tamarack

ASH has reported that 81° dewpoint since 11 this morning, but their RH is sometimes squirrelly. Earlier this week when most other stations had 70+ dews, ASH reported the RH as 32% (obviously bogus), pushing the reported TD down below 60. That 81 dew reminded me of early football practice in Baltimore. After one of the 2-a-days we were sweating in the concrete block room where we stayed, and the radio reported a temp of 86 and RH of 85, for that same 81 dew. Moisture was running down the walls of the place. The highest dew point ever recorded, 95°F (35°C), was recorded at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on July 8, 2003. With an air temperature of 108°F (42°C), the heat index was 178°F (81°C). Gack! I've noted TDs near 90 in the Persian Gulf. Occasionally those dews were accompanied by 25+ winds and a condition described as "sand".

GYX map has us in the 2-3" color while the above map has us closer to 1/2". Given the month to date, the much lower total seems likely. Yesterday we danced around 3 separate TS, 2 svr-warned, with the bright echoes passing within 3-4 miles or less. We did get a 20-second sprinkle and some rumbles from the non-warned storm.

In our region, the Sandy River reached 31,300 cfs on May 1st, only the 4th time it had passed 30k since 1929. Then the Dec 18 storm brought it up to 42,700 cfs, 2nd only to the 51,100 of April 1987 and causing major flooding. That latter storm had 4 hours of 50+ gusts, destroying about half of the mature fir on our 80-acre woodlot. Not since Bob in 1991 had we experienced wind of that strength and duration, and the 101 hours without power (except that we had an on-demand genny ) is the longest I've experienced since the 6-day blackout from the January 1953 ice storm in NNJ. GYX has us in the 2-3" color, and given a bit of Stein this month, all should be well unless a 2"/one hour event is included.

Couple inches here would be appreciated. We got 7-10'ed about 2:30, a small TS to the south with the bright colors within a mile and an SVR-warned storm about 3 miles to the north. One 20-second sprinkle and enough thunder to spook the pup. The next one appears to be sliding just south of Rt 2 and that should do for chances before tomorrow afternoon.

Too much pavement? PWM had 84/71 at 11 and 86/73 at noon, down 2° by 1 PM thanks to a south wind. HI at BDL was 101 at 1. Mid 80s and no humidity gauge here but the air is incredibly stuffy. We're in amongst the trees and they must be pumping up the dews. Same here, I've never seen so many, I take the dog out and we get attacked. What would cause an explosion of these damn bugs? Stand still and the deerflies often lose interest, kinda like T-Rex. From how a bite feels, the little beasts' dental equipment must look similar as well, though fortunately much smaller. The worst I've had with deerflies was in NW Maine during hot wx, Walking thru the woods, I'd have hundreds of black things buzzing around me. Most were harmless "sweatlickers" that looked like houseflies, but with the flying circus going on, one couldn't tell which ones had the knives until it was too late. I hate wearing hats when it's hot and every deerfly knows that the whorl of one's hair is a nice easy target. Crush one fly there and a couple dozen more show up for the funeral, and they would all expect a meal.

Did you stay uphill while shingling. At those temps a decent sized housecat would smear the surface.

The full hardiness zones are 10° steps. IMO (and in the data I've accumulated), even the 5° half-zone is a bit of a stretch, though it's getting closer.

Speed limit north of Old Town is 75. I'd guess 90% of traffic went flying by you. You could've driven like the Public Lands' staff biologist. In 1990, driving is state pickup (full size, 6-cyl automatic, underpowered), he left Augusta at 4 PM for a 7 PM meeting at PQI, 239 miles away, the final 43 miles on 2-lane Rt 1 thru 5 small towns. He was not late!

The same goes for daily departures. Not New England, but Central Park's 25 Januarys 2000-on have recorded at least one day of 15+ or greater in 17, or 68%. I doubt that 15+ departures in July haven't happened a dozen times in 154 years. Their hottest daily mean was July 22, 2011 with 104/84, and that was +16.1, just over that threshold. Plus 10 in January is meh; in July it's blazing.

Small rodents are one of the major vectors for ticks. Yay!

Must've just missed. PWM recorded 1.92" for June 22-24, with 0.82"/0.31"/0.79". Missed out on yesterday's storms here as the best chance died over Farmington. Finally started raining about 7:30 this morning. Yesterday's 48-hr RA forecast for here was 0.5-1". 24 dry hours later it's .01-0.25.

