This product is our most web-suited forecast. It conveys information
in both pictures and text, and links to other sources of weather
information. Unfortunately, if you have a very slow Internet connection,
it may not be for you. If you have problems, try one of our
text-only forecast
products.
A gridpoint forecast is for a specific 2.5 square mile box in
our forecast area. This is the most specific forecast we produce.
And it's the most dynamic too; a gridpoint forecast is regenerated
every time you click on the map
in order to give you the latest info, which may change hourly.
For complete information see our
Gridpoint
Forecasts Help page.
For the added capability of specifying the desired forecast gridpoint
by latitude and longitude, go to our Gridpoint
Forecasts page.
Text-Only
Our Weather Forecast Office (WFO) and the one in Gray, Maine produce
many text-only forecast products. These are categorized below. Alternate
links are provided in case the primary does not respond or has not
been updated.
All these text products have the advantage of containing absolutely
no graphics. They are all perfectly suited for the people with slow
Internet connections.
Produced by WFO Caribou, Maine, the SFT presents weather elements in a 7-day forecast. It is organized geographically,
by region within state. All cities / towns are
included in one report, so you will have to scroll through
to find the place you are interested in.
Produced by WFO Gray, Maine, the SFT presents weather elements in a 7-day forecast. It is organized geographically,
by region within state, and includes New Hampshire. All cities / towns are
included in one report, so you will have to scroll through
to find the place you are interested in.
The codes used in the PFM may be found in this
explanation
.
The PFM is a more detailed 7-day forecast, but for the
numerically minded. It presents the forecasts in a tabular
format. All cities / towns for one WFO are included in
one report, so you will have to scroll through to find
the place that interests you.
The cities / towns in the Caribou PFM are: Bangor, Bar
Harbor, Calais, Caribou, Clayton Lake, Eastport, Fort
Kent, Frenchville, Greenville, Houlton, Millinocket, and
Presque Isle. It also includes one maritime forecast point:
the Jonesport Buoy.
The Maine cities / towns in the Gray PFM are: Augusta,
Brunswick, Fryeburg, Jackman, Lewiston, Portland, Rangeley,
Rockland, Sanford, Waterville, and Wiscasset. It also
includes places in New Hampshire.
Zone-Based Forecasts (cover National Weather
Service (NWS) zones )
The NWS issues most products by zone or by county. Zones and
counties normally equate: a zone matches a county and vice-versa.
Only sometimes does the NWS subdivide a county into multiple
zones.
Why? Because large counties are sometimes too big for meaningful
forecasts. When complex weather
passes over a large area, describing it involves so much weather
terminology that it renders the forecast unreadable. Subdividing
into smaller zones reduces the complexity of each forecast, resulting
in better readability.
Here are WFO Caribou's Zones:
From North to South
Zone Part
County
Some Cities/Towns/Places with the
Zone
Zone Code
County Code
Northwest
Aroostook
Allagash, Clayton Lake, Deboullie Mountain,
Dickey, Eagle Lake, Fort Kent, Frenchville, Madawaska, Nine-Mile
Bridge, Saint Pamphile
MEZ001
MEC003
Northeast
Aroostook
Ashland, Bridgewater, Caribou, Easton, Fort
Fairfield, Limestone, Loring, Mapleton, Mars Hill, Masardis,
Oxbow, Portage, Presque Isle, Russell Crossing, Van Buren,
Washburn, Woodland
MEZ002
MEC003
Northern
Somerset
Baker Lake, St. Aurelie Checkpoint
MEZ003
MEC025
Northern
Piscataquis
Baxter State Park, Mount Katahdin, Ripogenus,
Caucomgomoc Lake, Chamberlain Lake, Chesuncook, Churchill
Dam, Tamway, Telos Lake
MEZ004
MEC021
Northern
Penobscot
Millinocket, Patten, East Millinocket, Medway,
Moosehorn Crossing, Shin Pond
MEZ005
MEC019
Southeast
Aroostook
Houlton, Haynesville, Hodgdon, Island Falls,
Sherman, Sherman Station, Smyrna Mills, Wytopitlock
MEZ006
MEC003
Central
Piscataquis
Greenville, Blanchard, Kokadjo, Lobster Lake,
Monson, Rockwood
In the ZFP, zones with like weather are grouped together
and a 7-day text forecast is issued for the group. The
ZFP therefore varies in size. Some days with complex
weather there are many different zone groupings and
many different 7-day forecasts. The zone you live in
may receive a forecast of its own. Other days the weather
pattern may be simpler and many zones will be grouped
together resulting in fewer 7-day forecasts. The zone
you live in may be grouped with others in
a combined forecast.
