tamarack

We've lived in 4 towns since moving to Maine in early 1973. Each place had its own character for extremes. Bangor (3 yr) Range: 118° Max: 102 on 8/2/75; Min: -16 on 1/16/74. We were in town; the AP hit -24 in Dec. 1975 while we only got down to -13 that month. Fort Kent (9.7 yr) Range: 142° Max: 95 on 5/27/78; Min: -47 on 1/17/79. Both were set when we lived in town. After we moved to the Violette Settlement, 450' higher than town, in 9/81 Max: 94 on 7/4/83; Min: -34 on 1/18/82 and 1/12/84. Range: 128° Gardiner (13 yr) Range: 118° Max: 93 on 7/20/91; Min: -25 on 2/7/93 and 1/20/94 We lived on a forested lot 3 miles from town center New Sharon (since 5/15/98) Range: 129° Max: 93 on 7/3 and 9/9/02 Min: -36 on 1/16/09. We're in a frost pocket, as cold air drains from a field and stops at our lot as it's surrounded by thick forest on 3 sides.. We've had only 2 heat waves in our 53 years in state. Ironically, both were at Fort Kent and both in May: 22-24/77 and 27-29/78.

Reminds me of building a picnic table with my SIL (and new father, or why we were in SC) at 99°. Of course, we were always within 10 feet of AC, and could pop in for some iced tea and cooling off. A very unique and special summer is set to begin tomorrow, One none of us have evert experienced. Be ready, be excited, be nervous. You're too young to remember 1966, the hottest (until topped in 2010) and driest met summer in NYC's 155 years of record. Four days of 100+, only 1953 had done that and none since. LGA reached 107 on July 3, NYC a modest 103. The long holiday weekend highs were 100/103/98. (BDL cooled down to 90 on the 4th after 99/102 on 2-3.)

All 3 NNE states set their all-time hottest day in that July, reaching 105-106. Minima in most places on those days suggest modest dews, however.

In Maine, at least where I've worked, "popple" serves for the 3 Populus species: Quaking aspen (P. tremuloides), Bigtooth aspen (P. grandidentata) and Balsam poplar (P. balsamifera). Tulip poplar, aka yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), isn't native to Maine but is occasionally planted. there's one in Farmington 40-45" diameter and 80+ feet tall, on High Street in front of the Octagon House. Tulip tree has soft clear wood, somewhat similar to that of bigtooth aspen, though the latter is lighter in color. Growing up in NNJ, we used "poplar" for any broadleafed tree with soft wood, including basswood. 25 feet? Ginxy is looking for a sawmill with a loooong carriage!

From GYX morning AFD: Monday - Surface warm front pushes through the area as Mid-Atlantic heat doom amplifies northward. A few showers are possible along the warm front along with increased cloud cover and the beginning upward trend in humidity but overall seasonable weather is expected. Tuesday - Quick ramp up in temperatures and humidity as 500mb heights increase to 596 dam along with 850 temps of 26C. This will allow for heat index values to surge into the 90s and the first day that heat headlines might be needed. Wednesday - Thursday things get worse with some impressive 500mb height anomalies over us as the heat dome becomes centered across the NE CONUS. Reforecast Ensemble Means are near record values in all ensemble camps, thus record highs or near record highs have high confidence at Day 6 forecast time frame. In addition the heat will be building with low temps remaining in the 70s, causing unconditioned buildings to have issues. Looks like if excessive heat warnings are needed it will be in this time-frame. "heat doom"? Forecast for Wed-Thurs has New Sharon at 97 both days. Highest we've had since May 1998 here in the woods is 93. Maybe we tie it but 97 is a bridge too far.

SVR-warned storm arrived at 2:30 PM, dumped 0.52" in 20 minutes, with 0.3" in the first 8 minutes. The warning cited 60 mph and quarter-sized hail. Wind was 20 at best and no ice; the bright echoes stayed 2-4 miles to our south, as did 2 smaller storms later in the afternoon. Month precip is 1.20", exactly half the average thru today, but a decent drink for the garden.

It only seems that way - least favorite US major AP for the umpteenth year.

Warned TS (60 mph, quarter-sized hail) passed overhead but the best - 60+ dbz - stayed just to our south, hitting West Farmington then the south half of New Sharon. Nice downpour, ~1/2" in 15 minutes and 5-6 strikes/minute, closest was 5 seconds. Top wind here maybe 20 mph. Had more than enough wind last December.

