Drought — Sagadahoc, Maine

2020-10-01 to 2020-10-31 · Sagadahoc, Maine

Event narrative

Drought maintained through the beginning of October with no significant rainfall across the region. Things changed on October 13th when a significant rainstorm brought widespread rainfall across the region. Another significant rainstorm occurred on October 16-17th with more beneficial rainfall. Portland reported an October monthly total rainfall of 4.08, Augusta reported 5.69 and Rangeley reported 6.49. The above normal rainfall across the Western Mountains and foothills allowed for the D2 Severe drought classification to be lowered to D1 Moderate Drought by the third week of October. D2 drought classification remained along the coastal counties and parts of Androscoggin and Kennebec Counties. Southern York County remained in D3 drought through the end of the month with significant rainfall departures remaining. Hydrologic conditions continued to worsen during the first week 2 weeks of October on non-regulated rivers with 90% of USGS river gaging stations below normal and a few sites at record lows for the beginning of October as river levels are normally beginning to rebound from the seasonal low flows. After the mid-month rains, hydrologic conditions significantly improved with many rivers systems in the Western Maine mountains returning to normal levels with flow remaining below normal on some smaller coastal basins. Reservoir levels on the Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers remained near normal due to decreased flow and proper water management on these systems. Numerous reports of natural lake levels remained below normal for the month. In Western Maine, the 10 monitoring wells maintained by the USGS, 4 were below normal, 1 was much below normal, and 5 were in the normal range. In Maine, all 16 counties reported dry wells with 364 being reported to state agencies. The USDA Farm Service Agency reported every county in Maine, had received a drought declaration. Crops across Maine were hurt by the dry weather. Corn, potatoes, blueberries, barley and forage crops are the most affected. Farmers are concerned about having enough forage for their livestock to get through the winter. State level agriculture assistance programs, not counting insurance claims, have paid out over $500,000.

Wider weather episode

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, especially in the Western Maine Mountains and parts of the Mid-Coast. Southern Maine. By the middle of August dry conditions set in again with September being exceedingly dry with some locations reporting their driest September on record. The National Centers for Environmental Information reported that September was the driest on record for Maine. D2 severe drought was confined to parts of York and Somerset County at the beginning of the September. The D2 drought rapidly expanded into Oxford, Cumberland, Androscoggin and Franklin Counties by the middle of September. By the end of September D2 drought expanded across all of Western Maine, with a D3 extreme drought area developing across York and parts of Cumberland Counties. Through the first 2 weeks of October the drought classification remained similar across the region with no significant rainfall. Things changed on October 13th with a significant rain storm bringing welcome relieve to the drought as a widespread 2 to 3 of rainfall occurred. More significant rain occurred on the 16-17th with 1 to 2 of rainfall across the region. By the 3rd week of October the drought classification began to improve with Severe Drought being reduced to Moderate Drought across the Western Mountains and Foothills. D2 drought classification remained along the coastal counties and parts of Androscoggin and Kennebec Counties. Southern York County remained in D3 drought through the end of the month with significant rainfall departures remaining.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 926756. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.