St. John River, Madawaska, ME

Saturday, 9:20 am: I think it’s here – summer. I know it is only the beginning of May. The weather is delightful. We put in a full day of work in the garden yesterday, and our swallows have returned to their birdhouses. Before I forget, we saw a black bear on the Trans-Canada Highway a few days ago. It was leisurely scratching itself on the median. Luckily, for the bear, that part of the divided highway was quite wide and wooded.

I managed to get all seven mail-order hybrid poplar trees planted. Now I keep my fingers crossed they will survive the transplant. My green thumb isn’t entirely green. Also our tomato plants are about 18 inches tall. Most likely by next week I will transplant them into the ground. I am hesitating a bit to make sure the danger of frost has passed.

Today is another labor intensive day. My weather blogging has lagged the last week or so; mia culpa again. There’s just so much to do around the house in spring and summer that recreational writing takes a backseat to work.

We did attend the NWS Weather Spotter training on Tuesday evening in Fort Kent, sponsored by the St. John Valley Amateur Radio Association. The class was interesting. I was hoping for “new and improved” weather stuff, whatever that stuff is. As it turned out, in addition to the normal reporting criteria and severe weather identification, additional emphasis was placed on emergency reporting via amateur radio and using the statewide radio communication nets that are activated when weather disasters occur. On to my nonsevere weather:

Current values from our
Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 55° (F.)

Barometer: 29.68 & steady

Humidity: 66%

Wind: NE at 2 mph light & variable

Skies: scattered high cloudiness

Visibility: > 3 miles

Since midnight:

Low temp: 39.6° (F.) at 4:35 am

High wind: 5 mph at 9:09 am

St. John River, Fort Kent, ME