PWM the hottest spot in the Northeast? Not impossible, but from this distance the chance looks indistinguishable from zero. Of course, when CAR tied its all-time hottest day (96) on May 22, 1977, it was tied with Phoenix as the hottest reported temp in the US that day. Edit: 103 is PWM's hottest temp on record, set on "Hot Saturday", 8/2/75. Logan had 102/83 that day, for the tallest daily mean there.

Guilty as charged. In 1991, while camping at Donnell Pond (a few miles east from Ellsworth) with my daughter, I saw several bigtooth aspen more than 30" dbh, just west from the pond and north of Schoodic Mountain. From a timber aspect, bigtooth is a much better tree than quaking aspen - less defect, better form, longer lived. Those big ones I saw 33 years ago were in a middle-aged stand (est. 60-70 yr) and might still be growing. That area is almost impossible to reach for harvesting, and Public Lands has no plans to try, both due to terrain and its proximity to one of the heavily used recreational lake in that region. Bigtooth leaves open 2-3 weeks after quaking, and the whitish-green "fur" on the undersides of the new leaves looks like silver from a distance. In mid-May the clonal clumps can be spotted from miles away.

Eastern white pine needles work perhaps 1.7 growing seasons, the 0.7 (at best) on the first one and a full season in year 2. Losing that full season is a real stress, as the "factory" only produces perhaps 40% of what an un-diseased pine would put out. One year isn't a problem, but a series of wet springs 8-10 years back lead to significant mortality.

Average max today here is 70, about what we had. Too bad I waited until 3:30-4 PM for some outside work, when the skeeters come out to dine, instead of doing it 4 hours earlier when low humidity would keep the mosquitos down. Hordes of them in the late afternoon.

And earlier. CAR's hottest temp is 96, reached 3 times, once in May 1977 and twice in June, 1944 and 2020. May 1977 and June 2020 also had a 95° day. Relatively low dews plus winds from W/NW have been the characteristics of those days.

Last 3 days had little sun, averaged 64/55, and produced a mere 0.64" as the juicy stuff missed here. However, it was near perfect for all the garden planting done on Tues/Wed last week.

My interest in trees, and weather, began when I was in first grade. The hills west and north of NYC had a major ice storm on Jan. 8-9, 1953 that cut our power for 6 days, and I was utterly fascinated, a fascination that continues today. We lived in NNJ and our place abutted the protected watershed for a nearby reservoir, such that we had a half mile of unbroken forest to play in. The dream of a met diploma crashed on the rocks of advanced math and the forestry became my vocation, getting a BS in forest management in Dec. 1975 then started with Seven islands Land Company (managing a major family forest) in Jan. 1976, working in the NW tip of Maine.

I've posted enough measurements that I'm not sure which ones that interest you, so I'll toss out some thoughts. I'm wary of formula aging, as site/competition have huge effects. The hemlock cookie in our toolshed is 21" diameter with over 400 rings and was taken 10-12 feet above the stump (tree was horizontal when sampled) as decay had eaten the center closer to the ground. It came from the Scraggly Lake Public Land, just northeast from Baxter Park. In contrast, some years back I took a core from a 16" dbh living hemlock in southern Maine and was shocked to count only 44 rings, as the tree was in the intermediate level with closed canopy white pines 30 feet taller. When I worked up north, I cored a 17" dbh red spruce in a dense stand in T15R13 WELS, over 200 sq.ft. basal area, and found 57 rings, less than half of what I expected. The only "formula" I've found that seemed to work was on the 80 acres of old growth mixedwood (primarily hemlock, sugar maple and red spruce) a quarter mile north of where I cut that cookie. The hemlock in that stand all seemed to have about 11 rings per diameter inch. (I suspect the biggest ones - 30-40" dbh) wouldn't fit that ratio as well as the 20-30" ones.) In the timber-managed stands adjacent to the old growth, I cut cookies of 200-year-old-plus hemlock and spruce stumps 35 years ago, providing them to a U. Maine silviculture professor who was looking for evidence of past spruce budworm outbreaks. Other old stumps I've measured include 412 years on a northern white cedar on 17-12 (just west of Allagash) and a 400+ white pine, I think on the same township. Also, I sampled a black spruce on 18-11 (NW from Allagash) in an old oxbow of the Little Black River. It was only 3" diameter where I cut it about knee high, and I had to make the axe cut on the bias to count the rings, all 180 of them. Of course, the oxbow had become a spruce-tamarack bog with few nutrients. Biggest tree I've actually measured (in 1991) was a 96" dbh silver maple in the flood plain of the Penobscot East Branck just south of where Wassataquiok Stream enters. It was kind of an ugly but massive thing, dividing into 5 separate 20-35" stems about 9 feet above the ground, and far from round - about 10 feet by 6 feet. It was about 100 feet tall with crown spread at least that great and was measured at 98" in 1996. The above noted professor and his forestry professor looked for the tree, unsuccessfully, last winter. The flood plain is extensive, and I may have given an erroneous guess as to the tree's location. Also, I think that the tree might be vulnerable to a heavy wet snow. Apologies for writing a book. If you were looking for other measurements, please let me know.

