The Farmers' Almanac says it's going to be a wintery winter this year for those of us east of the Mississippi:
The almanac foresees plenty of snow across eastern New York and New England and temperatures averaging up to 3 degrees below normal along most of the Atlantic Coast.
It's another pea soup kind of day here in Maine--one of many this July. The only positive or redeeming thing to be said about our weather is that the coast of Maine is stunning on a sunny day. It's beautiful on a rainy day and it's wonderful on a foggy day, just so long as one didn't have one's heart set on a sun tan.
Yesterday was a gorgeous summer day on the seacoast--blue skies, breezes full of summer flowers and salt water and temperatures perfectly suited to an afternoon kayaking or sunning on the beach or swinging in a hammock, until the wind turned, late in the day.
The fog rolled in around 6 pm last night, and when it comes, it always comes the same way. It slides silently from the beach, through the pines toward the house, with one quick, cool breeze to warn us that it's coming. It starts as a gradual change of the sky from blue, to lighter blue to white. Then the fog settles into the tops of the trees and moves closer to the house, muting sounds and removing color from the day.
This week's CFA Award goes to the visitor to York Beach who was involved in a beach chair rage incident down to Short Sands last week. Throwing a tantrum and then a beach chair is never necessary after a day at the beach. It's the Way Life Should Be, even if you have to wait for a bit to get into your car.
In the article, the policeman stated that we call folks who come up from Massachusetts and behave poorly "tourists." Don't kid yourself. He was being polite and politic. We call them massholes or goat ropers. But only the ones who behave poorly. We like the rest of you. And should someone from New Hampshire behave poorly, we believe that it's because he or she recently relocated from Massachusetts to NH and hasn't had time to decompress. When someone from New York behaves poorly, we call them Yankees fans.
While the rest of the lower 48 work through the heat wave, we've been in a perpetual state of fog. Old timers tell me the fog used to be a June event and by July, it was clear and sunny. This year, it's a little mixed up; June was warm, clear and glorious. July is damp, cool and foggy. We even considered building a fire on Monday night, but decided we'd not build a fire in July unless it snowed!
Per Amy's wishes the sun just poked through the clouds. Just as I was going to break into a chorus of "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In" that would make the 5th Dimension proud, I heard the rumbles of thunder.....
It's going to be a wicked doozy when it hits. Sorry Amy. Doesn't appear that it's any better where you are.
A year ago today, the Cape Neddick River Bridge looked like this. The Mother's Day Flood of 2006 caused extensive damage in New England and in our county. It started raining and it didn't stop. We played 100's of games of ping pong and checked the cellar for rising water. No water in the cellar, but our water saturated back yard shifted and sank and with it, our chimney shifted and sank away from the house. We were very blessed to have nothing worse happen. Businesses were flooded; our village made the front page of USAToday.
The forecast for the next few days isn't nearly as bad, but it surely does provide a reminder of our water soaked May 2006.
Long Sands is a bigger mess today than it was yesterday. 
The buoy is still on the move. Rain and strong winds continue.
More shots from the storm are here. Additional shots are in the below post, and the post below that.
Town is a mess. The Short Sands Bouy lost its anchor. 
Mud and sand cover most of downtown.
Much of the sidewalk on Long Sands Beach is now sitting in the middle of Atlantic Ave or has heaved up in place and some lobster pots made their way into downtown. 
More importantly, our thoughts and prayers are with the VaTech family during this horrible time. Such a senseless, terrible tragedy.
UPDATE:
Maine News is reporting that damage is severe throughout southern and mid-coast Maine. "We've had hurricanes that have done less damage, " says Joe Cupo.
More photos of the storm are here. We can't get down to Long Sands to see what's happening, but maybe the road will open later. We'll see.
Maybe more later. Maybe not.
The view through the windshield.
Harbor Beach, one hour before high tide.
I spoke a bit too soon this morning--the power went out shortly after my last post. Thankfully, it's back on, at least for now.
Heavy rain continues to fall in Maine, although the Boston Marathon blog posts indicate that the wind has died down and the rain has stopped in the Bay State.
