There was little need for sunglasses and sun hats this soggy June, and so far early July will be no better.
June offered few sunny days and plenty of rain, although the amount of precipitation did not break a record.
As measured in Portland, 5.68 inches of rain fell in the month, said Jon Palmer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray – “quite a bit above average. The normal for June is 3.77 inches of rain.”
“June was a very, very wet month, a consistent wet one,” Palmer said. “We’d wake up every day to showers” with some rain almost daily.
When it wasn’t raining, there were clouds and fog.
“We’ve had a persistent pattern with basically a lot of pop-up showers” with stalled storm systems over the state, Palmer said. “We’ve had really warm, moist air in place.”
For Portland, the wettest day of the month was June 17, when 1.84 inches of rain fell, the same day that thousands of people marched in Portland’s Pride parade.
“Surprisingly enough, we’ve had much, much wetter Junes than we had,” Palmer said. “As recently as 2019, we had a June as wet as this one.”
In June 2009 and 2012, 8.5 inches of precipitation fell in Portland, and in 2006, there was 9 inches of rain.
In other parts of the state, substantial storms caused serious flooding. Last week, the weather service issued several flash flooding warnings.
On Thursday, an intense thunderstorm dumped heavy rain in the Jay area, prompting rescue crews to help residents deal with flooded homes and washed-out roads. In Jay, Routes 133 and 156 closed because of flooding. Lawns, driveways and entire sections of roads were torn up by rushing water in the town and in nearby Chesterville, Farmington and Wilton. Four people were rescued from a vehicle after becoming trapped in floodwaters, the Sun Journal reported Friday.
“The same day, we had pretty bad flash flooding in Rockwood near Moosehead,” Palmer said. On Sunday and Monday, Andover received 6 inches of rain, causing significant flooding.
The early July forecast is calling for more wet days with clouds, coastal fog and showers. The weather service is forecasting a break from rain Saturday, but it will return Sunday and into Independence Day.
“The Fourth of July will be a rather wet one,” Palmer said.
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