Still in the throes of the last gasps of summer, parts of northern Maine experienced the first frost of the season Sunday and Monday mornings.
The cold temperatures came as weather forecasters monitored a potential tropical storm forming along the southern Atlantic coast, just days after the Category 4 Hurricane Harvey hit Texas. The new storm, which will be named Irma if it reaches tropical storm status, is expected to hit Massachusetts as early as Wednesday and cause heavy rains for as long as 12 to 24 hours before moving on, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
But for now, some Mainers are starting to feel the chill. The National Weather Service station in Caribou recorded patchy frost across Maine Monday morning, and 32-degree temperatures in places like Estcourt Station, Fort Kent and along the Allagash River.
Estcourt Station actually hit the 31-degree mark on a morning back in late July, Toddy Foisy, meteorologist in the Caribou office said Monday morning.
The band of cold temperatures stretched across almost the top half of the state. Places like Clayton Lake, Houlton, Caribou and Jackman showed temperatures in the mid to high 30s.
Temperatures in Bangor, Augusta, Rangeley and Machias hovered in the low-to-mid 40s.
“It’s normal in late August to see the coldest spots [get] some frost,” Foisy said.
No record-low temperatures were recorded.
While some areas were frosty, the first average snowfall is still a ways off — Caribou’s average first measurable snowfall isn’t until Oct. 26, Foisy said, and places like Houlton and Bangor shouldn’t get snow until early to mid November.
As a reminder that the warm season isn’t over yet, a potential tropical storm is dropping heavy rains and wind gusts on Florida, with a trajectory to spin up the coast as far as New England this week, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Sosnowski.
After reaching Massachusetts, some forecasters believe it could veer off into the North Atlantic, which would largely spare Maine.
The storm, which may be upgraded to a tropical storm and named Irma, is battering the southern Atlantic coast less than four days after Hurricane Harvey — later downgraded to a tropical storm — made landfall in Texas, where it caused potentially historic levels of flooding in Houston and caused the deaths of at least five people.