HOULTON, Maine — Katherine Henderson of Houlton said she “can’t remember a summer” when her family spent more time in their swimming pool.
“The weather was just so wonderful and warm this summer,” she said. “Usually, we only use the swimming pool a few days or week or less. This summer, my children were in the pool nearly every day in July and August and their friends were, too.”
There were several temperature records this summer, Mark Bloomer, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Caribou said. That continued into September, with the temperature reaching 80 degrees in Caribou on, Sept. 16. That was the 50th day when the temperature reached 80 degrees or higher this year, according to the weather service. This summer has the most number of 80 degree days so far this century. The highest all time record was in 1999 with 51 days of 80 or more degrees.
Forecasters said that if not for highs of 88 degrees on Sept 25 and Sept 26, 2017, the high of 88 degrees at Caribou on Sept. 16 would be a record for so late in the season.
Caribou also tied its record warm low temperature for Sept. 16 when the thermometer hit 57 degrees. The record was last set in 1968.
Weather records in Caribou have been kept since 1939.
Bloomer said that this summer’s weather is likely not related to climate change and pointed to a strong ridge in the northeast that kept the temperatures high.
“You can’t implicate one season to climate change,” he said. “Climate change is a long term trend. That ridge in the northeast kept us in a warm upper level pattern and it impacted pretty much the entire east coast. We set records in both July and August.”
This summer was the all-time warmest on record in the Caribou area, according to the weather service. The summer of 2018 had an average temperature of 66.3 degrees, which eclipsed the previous record of 66 degrees set during the summer of 1973.
August was the all-time warmest month at Caribou, with an average temperature of 68.9 degrees, which was 5.3 degrees above average. It broke the previous record set in August 2015, when the average temperature was 68.2 degrees. It also was the fifth warmest month in Bangor and Millinocket, and the eighth warmest at Houlton.
The record setting August came on the heels of the all-time warmest July registered at Caribou.
NWS Meteorologist Rich Norton said the average high for the month of July 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.
