BELFAST, Maine — Most Mainers who live south of the snowbelt woke up Thursday morning to the welcome sound of rain on their roofs and to the sight of rivers and streams that were bony and low a few weeks ago once again full of rushing water.
But all this rainfall — 1.35 inches in Augusta during this storm and nearly an inch in Bangor, according to weather observations taken at Bangor International Airport — still doesn’t mean that the drought is over. In fact, data released first thing Thursday morning by the National Drought Mitigation Center reported that a big central swath of the state remains in severe drought. Other large sections of the state are classified as moderate drought or abnormally dry, with only northern portions of Somerset, Piscataquis and Aroostook counties considered normal. According to the center, 1.2 million Mainers are living in areas affected by the drought.
Two meteorologists with the National Weather Service said that there are a few reasons to explain the discrepancy between Maine’s official drought status and what people can see in the recharged lakes, rivers, streams and puddles outside their doors. The U.S. Drought Monitor report, released weekly, does not update its numbers in real time and so did not include data from the Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 storm in this week’s edition.
“They take a couple of days to crunch that data,” Francis Kredensor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou, said. “I would expect that all the decent rain we’ve had, especially in central and southern areas, I would expect to see some improvement. I would not be surprised if in next week’s report they bring the status down to moderate drought levels.”
But another reason is that the state’s rainfall deficit is so great, it will take more than a few good rainstorms to reduce it. By late September, at the start of the water year, the southernmost portion of the state was in extreme drought conditions, with annual rainfall more than 8 inches below normal in Augusta and nearly 10 inches below normal in Portland. Although October had more precipitation than normal, it still wasn’t enough to get Maine out of its months-long drought.
Nikki Becker, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, said that each soaking rain that falls in Maine before the ground freezes, like this week’s storm, will help to recharge the water table and provide relief for Mainers worried about their wells running dry. Still, a big consideration is what will happen after the ground freezes, she said.
“How much snow will we get? How much water content is in that snow? And how much will go into the ground in the spring?” she said. “Even with the improvement of the rainfalls that we’ve had, a good snowpack for the winter or a high snowfall amount would be very helpful for us.”