tamarack

-3.5 here yesterday, thanks to the first sub-70 max of the month. Five straight BN days have dropped the month average from +5.1 to +3.4. With next week's warmup, we may finish near +4, which would be our warmest July of 27 here.

Precip has been all over the place here during the period Novie to now: Month Avg 23-24 Departure (Boldface denotes a new record here. July record is 7.91"; I don't think we'll reach that.) NOV 4.21 2.63 -1.58 DEC 4.74 9.35 +4.61 JAN 3.31 5.47 +2.16 FEB 2.97 0.95 -2.02 MAR 3.68 8.67 +4.99 APR 4.09 3.51 -0.58 MAY 3.86 4.25 +0.39 JUN 5.15 5.74 +0.59 JUL 4.04 4.84 +0.80 as of 7 AM today. We might add another inch by Friday morning. Total: 36.05 45.41 +9.36

PWM had 100/76 that day, their warmest minimum on record and the daily mean tied Hot Saturday (103/73) for their hottest. Some thunder and RA+ between 4:30 and 5 this morning, spooking our dog and giving the garden 0.85". More to come though only DZ at present. Dews back up after yesterday's low of 45, the month's coolest. July is now AN for precip with 4.84" thru 7 this morning. 6 of the past 8 months have been AN with both Dec and March setting new marks for precip. Only Feb (driest of 26 - DJFM was a precip rollercoaster) and April were BN.

When we were responsible for mowing my maternal grandparents' 3/4-acre lawn, each mow would discover 2 or 3 nests. For ones close to the house, my dad's 'medicine' was to wait until full darkness, pour in a few oz gas, then toss in a match. One very well established nest still had a small flame flickering the next morning and the soil had collapsed as the interior yellowjacket-paper structure burned, leaving a hole bigger than a 20-gallon washtub. We have reached the peak. Happy slide down to winter day Same here - 76.7/55.5/66.1 today. However, my data is still "live", and adjusts automatically with each entry, as my numbers for here started 5/17/98 and there's a whole week with means within 0.15° of that peak. If I'm still recording when the 2001-2030 norms are put in place (would be about my 85th bd), I'd need to decide whether to lock in my 01-30 averages or continue the present practice. Probably easier to just keep using all the current formulas.

GYX forecast isn't all that nice Tuesday afternoon thru Friday.

Only 16 of the past 60 months here were BN, and if my records went back thru 1991, it might've been a couple fewer thanks to the Pinatubo cooldown. I'd go for an average of 10 AN months/year but not 100%; wx is too variable for that. Difficult, OK. Very difficult, maybe late this decade.

Things have improved in that setting. Long ago (mid 1950s) when I went to the YMCA camp in NNJ, each cabin had chores each day, with rotating jobs. Thus, once in each 2-week attendance, each cabin had a day cleaning out the garbage room, which was about 6 feet wide and 25 feet deep, no windows nor vents. We used an ammonia cleanser, quite strong, such that we learned to breathe only with our mouth while inside. Only 10-15 minutes exposure, but in today's world that would be making lawyers richer. 51 this morning and it won't reach 80 this afternoon, nice enough to move some wood onto the porch. Might even notch an HDD - only 2 thus far this month, on the 2nd when the low was 47.

Yes, but what kind of memories. I've bragged on here about July 2-4, 1966, its triple-digit days and how hot it was behind the counter where I was cooking burgers and dogs at Curtis-Wright's NNJ lake resort. Also about being at BHB on Hot Saturday when it was 100 at water's edge. I would NOT wish to repeat those days. And the best part of Hot Saturday was the wonderful BD that came thru that night. They at camp every day with tons of activities including the beach. With counselors on high alert for kids with heat exhaustion.

Would not call it crazy, as we've had Januarys of +6.6, +7.3 and +9.0 (2023), so 3 of 26 have had that kind of departures, and 3 others have been 5.0 to 5.4 AN. However, +6.7 in July, were it to finish there, would destroy all-time records. (Our warmest July here is a mere +3.0; MTD is +5.1.)

One of the longest to retain power after landfall. It went E-T, curved thru the OV then swept thru Maine west-to-east, flattening about 1,000 cords of nice residual stands at Bigelow, south from Flagstaff Lake.

Different folks, different preferences. Mine would be 75/50, except for some rain for the garden and the woods. (Of course, climo is 8-10° cooler here.)

