Normal temperatures on this page are based on Portland normals, which NOAA currently calculates using the period 1981-2010. Based on those three decades, February was the 6th colder than normal month of the last seven, as shown by the red bars below. But, if NOAA didn't keep updating their normal temperatures each decade and was still using 1951-1980 (shown by the blue line), only one of the last 38 months was colder than what was normal in those three decades. Since NOAA adjusts what it considers normal to be based on the latest three complete decades, comparisons of current temperatures to the NOAA norms understates the extent to which climate is warming.
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SOURCEWeather statistics are based on 5-minute readings at an Ambient Weather station near Mill Cove off of upper Harpswell Sound. Archives
December 2015
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