The Newfound River in Bristol, New Hampshire, on Sept. 23, 2023. Photo by Todd B. Bates/NH EnviroGuy blogger

Dry Weather Forecast in New England, Fall Outlook and Summer Recap

7 min readSep 25, 2023

Sick and tired of rain? Well, we have an extended dry weather forecast for much of New England after an extremely soggy summer.

“After months of relentless rainfall, we’re finally getting the break from rain we’ve all been wishing for,” the National Weather Service office that covers New Hampshire and western Maine posted yesterday. “After showers move through southern NH today, we likely won’t be seeing any more rain until October.”

High pressure will become “centered over New England through the end of the work week. This will bring fair and dry conditions, with light winds,” the office says.

Meanwhile, “frost is possible tonight north of the Katahdin region, especially in the colder valleys,” the weather service office in northern Maine posted. A frost advisory is in effect.

Still, October will likely be warmer than normal in New England, and it may be drier than normal in northern areas, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. It may also be warmer than normal in October through December in New England.

The forecast and outlooks follow the wettest summer (June through August) on record in New Hampshire and Maine’s second wettest summer. While minimum temperatures approached record warmth, highs were close to or below average, the Gray/Portland, Maine, weather service office posted.

In New Hampshire, Mount Washington had its second wettest season (June through August, in this case) since record-keeping began in 1932, Ryan Knapp, weather observer/staff meteorologist, at the Mount Washington Observatory, posted.

“Looking back at weather stats, if I had to summarize summer 2023 weather conditions on the summit, they would be — rainy, snowy, foggy/cloudy, and ‘calm,’ ” Knapp wrote. The summit is 6,288 feet above sea level.

Precipitation at the summit is also above normal this month through Sept. 24, according to the observatory.

Wet August in New England, With Tornadoes and Hurricane Franklin

Here are some other recent weather and climate highlights in New England and beyond:

— Massachusetts had its second warmest January through August period on record, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. New Hampshire had its third wettest period; Vermont and Massachusetts had their fourth wettest, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System.

— Earth experienced its hottest summer on record (since 1880), according to a NASA news release that cites its scientists’ analysis.

— The first half of September was the warmest on record at Worcester, Massachusetts. Temperatures averaged 7.1 degrees above normal. Concord in New Hampshire, Portland and Caribou in Maine, and Hartford and Bridgeport in Connecticut had their second warmest September starts, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center.

— Eight more billion-dollar weather and climate disasters were confirmed in August, including the mid-July flooding in the Northeast, adding to the 15 previously confirmed events this year, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Each disaster caused at least $1 billion in losses, and this year’s 23 events have already topped the previous record number for an entire year: 22 in 2020. This year’s disasters have caused more than $57.6 billion in damages and led to 253 direct and indirect deaths.

— Here are some Hurricane/Post-Tropical Cyclone Lee summaries: Post-Tropical Cyclone Lee Event Summary Document for New Hampshire and western Maine. Summary of Post-Tropical Cyclone Lee Over Northern/Eastern Maine. Local Observations & Impacts From Hurricane Lee for southern New England.

— So, why was this summer so soggy? A broad trough was over the eastern half of the U.S., leading to below normal sea level pressure over the region, the Boston/Norton weather service office posted. “This kept us unsettled with more days of measurable rain than normal, but not record breaking.”

Here are more images, including some focusing on hurricanes and some of my recent photos in New Hampshire. Sorry for the somewhat disorderly presentation! I’m trying to cover a lot of ground after spending three weeks in Denmark and Norway (awesome scenery).