PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Jessica Morse thought that she was prepared for the upcoming winter in Aroostook County.
After “barely making it” through last winter, the Presque Isle resident said she saved carefully throughout the summer so that she would have enough money set aside to pay her heating bills for the winter. What she didn’t anticipate, she said Friday, was the early onset of winter in the state.
“I really wanted to try and not turn on my furnace until November,” she said. “I know I was pushing it, and I anticipated having to run it a couple of days in October, especially near Halloween. But I really didn’t anticipate all of this early snowfall and the cold snaps we’ve had. I am anxious about the future.”
According to the Governor’s Energy Office, which conducted its weekly heating fuel price survey on Monday, Nov. 26, the statewide average cash price for No. 2 heating oil was $2.99 per gallon, down 2 cents from the prior week, and the lowest average price since mid-October. The average statewide kerosene price is also 2 cents lower than the prior week at a cost of $3.58 per gallon. The average propane price declined 1 cent, and now stands at $2.88 per gallon for heating customers.
Mainers saw an early start to winter, according to the National Weather Service in Caribou. Mark Bloomer, meteorologist for the NWS in Caribou, said that there were only six days in October in Caribou and Bangor that reached at or above average temperatures.
Caribou recorded the eighth coolest October since 1929 when officials began gathering such data, and the coolest since 2009, according to the weather service.
Houlton experienced its third coolest October overall, with a temperature of 10 degrees on Oct. 27 smashing the previous low of 16 degrees set in 1936. That temperature also was the lowest observed since October 1978.
In November, temperatures for the month averaged 3.5 to 5.5 degrees below normal. At Bangor, November 2018 finished as the second coldest behind November 1939, while also finishing as the fourth coldest in Houlton, the fifth coldest in Millinocket, and the ninth coldest at Caribou.
Patricia Hogan, who moved to Houlton two years ago, said that while she grew up in Aroostook County, she always found the winters the hardest to deal with. She also found that heating her home was the “biggest stress” on her.
She said that she heats her home with pellets and is worried that she didn’t buy enough to last through the winter.
“Growing up, I never felt the stress of paying a heating bill, because my parents did it,” she said. “Now, I am paying for pellets, weighing options on whether to use a different source, getting all kinds of opinions from friends, and hoping I don’t run out. Yes, it is a stressful thing.”
