tamarack

My little Ranger would be all but helpless with all-seasons, especially for getting up our driveway (all uphill) and nearby Mile Hill, a 300' elevation climb in that mile (with about 200 yards of 8-10% grade near the top) and with a sharp curve at the bottom. Good snows and a couple hundred pounds of firewood over the rear axle is good medicine.

He resembles the evening news, but instead of "If it bleeds, it leads" we see "If it's toast, he'll post." The 18.3" total snowfall YTD trails only 2018 and 2014, and the pack since the Wednesday night surprise (3-to-6 became 3-plus-6) is tops for 27 Novembers here. 15-14-13 past 3 days. Morning low here was 2 and if the clouds hadn't arrived, we'd have dropped below zero as it was 5° at 10 last night with bright stars. Season's first measurable (1") began about 8 hours after we set out Tuesday for SNJ and T-Day with family. Neighbor had 8" Thursday night, supported by local cocorahs reports (10+ in Farmington) and the catch bucket for the 2 events held 1.85". I hope folks talking total wipeout from the midweek bath. It would probably take 3"+ of near 50 RA to take out the 2"+ SWE (plus tonight and maybe some Monday night) in the current pack. Were that to occur, we'd have moderate flooding and only the dry autumn would prevent worse.

No snow in Gloucester County, NJ. We had a super time and for the first 380 miles on the return it was a slick as ever. One mile from the Piscataqua bridge we hit the jam - crash on the bridge, southbound lane, and we s-l-o-w-l-y detoured to Rt 1. Finally, after 95 minutes, we reached Maine on the drawbridge and as we crossed, we noted that I-95 had opened and all the cars that had been behind us were now flying ahead at 60 mph. The jam southbound was still back to Mile 5 on the Pike as we headed north. Next door neighbor reported 8" on T-Day; what time did the snow start at your place? When we reached home, in 12.5 hours instead of 10.5, we found 5-6" of crunchy stuff almost able to hold us without sinking. Wednesday's 3-6" forecast then turned into 3+6 (9.3" of 14:1 moist fluff) with 8" coming 9 PM thru 5 AM Thursday. Still 13-14" at the stake

So "right thru the goalposts" but under the crossbar? Looks like our first snow here will be while we're in SNJ where it will be RA. Maybe we can get caught in a storm when we return on Dec 3 or 4. On our first visit a few weeks after they moved there from DEC in Jan 2015, we delayed the northerly drive from Jan 27th to the 28th, thus avoiding the 30"+ blizzard in SNE. Got home about 6 PM to find 20" of single digit sand that wouldn't pack underfoot but made our feet slide sideways - missed the most powerful January snowstorm that has hit where I was living at the time.

We lose out from downsloping too, but we also save a lot of snow, both in the air and on the ground, through CAD. Maybe the clown maps don't account for that?

Two more clown maps with a snow hole east from the Whites (including my area, of course). I've seen that phenomenon far too often to think it's merely random. Fortunately, things rarely turn out so poorly here. (Especially last March-April) Event total 1.77" thru 7 this morning, month total 1.92". Saw a few catpaws at 750' on Weeks Mills Road this morning, all RA at 390' at home.

And the Grinch is waiting.

'Fraid so - previous flake tardiness record was 11/21/04. That winter had no snowfalls greater than 3.4" thru Feb 9, after which we had 60" in 31 days, finishing with 94", 5" AN.

Where I grew up in NNJ is at 700, probably a couple inches there. Had 0.39" thru 7 AM, about ~0.2" since. Still haven't seen a flake this season.

At 1,800' asl. My NNJ HS (Butler) had a 2-hour delay this morning, probably about 2" there. I've yet to see a flake. Weird wx is fun.

And before here in the Maine foothills? Latest I've had to wait for the season's first flakes is today's date, so a new late start whenever one is seen. We head for SNJ this coming Tuesday and there's a chance that no flakes arrive before then. even BWI may be able to pull some minor accumulation Another 2009-10 on the way? That was the season when they got 7" more than CAR.

