Fall 2025 Seasonal Narrative for Northern and Eastern Maine

...NORTHERN AND EASTERN MAINE FALL 2025 CLIMATE NARRATIVE...

THE METEOROLOGICAL FALL (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER) SEASON WRAPPED UP 
WITH GENERALLY ABOVE AVERAGE TEMPERATURES, AND SIGNIFICANTLY 
BELOW AVERAGE PRECIPITATION, AT DESIGNATED CLIMATE SITES IN 
CARIBOU, HOULTON, MILLINOCKET, AND BANGOR. 

AVERAGE TEMPERATURES WERE AROUND NORMAL, WITH A SLIGHT WARM 
ANOMALY. CARIBOU WAS 1.0 DEGREE ABOVE NORMAL, WITH A SEASONAL 
AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 45.7 DEGREES. BANGOR WAS THE WARMEST 
STATION, WITH AVERAGE TEMPERATURES BEING 0.6 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL 
AT 49.2 DEGREES. MILLINOCKET RECORDED 1.3 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL, AT
47.7 DEGREES. LASTLY, HOULTON WAS ABOUT 1.3 DEGREES ABOVE 
AVERAGE, WITH A SEASONAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 45.8 DEGREES. 

MAXIMUM AVERAGE TEMPERATURES WERE NEAR NORMAL, TO SLIGHTLY ABOVE 
NORMAL. CARIBOU HAD THE COOLEST MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES, BEING 0.1 
DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. BANGOR WAS ABOVE AVERAGE BY 1.4 DEGREES. 
MILLINOCKET RECORDS MAXIMUM HIGH TEMPERATURES 1.8 DEGREES ABOVE 
CLIMATOLOGICAL NORMAL. LASTLY, HOULTON WAS 2.3 DEGREES ABOVE 
NORMAL FOR MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES THROUGHOUT AUTUMN. 

THIS AUTUMN SEASON HAD SOME ABOVE AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES, 
WITH SOME MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE RECORDS GETTING BROKEN ON OCTOBER 
6TH. CARIBOU BROKE ITS ALL-TIME HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORD FOR THE 
MONTH OF OCTOBER, 83 DEGREES, DURING A HEAT EVENT. DURING THIS 
SAME EVENT, MILLINOCKET REACHED 85, AND HOULTON REACHED 84 
DEGREES, BOTH OF WHICH ALSO BROKE PREVIOUS ALL-TIME HIGH MONTHLY 
RECORDS. BANGOR RECORDED 84 DEGREES, WHICH WAS THE SECOND HIGHEST 
TEMPERATURE RECORD, RIGHT BEHIND A 86 DEGREE RECORD IN 1968. THE 
PAST 5 YEARS HAVE BEEN WITHIN THE TOP 10 WARMEST OCTOBERS FOR 
THESE CLIMATE SITES, WITH RECORDS DATING BACK TO 1953. THERE WERE 
NO SIGNIFICANT WEATHER EVENTS THROUGHOUT SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, AND 
NOVEMBER. 

THE BIG STORY FOR THE AUTUMN SEASON WAS THE SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW 
AVERAGE RAINFALL AND PROLONGED DROUGHT CONDITIONS. THROUGHOUT THE 
ENTIRE FALL SEASON, MILLINOCKET GOT THE MOST PRECIPITATION 
COMPARED TO THE OTHER CLIMATE SITES, RECEIVING 8.64 INCHES, WHICH 
IS STILL ABOUT 3.62 INCHES BELOW CLIMATOLOGICAL NORMAL. BANGOR 
ONLY RECEIVED 8.27 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION, RESULTING IN A 3.91 
DEFICIT FROM CLIMATOLOGICAL NORMAL. CARIBOU RECEIVED 8.13 INCHES 
OF PRECIPITATION, WHICH IS 2.65 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION BELOW 
NORMAL. LASTLY, HOULTON GOT 7.47 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION, WHICH IS
A 3.58 INCH DEFICIT FROM NORMAL. 

