weather

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of the summer season for Maine Outdoors and the telephone was very busy Friday afternoon with folks making last minute plans. The weather looks to be a perfect start to the summer season warm, sunny and pleasant. In fact even though we have had showers the last few days we could use some rain. It is amazing to see how quickly the river has fallen to near mid summer levels. I have been wading and trout fishing this week and because of that am more aware of the level than usual.

One of the great parts of being a guide is having to actually spend time finding the fish or birds or making sure that water levels are right. There is nothing better than having to spend the afternoon launching the boat and poking around to see if I can find a few fish on an afternoon like this. The breeze was light when I started and went to nothing as the afternoon progressed. As you can see in this picture the water was just like glass and I can verify that the air temperature was nearly perfect.

Slowly the snow is starting to recede, first the edges of the fields show through and then gradually I can see the areas of brown grow. Hopefully this slow melting trend continues with all of the snow here and further north the last thing we need is a rapid melt, the resulting flooding would be a big problem. The days are moderating and a sunny day is a real treat. The cold has really lost its bite even though many mornings are still below freezing.

It is snowing hard this morning with large fluffy flakes of wet snow that fall like feathers. The good news is that it is not especially cold and with the warm weather of the last few days many spots are warm enough to melt the snow on contact. I’m sure it will cool off as the snow gets going and the forecast is for 3 or 4 inches with a return to winter temperatures once the storm goes by. We had enjoyed a few nice early spring days this week with sun and the gradual warm up we need.

Cold and raining this morning one of those early spring days that would almost be better as a snowstorm. Luckily the wind is not blowing at the moment but the forecast calls for a strong wind tonight and tomorrow as the storm pulls away. I have a meeting in Bangor tonight so rain is preferable to snow just this once, I have driven home from Bangor in the dark during a snowstorm and can report that it is not any fun at all.

It is not supposed to amount to much, only a few inches or so. I have been talking with folks that are looking or book fishing trips next month and it is hard to even think fishing with the snow falling.  I spoke at the Norway Public Library as part of their Oxford Hills Reads Program on Monday evening with some general guidelines on what to do if you should find yourself lost in the woods.

Saturday was another snowstorm in a nearly record setting winter for us. The recent storm puts nearly every town from Bangor south at around 100 inches for the season.  As I understand it this is the 5^th snowiest winter on record and we still have March and April to go yet. I also saw that Concord NH has set a record for the snowiest winter since they have been keeping track.

One sign of spring that we don't like to talk about is the frost heaves.  Now for those of you from warmer parts of the world let me explain.  During the winter and ground freezes deeply, as it starts to thaw in the early spring it thaws from the surface down.  It also thaws unevenly some places, for instance over top of a culvert thaw quickly whereas the surrounding area thaws more slowly.  This difference creates unevenness in the road surface. 

It is raining this morning after a cold stretch. Yesterday morning it was clear and still with a temperature of just under 10 Fahrenheit. I spent part of the afternoon chipping ice out of the driveway, especially around the front door. The dogs were out it was warm for this winter and I was enjoying a fine winter day.

After two of weeks of fairly warm weather where it looked like the snow might even disappear.  Winter has returned, in fact we are in the middle of a very snowy stretch of whether.  We had snow on Wednesday Thursday and Friday and it is snowing again this morning.  None of these events have put down big accumulations but we seem to get five or six inches almost every time. The last couple of storms have been light and fluffy snow with little wind so everything is covered.