Bangor Weather: Snowy winters, mud season and perfect summers
Is it going to snow, sleet, or maybe something worse? The summers are short but blueberry festival perfect and the winters snowbank tall, Stephen King spooky. Here's what else is going on around Bangor that will impact the time you spend outside.
Greg, Our Local Expert Guiding Your Move
Greg moved to Maine before it was trendy, stayed when it got crowded, and 28 years later still loves it. He grew up here, went to UMaine, tried Connecticut, and survived eight years in Virginia before eventually packing up and moving back home. He is a former newspaper copy editor, pizza lover (Portland Pie, OTTO, & Cargo regular), and family man. At Snappy Scout, Greg helps newcomers decode Maine, a place that plays by its own rules and usually keeps them to itself.
Read moreWritten with local insight from Snappy Scout relocation experts
What's the Weather Really Like in Bangor?
The forecast, the fashion, and the fine print locals wish someone had told them sooner.
Summer temps be like
Porch perfect, fan optional (upper 70s to low 80s)
Winter lows are
Nose hairs become stalagmites (single digits to below zero)
The humidity makes me
want to stay in my damp bed with a fan on full-blast
Unique weather patterns
Nor'easters that slap the Penobscot sideways, surprise April snow squalls, a fifth season called Mud, and a sea breeze that steals ten degrees by supper
Local weather fashion tip
Bean boots year round, a real raincoat not an umbrella, and traction cleats live by the door
You know it's time to get out of town when
The snowbank tops your Subaru and the plow guy knows your schedule, so you flee to Bar Harbor for stolen sunshine and fries on the pier
Bugs be like
Black flies chair the town meeting, mosquito swing vote decides elections, ticks lurk in every dreamy meadow
You're stuck indoors again today because
A nor'easter parked over I-95 and is shotgunning snow and slush into your driveway like it pays rent
Green thumb enthusiasts love
Blueberries thrive in the acidic soil, sun lingers late in June, peas and kale are unstoppable, raised beds beat the mud, and fall brings a carnival of pumpkins before frost rings the bell
My Favorite Season in Bangor
Winter is my favorite season in Bangor. Specifically, hockey season. After a 20-or-so-year lull, the UMaine Black Bears men's hockey team is back in the upper reaches of NCAA Division One. Orono is technically 8 miles north of Bangor, but the excitement spills down and sweeps through the city every October through April. Frozen Four appearances in the late 1980s sparked the college hockey tradition, and national titles in 1993 and 1999 deeply wove it into Bangor's cultural tapestry. Live around here, and you're bound to be swept up in the excitement.
— Greg Reid
Maine Local Expert
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