tamarack

77 years ago (Oct 47), the Kennebunkport fire torched an island 1/2 mile out to sea. Winds were gusting into the 50s, not 60-90, and there were no slopes (obviously) to help foster the spread. 90 mph gusts might've threatened Lisbon (Portugal, not Maine). For another example of the power of wildfire, look into the destruction of Peshtigo, WI on Oct 8, 1871, a fire powered by the same winds that spread a more well-known blaze in Chicago.

I think that's consecutive days. In 1961, NYC stayed below 32 from Jan 20 thru Feb 3, 16 days in which the high was 29 and the low -2. Also, though the punctuation is ambiguous, the 15 days in 2015 may be the 2nd place run; 1961 being tops (as it is at Central Park).

We had 40.9" post-equinox. Even Fort Kent never had that much in any of our 10 springs there. Storms were 5", 22" and 13.9". The big dog also dumped 6"+ from 9-10:30 PM, heaviest non-squall rate I've seen.

As a weather enthusiast: Bring it on! As a forester: NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

In 1996 my wife had surgery for a rotator tear and joint impingement that required shaving some bone. Pain management was awful and she was in agony for most of a week. About 5 years later she slipped on ice at the L.L. Bean store in Freeport, ramming that shoulder into a parking barrier. Same surgeon "cleaned up the mess" (his term) and a pain pump was installed - tiny capillary tube that administered pain med 2 mm/hour for 2 days. It was a world of difference, hardly any pain at all. (Soon after, they had to stop that practice as the teeny nozzles popped off a couple times and had to be fished out thru another surgery. Maybe they've fixed that problem?)

Totally different ecosystems. Florida is dead flat and once the pines lose their lower branches there's no fuel ladder to the top. Mid-size pines have bark that can withstand a quick fire of grass and pine straw, and that kind of fire gets stopped by a 5-foot firebreak. The resinous chaparral in SoCal always has a fuel ladder, and when that stuff is burning uphill on 45° slopes, 500 feet of firebreak isn't enough. More sun than expected today though clouds are coming. Gusts around 30, chilly but not damaging. The 1" of slop from New Year's Day is getting worn and turned to ice. May need to spread some more ashes.

After my first shoulder injury (1998) the ortho doc told me that the shoulder is the most complex (and troublesome) joint on the body. Both of mine are functional but weakened; when I was a freshman in college, I tossed a baseball 270 feet. It's doubtful I could reach 70 today, even throwing downwind. However, both knees are bone-on-bone, and the left one is far worse than the right. This coming Tuesday I meet with the ortho team in town to discuss possible replacement. As a long-time co-worker said years ago, "Getting old isn't for sissies."

Daughter's in-laws live in GSP, and upstate SC looks to get hammered, probably ice atop snow.

Family had just moved from DEC to SNJ and we'd driven down to visit. #1 was a whiff at home while #2 was forecast for 12-16, twice as much as any snowfall the grandkids had seen. We chose to delay the northward trip - experience the kids in a big dump or drive thru the blizzard, easy choice. SN was expected by 6 PM on the 26th and I was up 4 times overnight to see how much had fallen. First flakes came at 7 AM, last ones by 11, and by 2:30 the 1.5" was gone. What a fail. No problems on the drive home until we reached our driveway. We'd gotten 20" of 9:1 sand at sub-10° temps and the stuff would shift under our feet rather than compress, making the wade to our steps more interesting. Two fails in two days, losing the would-be SNJ dump and missing the best January snowstorm I ever would've seen at home. (We had 20" of powder on Jan 19-20, 1961 [JFK inaugural] but with light winds and much less LE.) Least snowy January here is 5.1" in 2014. Though today is only the 8th, I see a possible challenge to that mark.

The 1998 ice storm may have caused serious damage over the greatest area of any such event, as it turned off the lights from Montreal to Downeast Maine. It also featured a south-to-north temp and wx sequence of the most different conditions I've noted: NYC and environs: RA and 50s-60s SNE: Cold RA, upper 30s and 40s Southern Maine: Near 32 with RA and moderate ice. Central Maine and Downeast (>10 miles inland): Catastrophe, ice 1.5-3" thick, temps 30 or a bit lower Maine foothills: Serious ice but much of the 2-3" precip was IP. Mid-upper 20s. Far north: 18-25" of 8-to-1 sand, temps from singles (Allagash) to low 20s (CAR). Two examples of nearby but different conditions: Our 0.8-acre house lot in Gardiner (C.Maine) had more tree damage than on the entire 63 forested acres on our New Sharon (foothills) woodlot - moved there 4 months after the ice. MWN recorded their highest January temp ever (since tied) while Gorham had cold RA. In between, mainly at 1500-2500' asl, massive destruction.