That would be a disaster in NNJ. The Passaic and Raritan systems often flood if they get half that much.

Latest (5 PM) forecast has Beryl as a high-end Cat-1 at landfall, as it will take a number of hours for the circulation to regather. If the easterly trend continues, Beryl will have more hours of favorable conditions before landfall and could intensify, but I'd put its top end as a solid Cat-2. (Hope I'm not too optimistic.)

Might be the needle-cast fungi. They infect the new needles in the spring, then the needles die the following June, leaving only the half-grown new shoots. One season of that weakens the tree some, but 3 or more consecutive years and the tree is in peril. White pine needles grow in spring #1 and are fully functional in year #2 before falling in autumn. Having those older needles drop before the new ones are fully operational in too many years and the tree either runs out of energy or dies from a secondary cause, like insects or decay fungi.

Lost a few minutes since the solstice, but the warmest month here is July 9 thru August 9.

Contractor may have wondered whether to leave only the foundation and mailbox, then work from there.

Not here, though 10 miles to our south and 50 miles to the north got hit. That's okay, June precip was 0.59" AN, as it continues to be our 2nd wettest month, trailing only October.

June 2024 Avg max: 73.0 +1.6 Hottest, 90 on the 19th 20th 90+ here since May 1998, 9 of which came in June. Avg min: 52.4 +2.9 Coolest, 38 on the 16th Mean: 62.7 +2.3 5th warmest of 27 Precip: 5.74" +0.59 Wettest day, 1.68" on the 24th. 23-24 totaled 3.02", 2 separate events. Very much back loaded, 1-21 had 1.39", last 9 days, 4.35"

My strategy is hack-and-squirt herbicide and wait 2 years. Reduces splitting labor from impossible down to difficult with my maul. Trick is to have just enough natural degrade to make the wood brittle without losing most of the heat value, though the bark almost always falls off. Doesn't work on some elms. Only trees within 100 feet of our stove qualify.

The public lot at Topsham next to Merrymeeting Bay has some chestnuts. There was one 15" by 60 feet that was used for controlled pollination by the ACF, but it was been blighted 10-12 years ago. Following the 1989 thinning of a 15-acre pine plantation established in 1959 on what had been a market garden since the early 40s, a 5-foot-tall sprout was seen in a skid trail - almost 50 years after the field being stumped and plowed. It grew to 55 feet and 12" with nut crops but the blight arrived ~10 years ago. Last I saw it, the lowest 15 feet was still alive. Farther north, at the edge of its historic natural range, the Bradford public land (25 miles north from BGR) has several mature chestnuts. The biggest got blighted 5 years ago but had produced seedlings in the small patch cut to its immediate south. A planted one was 40 feet tall as of 2020, twenty years after being a 2-foot seedling.

Last week's 90 was something of an anomaly for June as the TD was 70 or a bit higher. Caribou's all time hottest is 96, reached 4 times including this month. Three have been in June and one came on May 22, 1977.

History here says yes. We reached our 20th 90+ in 27 summers last week and have not reached 90 in July/August/September since 2002. 90s by month: May 2; June 9; July 3; Aug 4; Sept 2.

Has Pittsburg ever hit 90? They've reached 93 several times at 1st CT Lake, elev 1660. The only time I've gone swimming in truly warm salt water in Maine was adjacent to the Acadia Loop Road just south of Otter Cliffs. Of course, that was on Hot Saturday when BHB reached 100. 45 here this morning. Saw 37 at HIE along with the 27 on MWN.

None in Mass, but a few miles north of the border an WF-1 (90 mph) blew down a lot of trees in Dublin, NH, and fortunately nothing else. Track was 3.6 miles, west to east, almost all in forest land though it crossed a couple of roads. Surprise little shower this afternoon dumped 0.34" here from 12:30 to 12:50.

I deal with the same thing. My max-min instrument is on the NE side of the house and shielded, but the sun is now rising so far north of due east that it warms nearby surfaces, such that sunny day highs would always occur about 10:30 AM. On such days I'll look at it about noon while the temp is still rising, and often will see the indicator ~5° above the current reading. I then shamelessly move the thing down to the current temp, so it will show the true max for that day. Another 1.68" yesterday, almost all from 5 to 8 PM, for a 2-day total of 3.02", month has gone from quite dry to ahead of the avg since the 19th. Sandy River rose from 300 cfs to 2500 and is already dropping, due to the localized nature of the downpours. Flood stage is above 20k cfs, so this was just a blip.