Our rain chain was making a spectacle of itself during yesterday’s torrential rains from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida:
The bird bath appeared as if it was coming to a boiling point, as the rain drops hit it incessantly:
Our county (Hancock) was one of two under a flash flood warning for some of the day, but today’s reports indicate that there were no significant floods and little damage to Maine from this environmental revenge. Our hearts go out to those who suffered severely to the south of us.
All Ida had left for us on the coast was a little more than two inches of rain, with 1.8 of those inches coming from midnight to about mid-day, according to our local weather station. Ida didn’t go gently.
The day before the storm, Maine still had a dryness problem, according to yesterday’s U.S. Drought Monitor and this map based on August 31 data:.
It reported some improvement over the previous week in central Maine, but the data showed that most of inland Maine remained “abnormally dry” (yellow), in “moderate drought” (tan), or in “severe drought” (burnt orange). Yesterday’s rain should have helped relieve that situation some. (Brooklin, Maine)