Since moving to Maine, we've seen some good blizzards and had significant flooding during the Mother's Day flood of last year, but we've never seen waves like this. The Coast Guard is reporting seas of 20-25 feet (as always, you can click to enlarge all the images).
Downtown is seeing flooding due to high tides, and our favorite little summah cottage now has a very large tree on the roof.
Usually one can walk through the parking lot to get to Russel's Lobster Shack, but today a canoe might be a better idea.
Patriots' Day is an Official State Holiday in Maine and Massachusetts, but not other stereotypically patriotic states like Texas or Vermont.
Does anybody know why Maine and Massachusetts both still celebrate this day and what they celebrate? Some Mainiacs weren't quite sure, as the Maine Sunday Telegram found out.
The wind is howling and the rain is pounding the windows, but we still have power and we have no snow accumulation. Other areas aren't faring as well, with power outages and farther north in Maine and to our west in New Hampshire, significant snow has fallen.
Nearby, New Market, NH has flooding and portions of the town are being evacuated. Down Amy's way, a parking lot has flooded and cars are sitting in water up to their windows. Saco is facing possible beach erosion and much of southern and central Maine is under a coastal flood watch. High tide is at 10:42 am and 11:06 pm, with a new moon. Yikes. 
But no one is predicting floods like we had last May (so far, anyway):
Despite all of this, the Boston Marathon will begin at 10:00am, and Maine will represent, as will our little town, who is sending 9 runners. God speed, y'all. Stay warm and hydrated.
Sox are scheduled for a 10:05 start, but don't hold your breath for that first pitch.
It's starting to look like the approaching storm has us right in the cross-hairs. We now have a winter storm watch in effect for overnight Sunday through Monday and weather.com warns of coastal flooding and erosion. That's a normal warning for us (it accompanies every nor'easter-- photos of coastal flooding and high waves are here), but this one could be significant:
Sunday will feature the powerful developing storm system along the Eastern Seaboard and that will produce flooding rain and high winds along the coast from the Middle Atlantic States and southern New England Sunday into northern New England Monday. Wind gusts from 40 to as high as 75 mph will occur, especially from eastern Long Island to Cape Cod, Nantucket Island, Martha's Vineyard, and the Maine coast. Coastal flooding and beach erosion are also big concerns.Meanwhile, interior areas of the Northeast, especially in the higher elevations, could pick up a considerable amount of snow before the storm winds down on Tuesday. Heavy wet snow could bring down tree limbs and power lines and it will be a bear to shovel.
We skated out of yesterday's storm with little accumulation (if you agree that two inches of snow in April is "little"), but it looks as if the "Storm of the Century Part 2" will not be so kind to us:
After a snowy and rainy Thursday, the weather across the Northeast will take a brief break. Most of the region will be mainly dry but some scattered rain and snow showers may fall from western Pennsylvania to northern New England.Look for some impovement on Saturday but that will be short-lived as as a major storm develops off the East Coast by Sunday. This storm may have some historical impacts for the month of April.
Look for heavy rain and fierce winds by Sunday night and Monday morning from the Middle Atlantic region to New England. Coastal flooding and wind damage are possibilities. Interior sections of the Northeast, especially the higher elevations, may see some record snowfall from Sunday night through Tuesday.
It's Wednesday. The crocii have survived last week's snow. That's the good news. The bad news is that like last week, we're bracing for another storm. Depending on the storm track, accumulations might be significant.
School is closed. The grocer and all businesses on Rt. 1 are closed due to power outages. We've got 6 inches of heavy, wet snow, and it's still coming down, as are many of our trees, pulled down by the weight of the snow. They've revised the forecast: most of Maine will get at least a foot of snow, with 16 inches to two feet.
It's a very busy day here: I've got to write an introduction to my father's book of photography (yikes, I'm not up to the task!), bake two desserts to take to Easter in Connecticut (I'm thinking Red Cake Cupcakes--I'll send a few down to Marie's kids, and heath bar brownies), wrap and mail a birthday present to my niece (she'll be three on Monday), work at the job that pays the mortgage, and pack to leave for CT.
Did I mention that in a fit of optimism we put up the bird houses? 
