It’s high summer here in “Vacationland” and we’re still getting more days of gruel-like fog and/or intermittent rain than days of our famed dazzlingly blue skies filled with mounds of white clouds. Sailing classes at neighboring WoodenBoat School sometimes seem to require use of meteorological braille.
The aftereffects of Tropical Storm Fred arrived as hard rain last night and this morning. We’re bracing for T.S. Henri to come and spend his last troubled days here over the weekend and/or next week. Some say he’ll turn into a hurricane a bit south of here and leave us with manic rain.
Yet, the cruel irony is that the majority of Maine still is abnormally dry or even in drought – and it got slightly worse last week in the State’s northeast counties, according to yesterday’s weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report of data recorded August 17. The Monitor maps are accessible online at https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx
Yesterday’s Monitor map for Maine, above, shows that, as of August 17, the State’s coasts are normal (white), but other areas are “abnormally dry” (yellow), in “moderate drought” (tan), or in “severe drought” (burnt orange). (Brooklin, Maine; fog image taken at WoodenBoat on August 12, 2021)