You can view the ZFP in its entirety to see all the
forecasts for the whole WFO Caribou forecast area. Every
zone is included. You must scroll through the product
to find your zone of interest.
To make things easier, we have also provided links
to each individual forecast, listed by zone. Your zone
of interest will probably not appear alone with its
own forecast, but at least you will only be looking
at one forecast.
The codes used in the AFM may be found in this explanation.
The AFM is like the ZFP, only for the numerically minded.
It presents a 7-day forecast in a tabular, numerical format.
In this product, each of the 15 zones in our forecast
area is always given its own forecast.
You can only view the AFM in its entirety. You must scroll
through the product to find your zone of interest. They
appear in numerical order.
The NOW is an event driven product, issued only occasionally,
as a supplement to a previously released forecast. It
is issued only for the specific zones it will affect.
Typically, NOWcasts are related to storms or other localized
weather events (such as fog) where the additional information
it provides would only be of interest to the zones mentioned.
Areal Forecasts—Cover WFO Caribou's Whole Area of Responsibility
The AFD is issued multi-daily. It summarizes the forecaster's
thinking in meteorological terms, although the paragraph
at the beginning, titled "Synopsis," is normally expressed
in plain English.
A hazard is an all-encompassing term we use to describe
a weather / environmental event that has a potential for
danger to the public. We issue a product with a severity
category of Warning, Advisory, or Watch to alert the public
to these dangers.
The Hazardous Weather Outlook, also multi-daily, is
not itself a warning, watch or advisory, but rather a
forecast product predicting upcoming hazards. It also
summarizes existing hazards, which can be viewed in detail
on our Local Hazards
page.
Regional / Statewide Forecasts—Produced by WFO Gray, Maine
Although mentioned above under Cities / Towns, the SFT
is included again because it is really a regional forecast.
It's organized by areas within a state and shows forecast
numerics for cities / towns. It includes both Maine and
New Hampshire. See its entry above for
detailed info.
Our cartographic, or map-based,
forecasts plot individual weather elements, such as temperature
or chance of precipitation, on a map of our area of responsibility.
These forecasts are definitely not for those with slow Internet
connections (especially avoid the Loops tab). They
are graphically intensive and tend to work best with Broadband connectivity
or better, though they can be used with a dial-up connection and
a lot of patience.
It is recommended that once you have the initial cartographic
forecasts page displayed on your screen, immediately turn off
the mouse over effect by choosing Table MouseOver Effect Off in the drop-down
menu at the bottom of the display in the left-hand table cell. You
must then actively click to cause a new weather element to display
and can wait patiently for it to appear. The other behavior, with
mouse over effect on, means that the elements try to change instantly
as you roll your mouse over them. On a slow line this results in
less-than-intuitive behavior since "instantly" isn't.
These maps include some of our "specialty" weather element
forecasts. The Marine tab includes forecasts for weather, combined
seas, visibility and wind direction and speed plotted over our coastal
marine zone (which extends out 25 nautical miles). The Fire Weather
tab (appearing seasonally) includes weather elements specific to
fire weather forecasting during the spring and fall dry seasons.
Radar
Our radar coverage
could be just what you need when you are looking for that gap in
the storm to make your dash home from work!
Caribou's local radar viewed with the:
Enhanced
version for higher bandwidth connections.
Our WSR-88D (Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988 Doppler) is located
near Houlton and is named KCBW (or sometimes just CBW). The one
downstate is near Gray and is known as KGYX (or GYX).
Gray's radar viewed with the:
Enhanced
version for higher bandwidth connections.
When viewing one of those radar plots, you are looking at raw data,
exactly as our forecasters do. You have to play forecaster, but
you won't need a degree in meteorology. You can read this handy
WSR-88D Radar FAQ
instead.
The FAQ will answer all your questions on what those radar pages
are displaying.
If the radar page is not updating, we may be experiencing operational difficulties
with our radar. You can check this at the
NWS Level II Radar Receive
Status
page. Look for KCBW03 and KGYX03.
See the National Weather Service Space Environment Center's 3-Day
Solar and Geophysical Activity Report. Look at the bottom in
section VI for the Geomagnetic Activity Probabilities. In the tabular
report you will be looking at, the rows are described. The columns
are the three days of the report: first column is day 1, second
is day 2, third is day 3. The numbers represent the probability
of geomagnetic activity. High numbers of probability for a major-severe
storm at mid-latitutes would indicate the best chance of Maine-viewable
auroral activity. Lower numbers, higher latitides, or lower severities
would indicated lesser chances of viewable auroras.
National Weather Service
Caribou Weather Forecast Office
810 Main St
Caribou ME 04736
(207) 492-0170 carwebmaster@noaa.gov
Page last modified: August 12, 2010