Maine
Maine has a higher average snowfall than Alaska
MADAWASKA, Maine — Although many New Englanders are used to seeing excessive quantities of snow, Maine is second within the nation for common snowfall, beating Alaska by greater than a foot.
Vermont has the best common snowfall in the USA at 89.25 inches, based on the rankings listed at usa.com. However with a better elevation of 1,000 toes in contrast with Maine’s 600, this isn’t a shock.
What’s stunning is that Maine nonetheless will get a mean of 77.25 inches in contrast with different New England states which can be extra mountainous — regardless of its decrease elevation — and outshines even Alaska, which sees about 64.46 inches of snowfall per 12 months.
Throughout a time when conventional climate patterns are reforming around the globe on account of local weather change, Maine can thank Aroostook County for pushing the state’s winter statistics into the historical past books. The data for earliest snowfall ( Sept. 29, 1991, Caribou) and newest snowfall (Could 27, 1994, Fort Kent) have been noticed out of the Nationwide Climate Service station in Caribou.
However not solely does Aroostook set Maine other than most different states, it additionally has climate peculiarities throughout the county as a result of the northernmost areas are influenced by the Canadian panorama and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Maine’s northernmost level, Escourt Station, is 2 levels decrease than the northernmost level within the contiguous United States — Angle Inlet, Minnesota — and 27 levels decrease than Level Barrow, Alaska, which is the general northernmost level in the USA.
For these locations within the Midwest which have seen snowfall outdoors of the winter season as early as July, elevation is a significant component, based on an infographic by local weather.gov. The place Caribou sits at solely 449 toes above sea degree, Climax, Colorado, sits at 11,360 toes.
Maine usually sees its first snowfall round mid-October, simply a month earlier than Boston.
Aroostook County is kind of giant — bigger in land space than Connecticut — and the farther north you go, the longer winter appears to stay round. The St. John Valley usually sees snow from October via late April, generally even into mid-Could, leaving roughly 5 months of heat climate for spring, summer time and fall to make their annual rotation.
It’s due to this that anytime a map of Maine is proven throughout any time however summer time, snow ought to span the St. John Valley space, mentioned Gerald Fongemie with the St. John Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“Like a snowcap,” Fongemie mentioned.
It isn’t simply winter that units northern Aroostook other than different locations in Maine. The spanning hillsides and north-facing slopes of the St. John Valley, plus the mountainous terrain and farmlands within the western a part of the Province of Quebec, can have an important affect over the altering climate circumstances within the valley, based on meteorologist Matt Strauser on the Nationwide Climate Service in Caribou.
Aroostook County, which is landlocked, is simply north sufficient to be away from the affect of the Atlantic Ocean, however shut sufficient to really feel some affect from the St. Lawrence Seaway, Strauser mentioned.The extra marine air mass tends to be a bit hotter in Down East Maine and stabilizes the environment, he mentioned.
“That doesn’t stand up right here fairly as a lot and it actually doesn’t stand up to the St. John Valley fairly as a lot,” Strauser mentioned. “You get much more continental air, which suggests mainly extra variation so it may very well be very heat sooner or later and just a little cooler one other day, whereas the locations which can be extra influenced by the marine setting are typically just a little extra steady by way of temperature, not fairly as variable because the St. John Valley which is extra continental.”
As well as, the information collected by bestplaces.internet exhibits that on common Aroostook County has 159 sunny days per 12 months in contrast with the nationwide common of 205 days.
Given the St. John Valley’s tendency towards wildly altering climate, let or not it’s no shock when a spring storm brings 4-8 inches of recent snow to northern Aroostook, just for it to vanish shortly after, simply because it did on April 28, 2022.
The variable nature of the valley’s environment permits for uncommon occurrences of tornadoes too. A complete of 80 tornadoes have been reported in Maine since 1950, 10 of which have been thought of vital — at the least a degree 2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale (111 to 135 mile per hour winds) or larger, based on meteorologist Stephen Baron from the Nationwide Climate Service in Grey.
Three of these 80 tornadoes have hit the St. John Valley within the final 25 years: July 19, 1997, a small twister rated EF0 hit Fort Kent; one other EF0 hit Lengthy Lake Could 15, 2007, and on Could 24, 2009, a twister score EF1 hit simply west of Eagle Lake, Strauser mentioned. Based on this infographic at homefacts.com, at the least one twister within the St. John Valley was thought of vital in 1958 when an EF2 struck Allagash on Aug. 15.