CARIBOU, Maine — Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Caribou said Monday that this month’s alternating spells of well below average temperatures and well above average temperatures have caused an excess of “liquid precipitation,” or rain and melted snow, in the region.
Despite the lows and highs, however, the temperatures so far in January have been close to the 30-year average for the period from Jan. 1 to 13, according to the NWS. In Caribou, for instance, the average temperature during that time frame was 11.6 degrees, which was eight tenths of a degree above average. At Bangor, the average temperature of 15.4 degrees was 2.2 degrees below average.
The 25.9 inches of snow that fell in Caribou through the 13th, however, was 15.3 inches above average. At Bangor, the 20.5 inches of snow observed so far was 12.3 inches above average.
With all of that snow on the ground, followed 40-50 degree temperatures and rain at the end of last week, the liquid precipitation is running “well above average.” At Bangor, a total of 3.69 inches has been observed so far this month, which is 2.47 inches above average, according to the weather service. A total of 3.21 inches of rain and melted snow has been observed so far this month in Caribou, which is 2.05 inches above average.
For the 2017-2018 winter season, a total of 64 inches of snow has been observed at Caribou, which is 18.3 inches above average. At Bangor, a total of 48.2 inches of snow has been observed so far this winter, which is 23.2 inches above average.
The situation is different at the National Weather Service in Gray, according to Meteorologist Chris Kimble.
“We only have an inch of snow on the ground in Portland,” he said. “But there is more snow in the interior, in parts of Western Maine. In the interior, there is two to four inches of liquid equivalent in the snow pack.”
He said that “January tends to be volatile” in the state.
“You have accumulating snow and then you have a January thaw that sometimes happens,” he said. “We usually have a lesser amount of snow than the north, of course.”
Parts of southern Maine are under a flood warning. The Kennebec River in Augusta is currently at 14.2 feet, and flood stage is 12 feet.
Southern central and western Maine also also were forecast to receive between three and seven inches of snow Tuesday and Wednesday, but Aroostook County was expected to get an inch or less.