AT THE END OF AUGUST/EARLY SEPTEMBER, COASTAL AND CENTRAL MAINE 
WAS IN SEVERE DROUGHT (D2). A THIN REGION IN CENTRAL MAINE JUST 
NORTH OF THE SEVERE DROUGHT, IN PISCATAQUIS, PENOBSCOT, FAR 
SOUTHERN AROOSTOOK, AND FAR NORTHERN WASHINGTON, WAS UNDER 
MODERATE DROUGHT (D1) CONDITIONS. THE MAJORITY OF NORTHERN MAINE, 
INCLUDING CENTRAL AND PORTIONS OF NORTHERN PISCATAQUIS, NORTHERN 
PENOBSCOT, AND SOUTH/EAST AROOSTOOK, WAS ABNORMALLY DRY (D0). WEST
AROOSTOOK AND NORTHERN SOMERSET HAD NO DROUGHT. DROUGHT PEAKED IN
OCTOBER, WITH GENERALLY THE ENTIRE STATE IN SEVERE DROUGHT OR 
HIGHER, SAVE FOR THE MODERATE DROUGHT IN THE CROWN OF MAINE AND 
FAR WESTERN PORTIONS OF THE NORTH. DOWNEAST AND COASTAL MAINE ROSE
AS HIGH AS EXTREME DROUGHT (D3) THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. CONDITIONS 
SLOWLY BEGAN TO IMPROVE IN NOVEMBER, WITH THE SEASON CLOSING OUT 
WITH PORTIONS OF THE BANGOR REGION AND SOUTH/CENTRAL HANCOCK 
COUNTY, WESTERN WASHINGTON COUNTY, NORTHWESTERN PISCATAQUIS, 
NORTHERN SOMERSET, AND NORTH/CENTRAL AROOSTOOK IN SEVERE DROUGHT. 
EASTERN WASHINGTON, NORTHERN HANCOCK, NORTH/CENTRAL PENOBSCOT, 
SOUTH/CENTRAL PISCATAQUIS, AND SOUTHERN AROOSTOOK IN MODERATE 
DROUGHT. 

BY THE END OF OCTOBER, THIS DROUGHT HAD BECOME THE WORST DROUGHT 
IN MAINE HISTORY SINCE 2002. A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF CROPS WERE 
LOST DURING THE HARVESTING SEASON. MULTIPLE RECORD LOW RIVER 
STREAMFLOWS ACROSS NORTHERN AND CENTRAL MAINE, INCLUDING THE ST. 
JOHN, FISH RIVER, ST. CROIX, AND MATTAWAMKEAG. MULTIPLE DRY WELL 
REPORTS THROUGHOUT NORTHERN AND EASTERN MAINE WERE RECORDED DURING
THIS TIME. 

FOR THE NEXT SEASONAL OUTLOOK GIVEN BY THE CLIMATE PREDICTION 
CENTER (CPC), LOOKING AT METEOROLOGICAL WINTER (DECEMBER-
FEBRUARY), THERE IS NOT A STRONG SIGNAL FOR ABOVE OR BELOW AVERAGE
TEMPERATURES OR PRECIPITATION. TYPICAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURES FOR 
METEOROLOGICAL WINTER IN THESE CLIMATE SITES ARE IN THE TEENS TO 
20S, WITH HIGHS GENERALLY IN THE 20S AND LOWS IN THE LOW-TEENS TO 
SINGLE DIGITS. TYPICAL SNOWFALL FOR BANGOR DURING THE WINTER 
SEASON (SPECIFICALLY DECEMBER-FEBRUARY) IS ROUGHLY 50 INCHES, AND 
TYPICAL SNOWFALL FOR CARIBOU IS ROUGHLY 75 INCHES. CURRENTLY, 
THERE IS LA NINA ADVISORY ISSUED BY THE CPC, AND CONDITIONS ARE 
EXPECTED TO TRANSITION TOWARDS ENSO-NEUTRAL IN EARLY 2026. AUTUMN 
WAS GENERALLY INFLUENCED BY NEGATIVE NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION 
(NAO) CONDITIONS, AND CURRENT MODEL PREDICTIONS SHOW THE NAO PHASE
BEGINNING TO TRANSITION ON A POSITIVE TREND OR THE WINTER SEASON.

$$

ASB