Wednesday, December 07, 2022

Fall 2022 Climate Summary For Northern And Eastern Maine

...NORTHERN/EASTERN MAINE CLIMATE 2022 FALL (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER)
SUMMARY...

FALL 2022 ACROSS NORTHERN/EASTERN MAINE FINISHED WITH
SIGNIFICANTLY WARMER THAN AVERAGE TEMPERATURES, MOSTLY ABOVE 
AVERAGE PRECIPITATION, AND MOSTLY BELOW NORMAL SNOWFALL ACROSS 
THE REGION AS A WHOLE. 

AMONGST THE WEATHER ELEMENTS THIS SEASON, TEMPERATURE WAS THE MOST
UNIFORM ACROSS THE REGION AVERAGING 2 TO 3 DEGREES ABOVE THE
1991-2020 CLIMATE REFERENCE PERIOD. THROUGH SEPTEMBER UNTIL
ABOUT OCTOBER 12TH, TEMPERATURES WERE GENERALLY NEAR NORMAL. 
TEMPERATURES THEN WERE MOSTLY ABOVE TO MUCH ABOVE NORMAL FROM 
OCTOBER 13TH UNTIL NOVEMBER 12TH. THE REST OF NOVEMBER MOSTLY 
FINISHED WITH BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE REGION. THE 
MOST ANOMALOUS WARMTH OF THE SEASON OCCURRED BETWEEN NOVEMBER 
4TH-7TH WITH DAILY TEMPERATURE DEPARTURES RANGING UPWARDS OF +15 
TO +30 DEGREES OF NORMAL DAILY AVERAGES WITH ACTUAL HIGH 
TEMPERATURES REACHING INTO THE LOWER TO MID 70S ON NOVEMBER 5TH 
AND 6TH AND DOWNEAST AREAS ON THE 7TH. RECORD MONTHLY WARM DAILY 
MINIMUM TEMPERATURES ON NOVEMBER 6TH ACROSS THE REGION WERE MORE 
TYPICAL OF AVERAGE JULY MINIMUM TEMPS. ACTUAL WARMEST HIGH 
TEMPERATURES, HOWEVER, OCCURRED BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 9TH-12TH WERE 
MOST LOCATIONS REACHED THE LOWER TO MID 80S. AVERAGE FALL 
TEMPERATURES OF 47.0 AT CARIBOU, 47.9 AT HOULTON, 49.2 AT 
MILLINOCKET, AND 50.9 AT BANGOR WERE THE 5TH, 3RD, 3RD, AND 9TH 
WARMEST. RESPECTFULLY, AT EACH CLIMATE STATION.

TOTAL PRECIPITATION ACROSS THE REGION WAS MORE VARIABLE, RANGING
FROM ABOUT 110 PERCENT OF AVERAGE ACROSS THE FAR NORTH UPWARDS TO
160 PERCENT OF AVERAGE OVER CENTRAL AND DOWNEAST AREAS. DOWNEAST
AREAS HAD MOSTLY ABOVE AVERAGE RAINFALL EACH MONTH THIS FALL
(ESPECIALLY OCTOBER), WHILE NORTHERN AREAS BEGAN THE FALL WITH A 
DRY SEPTEMBER GOING TO ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION IN OCTOBER AND 
NOVEMBER. PRECIPITATION TOTALS OF 17.25 INCHES AT MILLINOCKET AND 
18.93 INCHES AT BANGOR FINISHED AS THE 4TH AND 2ND WETTEST FALLS,
RESPECTFULLY.

LASTLY, TOTAL SNOWFALL ACROSS THE REGION THIS FALL, OCCURRING 
EXCLUSIVELY IN NOVEMBER OUTSIDE OF VERY HIGH TERRAIN, RANGED FROM 
NEAR ZERO ALONG THE DOWNEAST COAST UPWARDS TO NEAR 24 INCHES 
(ABOUT 150 PERCENT OF NORMAL) OVER THE NORTHWEST AND FAR NORTHERN 
SAINT JOHN VALLEY AREAS. MOST LOCATIONS, HOWEVER, EXPERIENCING 10+
INCHES WERE ALONG AND NORTH OF A GREENVILLE TO MARS HILL LINE, 
WITH COMPARATIVELY LITTLE SNOWFALL SOUTH OF HOULTON-MILLINOCKET-
DOVER FOXCROFT LINE. SNOWFALL EVENTS BEGAN OCCURRING MOSTLY 
ACROSS THE NORTH HALF OF THE REGION WITH THE TEMPERATURE REGIME 
CHANGE AFTER NOVEMBER 12TH.

THE OFFICIAL CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER'S OUTLOOK FOR WINTER
(DECEMBER-FEBRUARY) FOR OUR REGION IS CALLING FOR SOMEWHAT 
INCREASED ODDS FOR ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND ABOUT EQUAL ODDS 
OF BELOW, NEAR NORMAL, AND ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION, TO PERHAPS
VERY SLIGHTLY FAVORING ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION ODDS OVER THE 
NORTHWEST THIRD.