1979-80 was the least snowy of our 10 winters in Fort Kent, but that pig stuck in the Maritimes reminds me more of 2009-10. Thru today's date in 2010 our snowfall was 10" above season-to-date but other than some advisory snow on MLK weekend and one WINDEX in late month, winter was cooked, actually, overcooked. The overhead echoes finally produced enough flakes to have a few come flying by the window, along with increasing wind.

Echoes overhead but no flakes reaching the ground. Grandkids' locale in SNJ had 4-6 forecast, got 2-3 while Cape May - 50 miles SSE - had 6-10. At least it's cold so the kids can wear out the snow before it melts. Maybe the late week thing can freshen the white, though currently the PoP is higher at DCA/BWI.

We'll just be spectators here, like 2006, 2010, 2016.

Caught early, at the first small sign of blonding, some trees can be saved through injection of a systemic pesticide. It's costly, so only appropriate for highly valued specimen trees. A huge old ash in the town park might be an example. The trees in your pic are, unfortunately, far beyond saving.

Looks like white ash infested with emerald ash beetle, with woodpeckers dining on some of the larvae, causing the "blonding" that can be the first sign of the insects' presence.

36" where I grew up in NNJ, 6" in the snowy Maine foothills. Feb 2021 redux?

At least we have some sun, though clouds are appearing to the west - more sun today than the previous 9 days' total. No wind at the moment but the near-constant breezes in recent days have brought daily highs occurring in late evening, with dawn temps running a few degrees less cold. Odd diurnal pattern.

I'd take dust for our gravel road. Something about the wx sequence caused the plow to "chatter" when pushing off the 1" slop on New Year's Day, and now we have a washboard surface that tries to shake the fillings from our teeth - 1st time that's occurred since moving here in 1998. The pattern may be far different than 15 years ago, but that LP stuck so long in the Maritimes brings back bad memories. So does the relatively long stretch of nothing; in 2010 we had a 25-day run with nothing but a few traces after the Jan 28 WINDEX, a streak ended by 3.8" precip that included 10 inches of "snow".

I'd be okay with a 2" event if SNJ was getting 2 feet. We can catch up later here.

If the state isn't harvesting at Seboomook, there's loads of logging roads that don't need deep snow to ride.

Grandkids in SNJ may see 6"+ for the first time in at least 4 years (maybe not since 2016).

When we lived in Fort Kent (1976-85), schools there lost only 1.5 days thru that whole time. Folks joked that it was because the superintendent lived next to the high school. He said that was not the case. He would send his German shepherd out to get the morning paper. If she made it out to there, school would be open (even if he had to go and help her back to the house!)

March 2018 had those 4 huge storms and like you we whiffed on #1 and #4, but the middle 2 totaled 36.4" here, pushing the season into triple digits.

Near 50" here as well, with storms 16.0, 11.3, 4.7, 9.5, 7.3 plus some scraps for 49.3". had some meat, too, with total precip 5.73", all flakes but ~1/2" of IP/ZR in #4. The syzyzy storm was 2nd biggest of our 13 winters at Gardiner and went from 1st flakes to 1/8 mile visibility in <2 minutes, a classic wall. The pack was well sustained, with 24" and ~7" SWE at the equinox. March 23-30 had +8 temps but there was still 8" with perhaps 4" water in the very ripe pack. Then 4.57" RA on 31-4/1 with temp near 50 (some gusts of 50, too) blew away the snow. The Kennebec had the greatest peak flow in Maine records - 232,000 cfs - reaching 22 feet above flood stage at AUG.

0.5 BN here December 2024: Avg max: 30.9 Within 2 hundredth of the average. Mildest, 48 on the 12th Avg min: 12.4 -1.2 Coldest, -7 on the 27th Mean: 21.7 -0.5 Precip: 5.08" +0.21" Wettest (and all RA), 1.34" on the 11th Snow: 22.5" +3.3" Had 9.1" on the 5th 297 SDDs, not quite twice the avg (157). 2024 averaged 44.38°, warmest of the 26 full years here, 0.13° above 2010. Annual precip: 52.08" +2.81" 8 of 12 months were AN. 2024 had our driest February and wettest March.