tamarack

At 4 PM, MHT 82/19 and CON 81/18, both with RH 9%. Bloody nose wx.

At 2 PM, IZG and all 6 hourly reporting (by GYX) stations from 3B1 to FVE have RH in the upper teens. Breezy too with red flag warnings, though the evergreen stands and north slopes in NW Maine still have significant snow.

Took until yesterday to reach 70 and now we've hit 80. Perfect setup for NNE heat - west winds so low humidity (20%) and leaves only half developed, thus little shade or transpirational cooling. Barely anything beyond sticks in northern Maine. 43 years ago tomorrow, CAR tied its all time hottest with 96, followed the next 2 days with 95 and 94, their hottest 3 day stretch on record. (Of course, I chose to add insulation to the attic of our tiny 2-story that 96 day. Fortunately I was done by 11:30 AM while the attic hadn't yet passed 140 [estimate only, but it was wicked hot].) Edit: That 80 is up from this morning's 35, nice range.

Always good to welcome new members, especially ones offering such a well thought out intro. Hey, Mainiacs! How about some folks from the 85% of the state lying north and east of my location? (Though Pit 2 is slightly east of me.)

Hit 71 yesterday for season's 1st at 70+, but the low of 31 meant a mean that was 2° BN. To finish May AN here highs would need to average upper 70s today thru 5/31. We'll have some days like that but also some in the 60s. Prob finish the month about -2. Colder in some SNE spots this morning than my 35 or so here - looking at another 40° diurnal span today.

That high-pitched whine is a major sleep-depriver. Isn't it amazing how a little critter that weighs less than 0.1 gram can terrorize an adult camper that weighs more than a million times as much? Light frost this morning, low was 30-31. (Avg date here for last frost is 5/24.) Shooting for 40° diurnal range.

Never had black flies in NNJ, but there were some mosquitos that could carry off small pets.

If black flies can breed in it, brook trout can live in it. (And those trout begin to bite seriously about the same time as the black flies do the same.)

Way back when I was at forestry summer camp near Princeton, Maine, we were building a timber bridge for a logging road and the black flies were taking full advantage of all the fresh meat - about 25 of us at the site. Mid-afternoon a large squadron of dragonflies arrived and 10 minutes later, not a black fly in sight. With one exception, I've found black flies don't like hot and sunny wx - temp gets much over 80 and they abandon the field to the deerflies. (Those latter beasts are impervious to heat, not surprising as they come from the underworld.) The exception was June of 1996 in northern Maine, temp low 90s, and even 500' from shore in a canoe I was getting pounded - maybe too little airspace over land for that huge population. A friend with a bug-netted hat was having trouble seeing clearly due to so many hungry flies crawling on the netting. Thru Sunday the flies were out but not yet biting - any day now. However, the black fly season here is about 2 weeks, maybe a third as long as where I lived in Fort Kent. But as already posted, the deerflies are on patrol from early June thru mid September. Nice to have upper 60s yesterday rather than the low 50s with a 2" dousing that was being forecast 3 days earlier. Yesterday's 68/38 was 1° AN, a modest departure but my first AN day since May 3 and only the 3rd since April 14. Hasn't been hugely BN - 4/15 thru 5/17 averaged -5 and only 4 days in that period reached double digits BN. Looks to be some serious AN late week.

Central Park recorded 4.8" (all in Dec,Jan) - I had not heard of Atlanta getting much. Philly had .3" on the season. About what our snow-loving grandkids saw 25 miles SSE from PHL Only time they saw white ground for more than a few minutes was when they visited us over Thanksgiving. Finished with 85.1", 94% of average, as springtime snow kept it from ratter status. 31% of snowfall came after the equinox, and only 06-07 had a higher %, thanks to the record-crushing April. 00-01 had more spring snowfall but had already passed 100" by 3/21. This was my only snow season in which the 2 biggest events came in springtime.

Maples stating to leaf out but oak and ash buds are just swelling a bit, about average timing for those two.

