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Forecasters: Weekend Rain Won't Make Major Dent in Maine's Drought-Stricken Areas

PORTLAND, Maine - It rained Sunday - all day if you were along the coast.   And that's news, of course, because of the drought that has been intensifying across the state.

As much as an inch of rain fell along the coast from Portland to Bar Harbor. But Tom Hawley, the hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Gray, says not everyone got wet. 

"The most rain fell right along the coastal plain.  Once you got up into the mountains there was very little.  A tenth of an inch of less.  Some places up in the mountains didn't get anything."

The good news is that where rain fell, it fell slowly, allowing the moisture to sink into the ground where it's sorely needed. But even the rain that did fall will have a limited impact.  It's all in the numbers.  Hawley says rainfall in Cumberland and York counties has run about 10 inches below normal since April.

The lack of rain has begun to take its toll.  Private wells have run dry in places and state officials have begun urging people to conserve. 

And while Sunday's rain may green up lawns in the days ahead, Hawley says, “While it’s helpful, we’ve still got a long way to go when you’re talking 10 to 12 inches below normal since April.  That barely makes a dent in it.”

And Hawley says the prospects for further improvement aren't so good. "We're looking at temperatures above normal over the next couple of weeks with precipitation near or somewhat below normal. We need to string together a few months in a row of above normal precipitation and it doesn't seem like October is going to end with above-normal precip.”

And how does the weather service know that? Hawley says forecasters start with current conditions, then look at historical trends and other weather phenomena around the globe: patterns like El Nino or La Nina, the North Atlantic Oscillation, or the Pacific-North America Oscillation. 

And what all of those things are telling Hawley is that we’re in for more sunny and beautiful fall weather, even if it amounts to too much of a good thing.