Drought — Coastal Cumberland, Maine

2020-11-01 to 2020-11-30 · Coastal Cumberland, Maine

Event narrative

Drought mostly maintained through the month of November with no significant changes in the drought status across coastal Maine. Below normal rainfall returned for the first half of the month with only light periodic rainfall events. The bulk of the monthly rainfall occurred during the second half of the month with three significant rainfall events on the 16th, 24th and 30th of November. Monthly rainfall totals were mostly above average for the drought region with 5 to 6 being reported. Portland reported 5.68 which was .71 above normal. Overall the yearly rainfall deficit decreased in November to -6.87 in Portland, but the deficit remained much greater at Sanford with a deficit of -13.5. Although the Sandford monthly total didn't include the heavy rain that occurred on November 30th. Southern York County remained in D3 drought through the end of the month with significant rainfall departures remaining. Coastal Cumberland County and the Mid-Coast region remained in D2 Severe drought status for the entire month. Hydrologic conditions that rebounded to normal flow conditions by the end of October trended back below normal by the middle of November. With the return to a wet period by the end of the month, river flows were back to normal across the 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, but overall there was continued improvement in conditions. The USGS river monitored wells were mostly back to normal levels by the end of the month, except for York County. Significant recharge continued the upward trend in water levels and soil moisture. The USDA Farm Service Agency reported every county in Maine had received a drought declaration. Crops across Maine were hurt by the dry weather due to the flash drought that was occurred over the growing season. Corn, potatoes, blueberries, barley and forage crops were the most affected. Farmers were concerned about having enough forage for their livestock to get through the winter months. 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. The drought peaked during the beginning of October before 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 October with significant rainfall departures remaining. Dry conditions returned for the first half of November with well below average precipitation for the region. A wet pattern returned once again for the last week of November with three soaking rainfall events that brought 3 to 5 of rainfall to the region. Portland received a monthly rainfall total of 5.68, which was above average for the month. D2 moderate drought was confined to the coast during the month of November with no significant changes in the drought classification coverage with 11% of the state being impacted. D3 extreme drought remained confined to southern York County throughout the month of November with only 2% of the state being impacted.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 930698. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.