January 2021 Climate Narrative

...JANUARY 2021 MONTHLY CLIMATE NARRATIVE FOR NORTHERN AND EASTERN
MAINE...

JANUARY 2021 WILL REMEMBERED FOR MUCH ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES, MUCH
BELOW AVERAGE PRECIPITATION, INCLUDING SNOWFALL, AND BELOW AVERAGE
SNOW PACK.

THE MONTH FINISHED 7 TO 9 DEGREES ABOVE CLIMATE NORMS WITH NEARLY
STEADY MILD TEMPS, ESPECIALLY NIGHT TIME LOWS THE RULE RATHER THAN
ANY RECORD BREAKING EPISODES. ARCTIC AIR MASSES WERE ONLY PRESENT
OVER THE AREA AT THE BEGINNING AND PARTS OF THE LAST THIRD OF THE
MONTH WITH NO TRULY BITTER COLD DAYS. IN FACT, AT CARIBOU THE
OCCURRENCE OF ONLY 4 SUBZERO MORNINGS IS THE LEAST OF ANY JANUARY
SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1939, WITH 5 THE PREVIOUS MARK SET IN 1956.
AT CARIBOU, BANGOR, HOULTON, AND MILLINOCKET, JANUARY 2021 FINISHED
AS THE 2ND, 7TH, 4TH, AND 4TH WARMEST, RESPECTFULLY, WITH THE
MONTHLY MEAN OF 19.6 DEGREES AT CARIBOU ONLY BEATEN BY 21.3 SET IN
1956.

PRECIPITATION ONLY RANGED FROM 25 TO 60 PERCENT OF AVERAGE WITH THE
ONLY SIGNIFICANT EVENT, FALLING AS SNOW, OVER CENTRAL PORTIONS OF
THE REGION. AT CARIBOU, BANGOR, HOULTON, AND MILLINOCKET JANUARY
2021 RANKED AS THE 12TH, 11TH, 4TH, AND 9TH DRIEST, RESPECTFULLY. OF
COURSE, LOW PRECIPITATION MEANT LOW SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH WITH THE
13.0 INCH TOTAL AT CARIBOU THE 9TH LOWEST RECORDED FOR JANUARY AND
9.0 INCHES AT BANGOR THE 13TH LOWEST, BOTH ABOUT 10 INCHES BELOW
LONG TERM JANUARY AVERAGES. THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL EVENT OF
THE MONTH WAS ON THE 2ND AFFECTING CENTRAL PORTIONS OF THE REGION
WITH 9 TO 13 INCHES AND LESSER AMOUNTS NORTH AND SOUTH.

AVERAGE SNOW DEPTH FOR THE MONTH AS MEASURED AT CARIBOU AND BANGOR
WAS ALSO SCANT AVERAGING 7.4 INCHES (ABOUT 40 PERCENT OF NORMAL) AT
CARIBOU AND ONLY 2.4 INCHES (25 PERCENT OF NORMAL) AT BANGOR WHICH
WAS THE 19TH AND 12TH LOWEST OF RECORD, RESPECTFULLY, AT BOTH SITES.
AT CARIBOU, IT RANGED FROM A LOW OF 5 INCHES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
MONTH TO A HIGH OF 10 INCHES REACHED TWICE DURING THE LAST THIRD OF
MONTH. AT BANGOR, SNOW DEPTH RANGED FROM ZERO ON THE MORNING OF THE
1ST TO A MAX OF 7 INCHES ON THE 3RD THROUGH 5TH WITH SNOW DEPTH THEN
DIMINISHING TO AROUND A TRACE TO 1 INCH LATE IN THE MONTH.THE SCANTY
SNOWPACK RESULTED IN A DELAYED START TO SNOW MOBILE SEASON ACROSS
THE NORTH WITH ONLY LIMITED TRAILS AVAILABLE.

THE CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER`S OUTLOOK FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY IS
CALLING FOR SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN NORMAL ODDS FOR ABOVE NORMAL
TEMPERATURES AND ABOUT EQUAL ODDS FOR BELOW, AVERAGE, AND ABOVE
AVERAGE PRECIPITATION. NORMAL LOW AND HIGH TEMPERATURES FOR THE
MONTH RANGE FROM LOW SINGLE DIGITS TO LOWER 20S ACROSS THE NORTH TO
LOWER TEENS AND LOWER 30S ACROSS DOWNEAST AREAS. NORMAL
PRECIPITATION ACROSS THE REGION RANGES FROM 2.10 INCHES ACROSS THE
NORTH TO 2.75 INCHES ALONG THE DOWNEAST COAST. AVERAGE SNOWFALL
RANGES FROM 15 TO 20 INCHES OVER DOWNEAST AREAS TO 20 TO 25 INCHES
ACROSS NORTHERN AREAS.