CARIBOU, Maine — Across the state, Mainers are used to the temperatures dipping once September sets in.
Once Labor Day ends and children go back to school, the morning and evening air becomes crisper and daylight becomes a bit shorter.
That is especially true in areas of far northern Maine, where parts of Aroostook County can dip near 20 degrees on some mornings and not rise above 50 degrees during the day.
According to the National Weather Service in Caribou, a freeze watch will be in effect from midnight Wednesday until 8 a.m.
The watch is mainly for Aroostook, northern Somerset and northern Penobscot counties, according to the weather service. They include towns from Medway, Millinocket and East Millinocket all the way up to Clayton Lake.
Temperatures could fall from between 28 degrees to 34 degrees, and frost and freeze conditions may damage or kill sensitive vegetation. A frost freeze warning was issued on Sept. 11, but only for the Clayton Lake area in northern Aroostook.
The median date for the first fall freeze in most of Aroostook County is Sept. 21, according to data from 1981-2010. For much of far northwestern Maine, it is Sept. 11, the NWS revealed.
The County has already experienced low temperatures this month. On Sept. 13, Estcourt Station was 27 degrees at 6:30 a.m., and Clayton Lake was 30 degrees. Both are in far northern Maine. It was 31 degrees at Houlton International Airport and Westfield.
Clayton Lake was just 36 degrees on Sept. 12, which forecasters noted “sounds cool now, but in another couple of months would be considered ‘mild.’”
Temperatures have been below average so far this month, according to the NWS.
