Maine's drought conditions have improved in recent weeks but the state is still experiencing an unusually dry period as winter sets in.
An update to the U.S. Drought Monitor on Wednesday showed that more than 60% of Maine is in moderate drought. Nearly the entire state is at least abnormally dry.
Conditions have improved from the first weeks of December, but Nick Stasulis, supervisory physical scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said it is strange to have a dry spell this late in the year.
In recent years Maine has experienced flash droughts that rapidly worsen in the spring and summer, but improve with autumn rainfall.
This fall was one of the driest on record, Stasulis said. Since the growing season is over, the drought poses no immediate risk to crops and wildfire danger remains low, he added.
But Stasulis said the dry spell is putting pressure on groundwater resources which are still below normal levels despite recent rainfall.
"That has helped groundwater levels recover, but they went from like a record low to a slightly below normal level, definitely not into the normal range for this time of year," he said.
Maine's drought task force is monitoring the situation and hopes there is a strong snowpack to help refresh groundwater reserves in the spring.
"So if we had a below normal snowpack going into the spring I think the big concern would be those low groundwater levels as we went into the summer," Stasulis said.
Maine's climate is projected to become wetter overall as the planet gets hotter, accelerated by greenhouse gas pollution from burning fossil fuels. The Maine Climate Council in a scientific and technical report this year said future drought trends are uncertain, but precipitation modeling found that dry periods will tend to be drier and wet periods wetter in the future.
To address drought pressure on farmers, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is setting up a grant program to help pay for drilling new wells and building ponds and other water storage.
Lawmakers created the grant program in 2022, but it went unfunded until this year. The Legislature appropriated a one-time $1 million capitalization for grants and a continuing $300,000 per year funding for assistance, according to the department.
Nearly all the northeast states are experiencing drought and abnormally dry conditions, according to the federal monitor.
