Thunderstorm Season in Northern and Eastern Maine

By Joseph Hewitt

We are quickly approaching the time of year when thunderstorms become more prevalent in the Northeastern United States, especially from late spring through mid-summer. Some thunderstorm activity can become severe in the New England states. Granted, Northern and Eastern Maine do not get very much severe weather, however, severe weather does occur.

Evidence of this, was the July 3 and 4, 2002 severe weather event, when severe thunderstorms and a few tornadoes wreaked havoc on the region. Another event was June 27^th 2003, when a line of severe thunderstorms moved across Northern and Central Maine producing damaging winds.

The mission of the National Weather Service is “to protect life and property”. One of the ways the National Weather Service does this is through its warning software program called WarnGen or Warning Generator. This warning software allows the forecaster to issue severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, flash flood warnings and follow up statements with greater lead-time and more precision. While on a radar screen, WarnGen allows the forecaster to overlay a warning on a particular storm. The forecaster can then set the valid times, locations to be affected and then issue the warning. This whole process takes no more than a minute to accomplish. Once the warning is issued, the forecaster can then continue to track other storms using this software and issue more warnings if needed. More lead time with a severe weather warning allows the public to be prepared and take the necessary precautions to keep safe in case of a severe weather event.

Warning Generator

WarnGen is just one of the many tools that the National Weather Service in Caribou will be using this spring and summer to assess severe weather.