tamarack

I don' think there's any "technical" difference between lake and pond. I grew up in NNJ swimming in a 55-acre "lake" but now live about 10 miles from a 9,000-acre "pond." At least folks had the decency to name it "Great Pond" (Belgrades.) Beware the Snappers Lakes, ponds, they're in all of them. In my teens I used to catch those critters - biggest was about 45 lb - and mostly gave them to folks who made turtle soup. I tried dressing out a 37-pounder, which was much more difficult than field dressing a deer. Wish I'd known how to cook the meat. There were parts of that beast which I'd still be chewing 50+ years later had I not spit them out.

Zero C level was only about 2,000' above the summit, so no surprise. On my first climb there, August 6, 1973, I met a family on the Knife Edge who said they'd had to walk just south of the ridge same time the year before, because the windblown sleet was so painful.

Descending was the hardest part at age 27 as we came down the Hunt Trail at Katahdin 46 years ago last week. The hundred yards of adverse slope just west of the waterfall provided knee relief, for a bit. Very very late leaf change this year. Only saving grace may Be we get a cane this year with the pig EC ridge and trough Midwest/ plains . Would not surprise me, as Septembers have generally been AN in recent years. We also had a very late leaf-out, as late as I can recall here, though I don't know whether that has any effect on color change timing. Some clouds earlier but pure blue currently. What a pleasant month this has been so far!

Sat/Sun had highs of 67/69, definitely September-ish. Saturday also had a fresh breeze, which blew bugs away as I hauled 2,000 lb of firewood onto the porch and attacked the awesome weed growth in the garden. August to date has been exceptionally pleasant.

Got to upper 60s here today, good weather for hauling wood up onto the porch. Gusty winds - probably into the 30s and definitely strongest here since the leaves were out full - but the showers are either dying or slipping by S & N.

As yesterday afternoon's showers were passing to our north, we were startled by one of the loudest thunderclaps I've ever heard about 6:40 PM. Not a single rumbles before or after, no rain though skies were dark to the north. Did get 0.22" in brief heavy showers about 3 hours later. Can't remember another such one-boom phenomenon. I suppose if a neighbor had touched off a half ton of ampho the sound would be similar, but I'd have read about it in the local online news outlet (Daily Bulldog.)

Foxwood?

We probably 7-10 (though Augusta is getting some.) Western region must just do their own thing. I don't think the resolution of the grids is even down to that precision anyway. We don't waste our time with insignificant digits in the east. Two decimal points gets a scale of about 4,000' by 3,000'. Five decimals would be almost at arm's length; if meteorology truly achieves that precision/accuracy, they'll be running the wx, not forecasting it.

True enough. The 5 days 8/30-9/3/2010 averaged +12 at my place, and included Farmington's most recent 4-day heat wave. Not seeing anything like that coming, yet.

Two weak TS (7:30 PM and just after midnight) plus some light showers added up to 0.36" by 7 this morning, which ranked 52nd of 57 Maine cocorahs reports an hour ago. Looks like the 2 large chunks of moderate rain passed W and E of our place after my morning obs. Will need some afternoon action to reach 1/2".

Augusta managed to reach low 80s despite very little sun, with Td 68, so maybe there's enough juice to bring something other than the 7-10. Maybe...

OP GFS has RUM not breaking 80 thru Day 14, then jumping to low 90s end of run. Surely that's exactly how it will play out.

Solid gray skies here, so no insolation except for the cloud tops. These "possible torrential rain" events have been dumping less than 0.1" at my place this summer. My only siggy RA in the past 3 weeks was 10 days ago when a little TS made a direct hit for nearly 1" while nearby stations got little/nothing. Air is moisture-rich, though - needed the wipers on hilltops and east-facing slopes this morning.

Maine historically does best for snow (using CAR, PWM and Farmington numbers) with weak ENSO, either side of neutral. Looks like we may be in that general vicinity this coming winter, unless there's a major change.

Could not detect it at 10 PM outside the house. Also could not look directly north (only NW or NE) due to trees and hill. Lot's of stars, however, as the moon was just setting. Had 74/42 yesterday, lovely.

