CARIBOU, Maine — The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday that July was the warmest month on record at Caribou.
Rich Norton, meteorologist at the NWS office in Caribou, said Wednesday that the average high for the month was 70.9 degrees, which was 5.3 degrees above average. The previous all-time warmest month at Caribou was recorded in July 1970, when the average temperature over the 31 days was 69.6 degrees. The weather service has been keeping such records in the area since 1939.
While other communities matched or beat daily records in July, no other area of the state hit a record for warmest month.
July is typically the warmest month of the year in Maine, but Caribou experienced 22 days last month, including July 31, that registered 80 degrees or higher. That was the most 80 degree days on record for any month in Caribou.
In addition, there were three nights last month — July 23-25 — with a low temperature of 71 degrees, which tied the all-time record warm low temperature on three consecutive nights.
Caribou also broke a record for the highest temperature recorded in the city on July 5. The temperature reached 94 degrees that day, two degrees higher than the previous record of 92 degrees set 1983.
Houlton also registered 94 degrees on July 5, surpassing the previous mark of 93 for that community experienced in both 1983 and 2000. In Bangor, there were three nights in a row with a low of 69 degrees July 23-25, which tied with several other years for the most consecutive days with a low of 69 degrees or warmer. A record high of 93 degrees in Portland on July 4 broke an old record of 90 degrees set in 2010, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.
Other all-time warmest months in Caribou, according to the NWS, occurred in July 1952 when an average high of 69.5 was recorded, July 1959 when the average high was 69.4, and July 2010 when the average high was 69.3.