GYX overnight shift QPF was 1.5-2 here yesterday, 1-1.5 this morning. Daytime shifts Tues-Wed 0.5-1 both days. Models flipping? Cloudy with a raw wind and low 40s. Hoped the deer would be moving ahead of the storm. If they were, it was elsewhere.

The 2 storms in the first half of Dec 2003 totaled 37", more than half of the season's snowfall. Only one event with more than 5" in Jan-April. Jan '04 had 7 maxima between 1 and -8 but only 7.7" snow/0.57" precip. The -7 max on the 14th was recorded at 9 PM on the 13th; the afternoon max was -11.

Or November 22-23, 1943 in NNE.

Yikes! In the 1950s my mom could buy 4 cartons for that. (Unfortunately. At age 55 after 40 years of 2-3 packs/day, she was diagnosed with emphysema. She quit cold turkey but gradually lost lung function until passing at age 70. Her 2 non-smoking sisters lived into their 90s.)

The past 3 months might be drier than any 3-month period in the 1960s. However, that earlier drought lasted 4 years. NYC numbers: 1963 - 34.28" 5th lowest, only the 4.4" dump in early Nov avoided a new record. 1964 - 32.99" Lowest (at the time) by 0.73", now 2nd 1965 - 26.09" Four years later some VA sites had that much in 5 hours from the remains of Camille. 1966 - Jan-Aug 19.79", only 0.74" more than J-A '65, and considerably warmer (met summer 4.8 hotter). Sept 21, 1966: 5.54" Drought was over though we didn't know it until many months after. GYX precip map this morning shows 1.5-2" for almost all their CWA. Yesterday they were thinking 0.5-1". We'll see. We're heading to SNJ on 11/26, returning 12/3 or 4. Might see flakes there before seeing any here.

Fake cold. We had 3 sunny and calm days after a 12.4" dump. That storm was cold rain at ORH and the lows on 6-8 were 23/18/18 there, 1/-8/-8 here.

The greatest negative departures here since Feb 2023 were Dec 6-8 last year (-13/-19/-14. That said, I had to go back to 12/2018 to find more early Dec cold.

Got you beat by 0.09" Only 0.44" over the past 5 weeks, however.

Families, and there may be as many as 6 pups or more, though they usually get thinned out by fall. Multi-family packs like wolves are uncommon for coyotes. Didn't happen this year, but the usual sequence here would be hearing the pups singing soprano in May then working down to a low alto by September. This morning was 20°+ milder than yesterday's 14.

But very little since late August - many wildfires in the Northeast above Mason-Dixon.

1995-96 had 5 months, DEC-APR, with Jekyll-Hyde character. Data from Gardiner, Maine: Dates Avg Temp + or - Precip Snow 12/1-21 17.5 -5.4 3.99" 40.6" 1/1-16 8.3 -9.8 2.03" 27.5" 2/1-19 12.7 -6.3 1.17" 11.3" 3/1-11 17.5 -7.5 1.93" 24.5" 4/1-14 36.1 -3.5 2.44" 23.5" Avg/Tot 17.8 -6.4 11.56" 127.4" 81 days 12/22-31 25.6 +5.4 0.20" 2.6" 1/17-31 25.6 +6.6 4.75" 4.6" 2/20-29 34.7 +11.1 3.85" 0.0" 3/12-31 34.8 +2.4 1.06" 2.0" 4/15-30 46.6 +1.9 4.72" 0.0" Avg/Tot 34.2 +4.8 14.58" 7.6" 71 days 1995-96 produced 138.8", the most of our 13 winters in Gardiner and 30.4" more than #2 (92-93). However, 95-96 ranks only 5th for SDDs thanks to all the thaws.

From 14 to 50 here, maybe a 40-span? More cloud than blue now, so probably not.

Low of 14 here, IZG 12 and BML 9. A small cloud to our northwest, first one I've seen in 3 days. (November vies with December for the cloudiest month here.)

Depends on how it's measured. By numbers of TCs/canes/majors, which came in below the forecast. By impact, any season with a Helene and a Milton is high-end. (Reminds me of 1992, when the first named storm didn't come until August and the numbers were way low, but that #1 was Andrew.)