After the 7-10 TS about 3 PM yesterday, we caught 1/4" from the north edge of a large storm 2 hours later, again with no strikes within 5 miles. In this northerly locale, the strongest TS ought to be in met summer, but our most house-shaking thunder came in Dec 2000 and the closest strike (55 yards away) in March 2021. This year, the noisiest TS by far was on Feb 10. What's with the cold season having the strongest TS? Have not seen a single bolt this year - missed those in Feb as I was hunched over while putting food platters into the car for our church's Valentine potluck, trying to avoid having the food drown in the downpour. MTD rain is a tick under 4" and temp running +5.1, a huge departure for any July or August.

First 2 storms passed south (10 miles) and north (surprised we got nothing it was so close). Raining now from the 2nd wave, still no close strikes (<3 miles) since last Feb 10.

Our place is near the top of that frame and directly north from the "o" of Lewiston. We heard some distant rumbles about 9 PM then had 0.28" from 10 to midnight as the juicy stuff passed by to our south. Garden likes it, however.

My wife and her sister took a whale-watching cruise out of BHB yesterday, and the temp offshore was probably ~60. Dense fog that condensed on surfaces plus the wind created by the boat's travel had folks dressing like they were on a North Pole expedition. However, they watched a humpback doing its awesome things, saw an 18-foot basking shark and a mola mola (ocean sunfish) and on the way back, a pod of porpoises, adults and young'uns. A great trip. 70+ dews happen in October every few years too. Only reached 60s here in Oct; our mildest daily minimum in that month is 59. That said, in 1999 we had dews well into the 70s during the 2nd week of September.

That one was way south of us. The one I remember was July 4-5, 1999. It flattened hundreds of acres of Boundary Waters forest on the 4th then blew down a lot more in NH/Maine on the 5th while injuring campers at Umbagog Lake and Chain of Ponds. The Rangeley AP recorded a gust of 83 mph. Two campers at Big Eddy (downstream from Long Falls Dam) had their tent stakes fail, the wind then rolling the (occupied) tent across the campground as nearby trees were getting swatted down left and right. The Lincoln Plantation's east public lot had a 60-70 acre patch flattened by straight-line wind; at one spot I found a large healthy deep-rooted white birch flattened. 10 feet away was an overmature fir, shallow-rooted as always and probably with butt-rot, but completely undamaged. That derecho dissipated near BGR after creating a small tor near Bingham/Moscow. (Someone - dendrite? - noted that the residual energy was then carried south where it caused damaging storms in NC on 7/6.)

Reminds me of a high end 3H day on Parks and Lands' Duck Lake Unit, northeast from BGR. As we bounced along at 15 mph on an old road, the Eastern region forester with me pointed out the window at the large squadron of deer flies pacing the truck and said, "Doesn't that make you eager to get out into the woods?"

Unless there's a significant change, we're working on our warmest July (or any month) since moving here in 1998 and it may not be close. That said, it's being done without smashing any daily max records here, though the dews are about as nasty as it gets. It's consistent heat but nothing like last month when we came within 1° of our first 90+ couplet in 22 years. In a converse way, it's reminding me of February 2015, which broke few daily records while setting the Feb (or all time) coldest month all over New England, by never warming up at all.

Clear, dry and calm! Farmington (Maine) only got down to 38 that day, but 4 years and one day later they touched 32. CON was a modest 40 on that morning.

This month's vibe so far here is steady humid AN temps w/o any spectacular heat. We've not gotten to within 5° of June's hottest, but the current average is 69.9. Our warmest July, 2010, finished at 68.5 and the 2nd half of July averages warmer here than the first. We've had 10 straight days at +5 or greater, a yawner in January (Jan 2017 featured an 11-day run of 10+ AN) but very uncommon here in July.

Rates were very heavy for much of that 1969 storm. Maybe Central Park was running 32-33 but all the hourly obs were 33. Because rain had been forecast, the sanitation workers (NYC puts its plows on garbage trucks) had not been alerted and the city was almost paralyzed. The head of the sanitation union said of the mayor, "He played it by ear and was stone deaf!" Yesterday morning the temp snuck down to 59, first sub-60 minimum since 7/5. TD was back into the upper 60s by mid-afternoon.

Agreed, though NYC recorded 5" in April 1907 with the day's temp 41/35. (Not sure what was going on with that.) Snow at 33 is more likely - most of the "Mayor Lindsey" storm in Feb 1969 fell with the temp at 33.

TS just missed here yesterday afternoon. My wife drove thru a noisy downpour on the way to BGR to pick up her sister (saw a nice rainbow while parking at the AP), and they hit another one on the way back here. No issues with the flight, thankfully.

At peak during the 1987 flood, it was closer to 300 billion.

With the rains in the Androscoggin/Kennebec watersheds, there's probably a good charge of current there during an ebb tide, and lots of turbulence on any tide. 84/70 is too sticky for my taste, probably Mike's as well.