How has Maine Survived Rain for 14 Out of the Last 20 Weekends?

This year has seemed like one cloudy day after another.

I'm not just being metaphorical for the sake of dramatic effect. I feel like every time we've turned around, there's been another little storm in the forecast. Especially during this latest hurricane season. The one weekend we had really nice weather several weeks back, the seas were boiling with rip currents and dangerous waves.

Other than that, it really hasn't felt worth it to make any solid weekend plans all summer. Weekend outdoors stuff was just blah, at best. Remember all the foggy 4th of July fireworks? Or how many camping trips you or your friends postponed because the storm of the week was rolling through, and yes... it had to from Friday into Sunday.

Get our free mobile app

Luckily, we're a resilient people around here. We don't let a little rain ruin everything. You just get to nuzzle up to that creepy neighbor at the BBQ you were planning for 50 people out in the yard. Now, you get to smell their breath as they overshare way too many details about their foot fungus.

It's not your imagination at all.

For 14 of the last 20 weekends here in Maine, we've had measurable rain. Granted, according to WGME, that's only .01 inches of rain. That'd barely settle the dust on the road. But nonetheless, it rained. And likely, it was cloudy and grey if it wasn't raining altogether. So it's not like it was awesome or anything.

Here's the crazy part though, with all the grim and dreary days we've had, it's not even close to the record year for rain overall. Not even close. In fact, 2023 ranks as the 9th wettest year so far. We've had 44+ inches of rain so far. In 1971, we had nearly 55 inches. So it could be a heck of a lot worse.

To put it another sad way, 43% of possible sunny days since June 1st, has rained. Granted, that's less than half. But that still feels kind of dismal. How did we make it? Is this the new trend? Or will it swing too far next year and we find ourselves in drought mode? Only time will tell...

For real, if these places are closed, you know something serious is going down weather-wise...