Despite the rain, Maine still drier than normal

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The recent rains are making it wet, but the entire state is still abnormally dry or in drought conditions.

Even with rain falling every day for the past week in places, precipitation is off, river flows are low up north and groundwater levels are down in central and western Maine.

Officially, more than a third of the state in western and northern Maine is in a moderate drought, while the rest is rated as abnormally dry, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.

Greg Zielinski, the state climatologist and a professor at the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute in Orono, said the state is still feeling the effects of 2001.

"That was the driest year on record and we still haven't completely recovered," Zielinski said.

The National Drought Mitigation Center, a coalition based at the University of Nebraska that tracks drought conditions in North America, says some part of Maine has been in drought condition for 101 weeks now.

During the driest time, Maine experienced extreme drought conditions, hundreds of wells ran dry and communities issued low-water alerts.

That's no longer the case, but the state is still water-deprived.

According to the National Weather Service, Portland through Monday had 14.27 inches of rain for the year. That's 24 percent below normal for the year and more than 3 inches less than last year at this time.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported Tuesday that the river flows in central and northern Maine were well below normal.

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