tamarack

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.

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?

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.

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.)

2.0" of 9:1 snow at 7 AM (after 0.15" of RA/mix that didn't stay on the board.) Nicest dendrites yet now drifting down, and temp just dropped a degree.

Stereotypes usually reflect at least a modicum of reality. The problem is that many folks then think the stereotype is the only reality, ignoring the wide diversity of philosophy among the above groups. Same is true when considering those advocating stricter gun control and pro-choice.

"Old Sam Peabody" (Sometimes more than one "Peabody") Good streaming movie. The green movement is pissed at Moore. Ironic Have not seen it (haven't entered the streaming world) but read a very critical review - on a forestry and forest products site, not an environmentalist one. The review took Moore to task for basing his economic critique of wind and solar on old technology, ignoring for instance that solar had become far more efficient and less costly since the examples he used. (From 2008 IIRC) Another point in the review is that Moore assumed no environmentalists considered the costs (dollars and carbon) of making/building wind turbines and solar panels when they (the enviros) pushed for more use. There were many other examples of that that reviewer considered as bad journalism - made it seem like Moore had made up his mind on these issues and then scratched around trying to find supportive examples without considering whether they were valid examples.

AUG/WVL/Skowhegan jack - 6-8" of paste, maybe 7:1 stuff, only 3-4" of 5:1 mush for LEW but only if the heaviest comes at night. Reality says we'll get about what we did from last week's 2-5" forecast, a few flakes after most precip was done.

They haven't even come out to check the menu here, though the cluster flies and some midges are out feeding the birds. Week after next for blackfly bites in my area.

That describes 1999 (killed my freshly planted Reliant peach tree) and 2010 (killed new shoots of ash, oak and some maple, plus all the blossoms on our apple trees.) Highly doubt it will happen this year, as the BN April is far different from April 2010 (+5) and early May '10 had 2 days at 81. (Then 5/11 dawned at 22° - disastah!) Yesterday's 69 was just about perfect, and the only green is on the willows, though buds have broken on hophornbeam and cherry, and red maple is in full flower.

22" and 9+ pounds - that's a really fat fish! (Though the estimator equation - length*girth*girth divided by 800 - works out to 9.9 lb.) Many years ago (the year Lauri Rapala's lures became widely available in the US) I caught a non-skinny 22" largemouth that weighed 5 1/8 pounds from the nearby NNJ lake.

April numbers Mean: 37.75 2.3 BN, 1st BN month since Nov. Avg hi: 48.6 3.1 BN, Highest: 60 on 4/27 Avg lo: 26.9 1.5 BN, Lowest: 18 on 4.21, also 4 mornings at 19 Precip: 6.16" 1.67" AN Wettest day: 1.19" on 4/13. 4?2-3 had 1.94" Snow: 8.6" 3.3" AN Snowiest day: 4.8" on 4/9. The 4/9-10 storm was 8.5", 4th greatest April snow in our 22 years here. Pack: 21" on 2/19 was the deepest. Mean for deepest pack is 29"

Here it's the week after. I've learned that putting out the tomatoes and peppers causes cloudy, cool and windy wx. The one year in Fort Kent that I chose to wait until June's 2nd Saturday, we had snow the following Monday. (Only a trace in the valley though it slightly whitened the grass, 1-2" above 1000'.)