Feb. 19—A storm slammed into Maine starting in the early hours of Jan. 29 and intensified throughout the day, marking the first time since 2018 that the Gray-Portland National Weather Service Office issued a blizzard warning. Heavy snow and winds gusting between 40 and 60 miles per hour caused near-whiteout conditions at times, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's storm event database. The Portland Jetport measured a peak wind gust at 59 miles per hour — the highest it would see all year — and 13.2 inches of snow, which was also the greatest 24-hour total snowfall for the year. The Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport measured a peak wind gust of 48 miles per hour. By the evening hours, snowfall totals ranged from 8 inches near Livermore to 18 inches near Durham in Androscoggin County, 12 inches near Saddleback Mountain in Franklin County and 10 inches near Woodstock in Oxford County. The blizzard was followed by a cold front and Portland saw its coldest temperature of the year on Jan. 31: 7 degrees below zero.
Although a couple more storms in early February dumped several inches of snow across parts of Maine and upward of a foot and a half in the foothills and mountains, winter ended with a whimper, not a bang.
The last of the winter snowpack melted earlier than usual on March 8, and a lackluster end to the winter season and below normal precipitation through the spring and summer led to drought conditions across most of the state by late summer, according to Dr. Sean Birkel, Maine state climatologist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
While June was cooler than normal, any hopes those conditions would persist through the summer were dashed by July, when the daily maximum temperature regularly hit the 80s.
By early August, all but Aroostook County was affected by some level of drought, with most of central and western Maine experiencing moderate drought and parts of coastal Maine experiencing severe drought. And then, extreme heat hit. From Aug. 5 to 7, temperatures did not drop below 70 degrees in Portland, Gray and Augusta, according to the National Weather Service. And for three consecutive days starting on Aug. 7, the high temperature exceeded 90 degrees, making it the hottest stretch of the summer. Aug. 7 was also the hottest day of the year in Portland, with the maximum temperature reaching 96 degrees.
It was also humid. Very humid.
"We're seeing the effects of the Bermuda High, which is a blocking feature over the western Atlantic Ocean, which, given the recent La Niña, has been missing from our recent summers," Mike Haggett, who runs Pine Tree Weather, told the Sun Journal in early August.
"This allows for a prolonged period of juicy air, from the mildly tolerable to the insufferable levels of humidity," he said.