One of the most abrupt reversals of pattern I can recall. Farmington co-op averaged 86/62 for Aug. 1-14 and then 70/50 the rest of the month, with 3 mornings in the upper 30s. Went from 8.4° AN to 2.5° BN.

So was I. #1 front-loader here was 03-04, with 51% of the season's snow falling by Dec, 15, in 2 big gulps, 24" and 13". Farmington co-op was even more extreme with 65% by then, but that was fueled by their 40" measurement for the Dec. 6-7 blizzard while nobody else within 20 miles approached 30.

That streak of 2-4 AN covering Franklin County (Maine) seems odd. The 1981-2010 norms from the Farmington co-op are milder than their averages 1998-present (my period of record) but less so in summer than winter. I'm only -1.5 thru yesterday (today will kick that past -2) but a midnight obs on the 1st would've had that day at -1 rather than the recorded +1.

only here ... we want to dismiss summer. It was Aug 4 the other day and I read someone suggesting it's almost over because a swamp maple tinged.. ah..yeeeah To be fair, that was merely an observation, and only of a phenomenon that usually has begun at/before August 10. A couple red maples near the little farm pond down the road from home were nicely colored by this past weekend - as is the usual for the date. Any "almost over" suggestions have been added by the reader, or involve mindreading capability.

I think that practice was a tip (pun intended) from "Crockett's Victory Garden."

All season long I cut off the side stems to keep the plants to a single stem. Over the weekend I cut off the topmost growth shoot so the plants will no longer attempt to lengthen. Will need to do more shoot pruning as the plants keep trying to extend the vine.

Low 40s at my place this morning after yesterday's max of 73. Started nipping the tops off the cherry tomato vines so the already-set fruit has a better chance of ripening before frost. (Oops - should not have dropped the "f"-bomb, might cause distress for the ADATT folks.)

It's rather comical at this point. Spend all this money for lawn looks, and have a field to look at. Will need to drill another well to get any real irrigation, but that's a very costly project. I don't think I've seen it look this bad I wouldn't recommend tossing $10K at a new well just for the lawn, especially since that granite block on which you sit may not yield any more for from hole #2 than from #1. Garden explosion. Cukes are sweet as heck. Basil gone wild. BGW. Only fail so far has been green beans. Made a pesto with basil, garlic, olive oil and pine nuts. Off the hook Our garden is about 180° from yours, so far. Cukes haven't even blossomed while last year we were giving them away, while the green beans are in full production. I plant them sequentially over a 5-week period because we much prefer them uncooked, but we sometimes get overwhelmed and blanch a bunch for the freezer - may happen again in the next couple weeks. Cherry tomatoes almost ready for the pick to start, and I've begun nipping off the tops so the fruit already started gets all the plants' efforts. Goal is to ripen all the fruit before frost rather than grow bigger vines and try to do the indoors ripening with hundreds of greenies rather than the couple dozen we get even with top-stopping.

My honeybee adventure cam at age 4, and I have no memory of it beyond my mom's account. The house next to her parent's summer place in NNJ had a huge honeybee colony within the building's inside corner. Early one morning, probably before anyone else was awake, I wandered into the odd-sounding area. I'm sure my screams awakened everyone, my mom said my hands swelled up as big as hers (she was 5'4" and petite, but still...) and I slept for 30 straight hours. Was never told how many stingers they had to pull out, but if I'd done that with a yellowjacket nest I'd have slept for a lot longer.

His story reminded me of my grandmother's encounter with yellowjackets while raking leaves in the yard of their lake community home, and your "venom" comment added to the memory. She felt the "fire" on her legs, looked down to see them nearly covered. Tried to sweep the little monsters off but they wouldn't let go. Fortunately she was less than 50 yards from the lake. At the Dr. or Hosp. (happened before I was born, so some details I don't know) they counted 70 stings on one leg and 90 on the other - on a woman who weighed at most 110 lb. Back to weather: After the sunniest month I've recorded here, August is 3-for-3 and not much cloudiness on tap for tomorrow/Monday. May dip to low 40s that day. Finally me clouds mid-week.