Maine’s Fall Storms Have Intensified In Recent Years, And Climate Change Could Be To Blame

Just last week, Hurricane Teddy took aim at eastern Maine but turned eastward and made landfall along Nova Scotia’s eastern shore, retaining wind speeds of nearly 75 mph until just a few hours before it struck the Canadian province. And, on Wednesday, a strong wind storm that was neither a bomb cyclone nor a nor’easter caused outages across the state, leaving more than 100,000 electricity customers without power. The frequency of such storms — such as two that struck Maine within two weeks last October, or two that caused power outages just four days apart in April — could be increasing because of the changing climate, as warming oceans are putting more moisture in the atmosphere, according to a scientist at University of Maine. But it’s not an easy question to answer, in part because what constitutes a storm can be difficult to identify over long time periods due to varying characteristics, said Sean Birkel, a research assistant professor at UMaine’s Climate Institute.