Weather and the Big Storms

Official National Weather Service weather and storm records for Caribou have been maintained continuously since 1939, capturing the wide extremes of weather and the big storms across the region. The city recorded an all-time low temperature of -41°F on February 1, 1955, and saw its coldest December temperature on record when the thermometer hit 31 degrees below zero Fahrenheit on December 30, 1989. February 2015 proved to be its coldest February on record, averaging 2.8°F with 24 nights at or below zero. At the other extreme, Caribou has reached an all-time record high of 96°F on four separate dates: June 29, 1944; May 22, 1977; June 19, 2020; and June 19, 2024. Across the wider county, an official Maine record low of -48°F was measured in Van Buren on January 19, 1925, before a USGS stream gauge on the Big Black River in northwestern Aroostook recorded -50°F on January 16, 2009.

Winter storms regularly deposit massive snow totals across northern Maine. Caribou recorded 27.1 inches of snow on December 15, 2003, setting its record for a single calendar day, and experienced its snowiest calendar month in December 1972 with 59.9 inches. Later seasons brought new benchmarks, including January 2019 when 59.8 inches fell, creating deep drifts across U.S. Route 1 following an 18.2-inch storm on January 20. The winter of 2007–2008 set the all-time seasonal snowfall record with 197.8 inches, helping make 2008 the snowiest calendar year at 177.7 inches. Snowpack persistence set a record from November 30, 2016, through April 10, 2017, when Caribou maintained at least a foot of snow depth for 132 consecutive days, while a late-season storm on May 23, 2015, brought 0.3 inches.

Spring runoff and melting snows have repeatedly tested valley towns. In mid-April 1994, ice jams on the Aroostook River inundated Main Street in Fort Fairfield, prompting evacuations and leading the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a 2,823-foot flood protection dike with interior pumping systems between 1999 and 2001. In late April 1958, high runoff along the St. John River basin left water 18 inches deep on Fort Kent's main business street, and Civilian Defense Director Condy Lizotte documented emergency conditions there during the May 1969 flood. The record winter of 2007–2008 ended with up to 5 inches of rain on melting snow, driving the St. John River at Fort Kent to crest at 30.17 feet and forcing more than 600 residents to evacuate as town manager Don Guimond documented water overflowing into the Fish River and submerging East Main Street. USGS Station 01014000 measured a peak streamflow of 183,000 cubic feet per second, while upstream at Masardis, the Aroostook River crested at a record 18.33 feet on May 1.