Did you know....

1. You don’t have to be in Kansas to experience a tornado.  On average, two tornadoes hit Maine each year.

2. Both the driest year on record (2001) and the wettest year on record (2005) for the state of Maine occurred within five years of each other.

3. The difference between the highest temperature ever recorded in the state (105?F) and the lowest temperature (-50?F) is 155?.

4. The difference in the amount of precipitation between the wettest month of the year (November) and the driest month (February) is only slightly over one inch.  Maine does not have a wet season or a dry season.

5. Maine has the lowest number of days-per-year with thunderstorms on average east of the Rocky Mountains.

6. Average annual temperature in Maine’s Allagash region is 36?F, only 4? above freezing.

7. Winter conditions have even prevailed during the summertime in Maine. Snow and frost during the summer of 1816 contributed to the emigration of many people from Maine. The eruption of Tambora in Indonesia caused the “Year Without a Summer” and low crop production.

— Excerpted from Gregory A. Zielinski's Conditions May Vary: A Guide to Maine’s Weather, available here.