Drought — Central Somerset, Maine

2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Central Somerset, Maine

Event narrative

Severe drought developed in North Central Somerset County during the month of August as short term drought conditions continued to worsen and intensify across the county in August. This region experienced one of the driest late spring through summer periods on record with rainfall deficits estimated to be 5 to 6 below normal.

River flows have been low since the middle of June when they were at their lowest. Since then summertime showers and thunderstorms have caused an up and down nature to river levels with temporary relief. Rivers are steadily falling now and with little precipitation expected over the next few days this will continue. As of August 31st, 31 percent of the river gages maintained by the USGS in Maine are indicating below normal stream flow another 28 percent are much below normal and 8 percent are at near record low flow for the time of year.

Wider weather episode

Severe drought developed across central Somerset County by early August and persisted through the remainder of the month. Dry conditions developed rapidly across western Maine starting in the middle of May. The period May 16 to June 25 was exceedingly dry. There was some relief in late June and July with showers and thunderstorms, but Somerset County mostly missed out on any widespread rainfall. The 60 to 90 day rainfall totals across this region were generally only 25 to 35 percent of normal. River flows have been low since the middle of June when they were at their lowest. Since then summertime showers and thunderstorms have caused an up and down nature to river levels with temporary but brief relief. As of August 31st, 31 percent of the river gages maintained by the USGS in Maine are indicating below normal stream flow another 28 percent are much below normal and 8 percent are at near record low flow for the time of year. Agriculture impacts were primarily focused on the hay crop with well below normal yield on the first cut.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 918243. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.