We're in the +2.5 to +3.5 color, close to the Over +3.5. That's significant for a 3-month period, but it's been more lack of cold than any big heat. Temps have been mostly meh.

Strange little TS 6:30 last evening, had 3 intense but brief (30 sec?) downpours over a 5-6 minute period with little/nothing between, 0.09" so 3-4"/hr in those 3 spates.

After escaping the evil effects of many hundreds of deer (black-legged) ticks in my forestry job, I contracted anaplasmosis a year after I retired. Little beast likely hooked on while I was hunting on Veteran's Day 2022 and found a home in a well-concealed private place. A week later I began to feel crummy and by 11/22 had trouble walking and some vision issues. Wife thought I'd had a stroke and called 911. At the ER she spotted another such critter on my back, offering a clue, and next day I got the doxy Rx. By Thanksgiving (11/24) the symptoms were pretty much gone. Later I was told by one who had suffered both Lyme and anaplas that the latter was worse by far.

They're pretty good at dodging our immediate area, except for a few at odd times. The March 2021 strike that blew up a fir tree 55 yards from the house came with temps in the low 40s, as did the crackling TS last Feb 10, the first one with strikes closer than 2 miles since that tree killer. Annual average days with thunder is 15, and declining. Since 2017 no years have topped 13.

Was hoping the lousy snowpack would allow predators to eat most of the small rodents, major vectors for ticks. I've been seeing ticks for more than a month here, though the numbers don't seem much different form last year.

April-May here had 98% of avg precip - slightly BN April, slightly AN May. 4 of the 1st 5 June days were dry (and just 0.02" on June 3). The 4 rain-free days ties the total for June 2023. POPs continue to be 60-70% beyond day 1 but seem to shrink on the day 1 forecast. Yesterday morning had 70% for this afternoon but by the afternoon it had dropped to 20%, where it stayed. The flood possibility has shrunk to almost nothing - okay with me. We've had too much flooding in the past year, with the Jay cloudburst last June 29 and 2 significant floods on the Sandy River. The rebuilt Farmington Falls bridge opened today, allowing neighbors to meet without having to drive a dozen miles thru Farmington and back, as the temporary bridge was closed due to damage from Dec 18.

Some warm season firsts (for this season only, IMBY): 1st firefly - evening of June 1. 1st deerfly - afternoon of June 3. 1st luna moth - this afternoon, hanging on a seedling ironwood, shaded by the biggest oak (23.75" diam/80+ tall) on our woodlot. Garden finally in yesterday and today, though only the first of 4-5 sequential green bean plantings. Latest I've ever planted cool-season crops (carrots, pac choi, etc.) and latest for initial row of beans. May be the new best way, may be a disaster. Early lilac and quince blossoms are done, late lilacs coming into full, waiting on the peonies.

BR usually starts on limbs and travels to the trunk, where it kills the cambium layer. The fungus travels down much more slowly - if you see a sizable white pine with a dead top but many live limbs beneath, likely the top was killed by BR. If the BR girdling occurs below the live crown, the tree dies. There's also been considerable needle drop fungi (3 species IIRC) over the past dozen years that take out the overwintered needles while the new growth is extending, with the old needles usually falling in June. That weakens the tree, as the established "factory" is destroyed while the tree is building the new one. The public lot on at Topsham Maine has had considerable pine mortality from this. A wet spring helps foster those fungi.

Might be white pine blister rust, though the lower pic looks odd, with browning branches all around below a green top.