Maine drought officially over, scientists say

After two years of watching and waiting, scientists have finally declared the drought in Maine finished – though the state’s groundwater levels are still recovering from the extremes of 2001, they said.

The dry spell officially ended within the past few weeks, said Hendricus Lulofs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a map created by the National Drought Mitigation Center, the last remnants of drought conditions in northwestern Maine dropped off the map last week. As of the most recent July 29 map, there is no drought anywhere east of the Mississippi River.

However, Maine is one of the few Eastern states, along with some small patches near the Great Lakes, where abnormally dry conditions remain. All but Washington, York and Cumberland counties still have below-normal groundwater levels, according to the drought center.”There’s a lot of water in the state, it just didn’t come at the right time to recharge the groundwater,” said Bob Lent, Maine district chief for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Last year’s heavy snowfall and early frost kept the normal cycle of autumn freezing and thawing from replenishing the groundwater, and the unusually cold winter didn’t provide the typical January thaw that also would have allowed melting snow to soak into the ground.

“Most people didn’t have a mud season this year. When the snow melted, it was just gone,” Lent said.

As a result, many areas in central and coastal Maine actually have less groundwater than at this time last summer, he said.

According to Lynette Miller of the Maine Emergency Management Agency, people recently have started calling to report dry wells, but the state doesn’t have enough data to determine whether the calls represent a problem or the typical low water levels that strike many parts of the state in August.

Water levels tend to be low in August, because trees and plants in full bloom draw much more water, Lulofs explained.

And MEMA believes that the number of well problems may be reduced this summer, even if the groundwater situation is more dire, because many Mainers have made investments in new or deeper wells to solve their water problems during the past two summers.

“There’s been a lot of well-drilling going on,” Lent said.

Bangor received only about a third of its average rainfall in July. The Bangor area is about 5 inches below normal precipitation levels for this year, compared with levels as much as 15 inches below normal during 2001, said state climatologist Greg Zielinski.

Both surface and groundwater levels remained at drought levels throughout 2002 in much of Maine despite normal amounts of rain and snowfall. It can take several years to make up for a precipitation deficit such as the one the state experienced in 2001, he said.

On average, this year has seen less rainfall than 2002, but trees and plants haven’t suffered.

The below-average temperatures that Maine has experienced every month in 2003 has allowed plants to use the rain that has fallen more effectively. Less precipitation is wasted to evaporation when temperatures stay cool, Zielinski explained.

As a result, lake levels are higher than in recent years, and USGS stream flow data indicate normal levels in central and coastal Maine, with some record highs in Aroostook County and along the New Hampshire border.

Ever cautious, the climate scientists warn Mainers not to get too comfortable. The state is still “teetering,” and could plunge back into drought without continued cool weather and normal rainfall.

The tropical storm systems that travel through the Atlantic each fall can make a big difference, dropping 6 inches or more of rain in a matter of hours. But Maine hasn’t benefited from heavy fall rains since Hurricane Floyd in 1999, Zielinski said.

“We need a hurricane – it’s like nature’s drought-breaker,” he said.