Spring has sprung, at least for now

CARIBOU, Maine — Spring has not only sprung, it’s jumped right off the charts with record-breaking temperatures all over northern Maine.
As the National Weather Service Office in Caribou has most accurate historical climatological data for Caribou and Bangor, the two cities serve as prime examples of the pleasant warmth greeting the region as they’ve both been breaking high-temperature records since March 18.
    Caribou had just broken yesterday’s high temperature record at presstime, but Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Caribou Noelle Runyan was confident that the thermometer hadn’t yet reached its zenith.
“We’ve already broken the record and we haven’t reached the high temperature yet,” Runyan said yesterday at noon, when Caribou had just reached 52 degrees, breaking the previous 48-degree record set in 1968. Runyan anticipated the mercury would rise to around 70 before the afternoon was over.
“It’s looking like records will be broken on Wednesday and Thursday as well,” she added.
On March 18, Caribou hit 64 degrees, breaking the previous record of 48 degrees in 1968.
Runyan said that today’s forecast calls for a high of around 73 degrees, which would obliterate the previous record of 57 degrees, set in 1946. Tomorrow’s forecasted to reach a high of about 71 degrees, breaking a 63-degree record set back in 1979.
“The interesting thing for Caribou is that the all-time highest temperature in March was 73 degrees, set on March 30 in 1962; if we break 73 degrees, we’ll set a new temperature for the month of March,” Runyan explained.
Mother Nature seems intent on breaking all sorts of records this week: if Caribou hits 70 degrees today or tomorrow, it will be the earliest that the city has ever hit 70 degrees (since the National Weather Service began recording Caribou data in 1939).
The previous earliest date Spring broke 70 degrees was that same March 30 of 1962.
As spring of 2012 seems to be off to a quirky start, some are drawing parallels to the peculiar weather patterns of 2011, which was the wettest year ever recorded in Caribou.
“Much like we’ve been talking about for the last 12 months or so regarding the ‘strange weather,’ it really is the pattern we’ve been in; we won’t know for quite a number of years if we can or cannot attribute it to any other major event,” Runyan explained. “At this point, [the weather] is still within the typical weather variability that we get across North America.”
While many will certainly be trading their snow boots for short-sleeved shirts in the next few days, it’s probably a good idea to keep the snow shovels out for a bit longer.
“On March 18, Bangor, they set a new record high of 76 — the previous record was 65 degrees set in 2011,” Runyan explained. “But remember, last year Bangor had significant snowfall at the beginning of April.”
Though the snow may not be gone for long, the warm front is a welcome reprieve from winter all across the northern part of the United States.
“One interesting fact I saw yesterday was that Rochester, Minnesota had a low temperature that was higher than their previous record-high temperature,” Runyan shared.