We are pleased to initiate this new resource. With regular features and information about climate in Maine and beyond, Maine Climate News is a joint effort of three of the University of Maine’s well-known units: the Climate Change Institute, Maine Sea Grant, and Cooperative Extension. All of these entities have an emphasis on climate change and its implications for Maine.

The site is intended to provide useful information and perspectives about Maine’s climate. Because climate represents long-term patterns (as opposed to the short-term weather records that are provided daily by the National Weather Service), we will review what is known about the past (paleoclimate), the present (weather data compiled from roughly the past century, the time of modern instrumental measurements), and the future (estimated from computer simulations of various kinds).

Among the regular features of this site we will bring:

1. Updates concerning ongoing research projects of faculty and graduate students at the University of Maine and other partner institutions and organizations;
2. Connections to a variety of sources of information about weather data and climate patterns;
3. A special emphasis on hydrology (precipitation and water flow);
4. A way to ask questions of the Maine State Climatologist and other researchers;
5. Opportunities to be involved in collecting data that can help reveal statewide patterns. For example, many Mainers might like to participate in the CoCoRaHS (Community Cooperative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network) program, through which citizens help to collect real-time precipitation data and share that information through an easy-to-use web connection).

Those of us involved in this site welcome ideas you might have for other useful information or services.

Maine’s Weather – 2009 (so far!)

The early part of 2009 was unusually cold throughout the Northeast. On January 16, an instrument at the Big Black River USGS station in northwestern Maine recorded a temperature of -50 F, immediately a candidate for the coldest reading ever in the state (at least during the period of modern instrumental measurements). This reading triggered the convening of the Records Verification Committee for Maine, and the committee met twice (by phone) to discuss the relevant issues. The Committee consisted of representatives of the NWS Caribou office, the USGS office in Augusta, the Maine State Climatologist, the NOAA Northeast Regional Climate Center in Ithaca, and the NCDC in North Carolina. After appropriate challenges, including testing of several pieces of equipment, the group voted unanimously to approve the record as official. That reading now stands as the coldest for Maine, replacing the previous record of - 48 F from nearby Van Buren in 1925. The -50 F record for Maine also equals the all-time record cold temperature for any New England state (Vermont having that same value).

Then, in April, we had unusually warm temperatures for several days. Many stations recorded temperatures that were 8-11 degrees warmer than the previous record high for the date at those locations. On April 28, the Portland reached 92 F, the first time that temperatures had ever exceeded 90F in April and 11 degrees more than the record for the date. Daily records for several stations were also set on April 26. April temperatures in Portland were three degrees above the 30-year average.

Of course, the big news for summer involved precipitation. After relatively dry months of April and May, the rains began in June and continued through most of July. When the patterns of regular rains finally ended, the months of August and most of September have been beautifully dry and clear, with almost no precipitation over most of the state.

These patterns of long stretches of similar weather are notable when they happen, but are really quite normal. Generally these patterns result from rather stable positions of the jet-stream winds that circle the northern hemisphere in a wave-like pattern centered on the North Pole. When those patterns are configured so that low-pressure systems pass through Maine, we usually see one rain event after another.

These kinds of weather patterns are not unusual, but they bring up an interesting contrast with the long-term climate patterns for Maine. For example, the average precipitation for Maine is quite even, with slightly less that one inch per week throughout the year. (This lack of seasonal variability is actually quite unusual globally; most places have large differences in average precipitation from one season to another.) Of course this nicely illustrates the difference between weather and climate (average weather).

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Maine State Climatologist George Jacobson
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Videos provided by the Oregon and Maine Sea Grant programs under a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Program Office.
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