Scads of blackflies swarming around me as I did some garden work - spreading leaves and last spring's cow dressing. Tilling comes next week as hat's when planting starts and I don't want the weeds to get even a week's head start. Bugs are just checking out the menu at present, but still good at flying into eyes and ears. Glad there was a decent breeze, most of the time. Buds breaking on the 3 apple trees but only the Empire (least productive of the 3) shows much for flower buds. Could not see any on the Haralred, but that tree was loaded last year and even moreso the year before - time for a rest.

No wind, no thunder but 0.73" in 2.5 hours - first "summer-character" event of the season though we were too far north for true summer action.

I'd go with 1969 as the Memorial Day scorcher, with NYC hitting 97 on either 30th or 31st (can't recall which), tied with 1987 for 2nd warmest. The 99 in 1962 came on the 19th and fortunately was modest dews (50s to low 60s?) When the 1 PM NYC temp of 89 became 95 an hour later my friend and I forgot about playing baseball and sought some shade. And responding to Will's post about Boston's 2 record lows this month, 1st time since 1967 - that month also had some cool afternoons. 5/25 was a northeast storm that held NYC to a high of 46, about 30F BN, and with winds strong enough to fell newly leafed-out trees at my NNJ workplace. We'd had 3" of snow on 4/27 that year, and co-workers on a fishing trip past Towanda, PA had an inch of sleet on the 1st Saturday of May.

I'd agree if "summer" meant near continuous warmth with high dews. For temps only I can recall some very summery stretches, upper 90s in 1962 and '69 (NNJ) and 1977 in Ft. Kent when CAR highs for May 22-24 were 96*, 95, 94. Looks to me like the last week of the month may have some +10 days, which at my place would be 80/50 or some such combo. *That's tied with June 1944 for CAR's hottest on record. Mid 20s this morning - last freeze of the season?

Looks like they would be BN for SDDs but closing the gap.

Highest I've seen, and that part of eastern Maine was the jack (for the US, might've dumped more in New Brunswick.)

WWA issued for NW Aroostook, 3-5".

Not here. Once snow ended about 11 AM we had no flurries/squalls, just mid 30s with gusts near 40. Sunday was no gem, gusts into the 30s and mid 40s temps (normal high is 63) and no sun until late afternoon, but slightly less un-May-like than Saturday. Yeah and without a lot of vegetation we can get warm fast this time of year. Would welcome a nice 60s and 70s temperature SW flow type pattern. A week later than today in 2017, we hit 91, only 90s at my transpirationally-cooled site since 2002. Having little foliage pumping water into the air to offset the mid May sun helped push the temp upward. Might reach my average max Thursday - 64 by then - and hopes for 70s next week.

Second straight snow season with measurable in 7 months, as we had 1.5" in Oct. 2018. That's much more common here (6 of 22) than May measurable (2 of 22).

Snow pretty much gone, as expected, but windy 40s do not make for a nice day in May - had a couple flakes now and then as well. Yesterday's temp was 15° BN, would've been 17 but for a cheap 41° max at obs time the evening before, as 37 was the tops for the afternoon and it did well to get that high.

About 25 miles to the NE from Lee, Orient reported 14". They're on the border with Canada, right where the squiggly border (East Grand Lake and trib) turns toward the north. Missed all the squalls, as they slid south while the precip that dumped on NE Maine stayed just to my north. However, 3.2" on May 9 warrants no weenie complaints.

Last time NYC had a sub-40 temp in May was 1978. Last time they had 34° as late as 5/9 was...never, at least not since Central Park began keeping records in 1869. Still flakes in the air (and not just from the trees dumping) but accum is done unless we get a squall later. WCI's about 20 (teens in Aroostook) - happy May!

Cool! IMO, 6"+ icicles on May 9 is more rare that 6" of snow in May. Finished with 3.2", with the 1.2" after 7 AM only 0.07" LE - 17:1 snow in May. If the Farmington co-op git as much as here, it would be their biggest May snowfall in 57 years and 4th biggest ever measured, POR 127 years. If the changeover to snow had occurred at 10 PM instead of 2-3 AM, we'd probably have had closer to 5", but still the biggest May snowfall I've seen.

Back to S- with small flakes, another 1" of fluff since 7 for 3" total, more than any May snow in my 10 years in Fort Kent. (Though had I still been there in 1996, my 970' location would've had 10+ on Mother's Day weekend.)