Vol. 2, no. 8 Tuesday, February 25, 1997
Quick jumps: | This week's reports | From the Press | Downeast Birdline -- discontinuation announcement | Meeting of new group: Greater Portland Naturalists Forum | Publication announcement: Biological Diversity in Maine: An Assessment of Status and Trends in the Terrestrial and Freshwater Landscape |
You are invited to participate. Your reports are always welcomed!
Please e-mail Frank Wihbey, Editor: menature@maine.maine.edu
This week's reports
Report format = Day, date, time. Location (Maine Atlas Map number) Report text. Initials of correspondent
Wednesday, February 19. Orono (Map 23) Warm weather caused ice to melt and water to flow over the still frozen ground. It occurs to me that this creates a temporary topography with its own brooks, ponds, and erosion patterns. It is a completely uncustomary terrain. When the ground finally thaws completely, there will be very few traces of this topography. F.W.
Friday, February 14, E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: During the snowstorm a young river otter dashed by on the narrow sidewalk of the Pond's ice, 15' from this window, dove in and slithered under other ice near the shore. We saw otters playing on the ice in December of '95, and every few years on average. Trappers have been by recently, for beaver, one would assume. W.D.
Thursday, February 20, E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: About 3 acres are open water and have been open, more or less, for about 3 weeks. This doesn't keep light-of-brain from driving their trucks on the ice a couple hundred yards up. The water is very low, seldom this low. The flock of goldfinches and regular chickadees continue to visit, though they took 2 days to return after I replenished our feeders that went empty when we left for a week. The only other birds are occasional bluejays and doves at the shore. W.D.
Saturday, February 22, E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: 3 of our dozen or so mallards have returned. Open water, here, totals about 4 acres now. W.D.
Sunday, February 23. Orono (Map 23) A quick winter storm dropped just a bit of snow. But it included lightning and what seemed to be unusually loud thunder, which did not echo. I wondered if this meant that the source were at a very low altitude, and not associated with the tall thunderclouds of summer. Although I have seen lightning associated with winter storms, it is very rare. F.W.
Monday, February 24, E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: Yesterday, two male hooded mergansers stayed for a couple hours. Yesterday's few acres of open water was completely covered with a skim of ice this morning. Evening grosbeaks visited for a few minutes, only the second or third time this years, but, as often, accompanied by their noisy blue friends. W.D.
Tuesday, February 25. Orono (Map 23) Low above the Northeast horizon Comet Hale-Bopp was clearly visible to the naked eye as late as 5:40 am. The view in binoculars showed a very clear, large tail, pointing away from the spot where the Sun would soon rise. It has moved noticeably over the past two weeks and was positioned near the lower (East) arm of the Northern Cross, i.e. Cygnus the Swan. F.W.
From the Press
Bangor Daily News Monday, February 24, 1997, pages A1, A5
Fishermen hurt in freak storm; lightning injures
3 at Moosehead [Lake]; thunderstorm forces Sugarloaf to halt ski lift for 30 minutes
by Diana Bowley
GREENVILLE -- Joe Obrin of Greenville remembers the flash and then all hell breaking
loose.
As he rode through a driving hailstorm over the vast ice covering Moosehead Lake Saturday
afternoon, bringing up the rear in a caravan of ice fishermen on six snowmobiles towing
dog sleds, Obrin saw Robert Shufelt Jr. of Farmington literally fly out of a dog sled.
Obrin's old son, Seth, driving the snowmobile in front of him, began complaining of being
hot and vomited into his helmet. Behind Seth on the same sled rode 14-year-old Robert
Wallace of Brunswick whose face and ears had turned very red.
Obrin suddenly realized three members of the expedition had been struck by lightning from
a freak February thunderstorm.
"Robbie got blown away from the sled and started grabbing his chest," Obrin
recalled Sunday, noting it looked as if someone had picked Shufelt off the dog sled and
"threw him four feet in the air."
"He was just lifeless," said Obrin, who arrived at the 32-year-old Shufelt's
side within moments along with Shufelt's father, Robert Shufelt Sr., who had been driving
the lead snowmobile.
Afraid that lightning would strike them again and worried about the severity of the trio's
injuries, Obrin and others in the party quickly lifted the semiconscious Shufelt onto a
snowmobile, secured the stunned boys and raced to shore.
When the party arrived in Greenville, they were quickly taken to Charles A. Dean Memorial
Hospital. The three injured males were treated and later released.
The fishermen were victims of a weird storm that swept across much of the state Saturday,
bringing nearly a foot of snow to northern Aroostook County while dumping sleet, hail and
rain on other areas. Lightning forced the ski lifts to be shut down for 30 minutes at
Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley and is being blamed for a structure fire in Carmel.
...
At about the same time the fishermen were returning to the shore, game wardens were
notified that a camp was on fire near Ledge Island. Sgt. Tom Ward and Warden Bill Chandler
traveled by snowmobile to the island and found that lightning had blown out the windows in
a bunkhouse, one of three buildings on the small island. A window was broken out in each
of the two other camps, Ward said. There was no fire, he said.
Ward said it appeared that lightning hit a big pine tree on the island and traveled
underground to the camp. When it came out of the ground it blew out a post from under the
bunkhouse and broke every window, he said.
Obrin, who believes the lightning ricocheted off the camps into the trio, said his son was
still scared from the ordeal. "We are very lucky," he said.
Robert Shufelt Sr., a native of Greenville, said neither he nor anyone else he knows had
ever seen a thunderstorm in February in the region.
Bill Larrabee of the Sebec Lake Weather Station said a thunderstorm in February was unique
for this region. He has no record of such a storm during this month since the station was
opened in 1989.
Larrabee said the unsettled weather was caused by a fast-moving cold front. The rapid
movement of the front created unstable air that triggered storms. On Saturday afternoon,
the Moosehead Lake region received rain, pea-size hail, sleet and snow.
In Carmel, lightning is believed to be the cause of a fire that damaged much of the
basement of an Etna Pond Road home.
The fire at the home of Scott and Marjorie Deabay began around 3:30 p.m. Saturday. It was
discovered when Marjorie Deabay heard a snapping noise an smelled smoke. Investigating the
noise, she saw flames in the bast basement room where the washer an dryer are located. She
quickly closed the door and evacuated the house with their three children.
Carmel Fire Chief Bill Crowley said that based on his investigation, there was a strong
possibility that lightning had struck nearby and surged into the home. No actual strike
was seen on the exterior of the home, he said. ...
At Sugarloaf USA, thunder an lightning forced the shutdown of the ski lifts from
approximately 3 to 3:30 p.m., said spokesman Mark Latti. Skiers already on the slopes were
not evacuated, and no injuries were reported.
Latti said the ski area received "drizzle, hail, sleet, then snow, at the end"
of the storm.
Downeast Birdline has ceased -- discontinuation announcement
Downeast Birdline -- transcript of current telephone message
Return to top of this page.