 miles shorter straight line.

Average temp bottomed out here on Jan. 21, but the midpoint for snowfall is about Feb. 1.

Vent on my old Jotul combi-fire (1970s technology) sucks air like a wind tunnel. If I open it halfway, even green wood burns cleanly if placed on a good bed of embers.

Low elevation sites, much mix. Maybe 1,000'+ higher at Deboullie, Rocky or the boundary plateau south of Little Black. Or will they be in the warm air?

Lac Saint-Jean is huge - perhaps 10X Winni, and has several significant inlets. Makes me wonder if, like last week's Moosehead fatal snomo-splash, they got too close to where a river entered. Night rides on/near lakes is always a dodgey practice; several years ago there were 4 killed - party of 3 men and separately, a mother and son and only the son made it out of the water. Happened on Rangeley Lake when they got off trail and rode into open water on a snowy night.

I was checking forecasts for that one from SNJ where we were visiting family, and seem to recall that So. Franklin was in the 8-12 zone and we got a dense cold 20", though that 'cast may not have been the latest pre-arrival update - was using a borrowed laptop that wasn't always free for use. Anyway, that storm was the most powerful January blizzard to hit my at-the-time current residence in my lifetime - only the JFK inaugural storm (NNJ) comes close - and all I got to do was snowblow the driveway as we got home about 12 hours after final flakes.

In a winter where Boston has more snow than Farmington, and Machias more than twice as much as Fort Kent, it's no surprise that forecasting accuracy suffers a bit.

Good boys do fine always. (I sing bass.)

14-15 was my most frustrating "good" winter - cold with over 120% average snowfall. For me that blizzard could be likened to hunting all deer season without success, then the last afternoon coming on a friend who just dropped a nice buck, only he has no idea how to field-dress the beast and his heart is too weak to even help with the drag. Then I don't even get offered a package of meat. All the work and none of the fun.

Midpoint of the heating season (HDDs) at my place comes on Jan. 21. That's also our coldest day on average, so we're 2 days into the long climb to summer. The snowfall season lags a bit behind - on average 56% of season's snow falls Jan. 24 and later. 8.5" while I was on vacation, and another 5.5" when I got back puts me at 40.3" for the season now. Yet another Portlander with more snow than the "snowy" foothills, and I'm becoming less and less confident about this weekend changing that.

That was 2 days after the JFK inaugural storm, which dumped 1-2+ feet in the NYC metro and nearby. 2 subfreezing weeks after that storm a bigger windier event brought even more. Depths in NNJ were up to 52", nearly a foot more than any other NJ records I've found. (And it compares well with all but one of my Maine winters - 47 years ago today we and all our possessions were in a U-Haul heading from NNJ to BGR so I could start spring semester at U.Maine forestry school.) Another personal note: I went ice fishing that cold (-12 at our place in NNJ) and windy Saturday, handled a small but slimy pickerel while unhooking and releasing it. Had to wash off the slime in the lake water after which I ran for the fire on shore - in that 100-yard dash the water on my fingers had mostly turned to ice. (With age I've learned to stay off the ice in wx like that.)

Was there any differences in cloud cover? Last evening we had thin overcast but it was enough to make temps hang around 20 thru 10 PM when I stopped looking. When I left home at 6:45 this morning it was mostly clear and zero or a bit below.

Closer than it ought. However, even after my coldest Novie of 22 here, it would take about 35° AN today thru the 31st to get there. Finishing Jan at +5, with not one but two rainers, is bad enough

Maybe Greenville? Might be far enough from NH to reduce the mobs. Ride from town up to Pittston Farm for lunch then complete the Moosehead circumnavigation. Yeah we’re not going to lose much pack in the foothills. This’ll just be a cold rain that gets absorbed in or soaks down underneath. Would settle my 14-15" to 10 or so - with probably 4" LE.

Have CT ponds held safe ice much this season? Saw FB video of foxes on thin black ice at the NNJ pond where I ice-fished (open water too, of course) hundreds of times. 3rd time that place has iced over, and I don't think it's been thick enough to be safe more than a few days. Ice fishing season there was Jan. 1 thru mid Feb, and except for one winter (64-65) when post-Christmas 60s wrecked things, there was always safe ice on Jan. 1 and usually thru the Feb. closure date. Yesterday I was hearing forecasts of a foot or more for the foothills. This morning GYX thinks 4-7" of low-ratio stuff for the mts and mix'n'mess for MBY. Slight change, eh?