Last summer, we grappled with a severe drought. This summer, it rained so much, businesses in Old Orchard Beach, Maine and New Hampshire’s White Mountains feared they might lose the whole tourist season. In Vermont, people spent much of the summer cleaning up from catastrophic floods that also affected farms in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The unpredictability and volatility is anything but normal for a New England summer. But with climate change, you might say we’re now beyond normal.
In this series from the New England News Collaborative, journalists across the region worked together to tell stories about how climate change is affecting what we know, love and rely on in New England summers.
Follow our reporting on nature and the outdoors on our new Instagram channel, Our New England.
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Several global weather patterns were factors in the amount of rain that hammered the region. -
Every summer, nearly five million tourists pack the sandy beaches of Old Orchard Beach. But this summer got off to a rocky start. -
Rainfall totals reached 9.2 inches in North Calais in the initial storm. Rivers across Vermont responded differently to the heavy rains. -
Rentals for some outdoor recreation spots are down, but some indoor retailers have seen an uptick in customers. -
Several producers in southwestern New Hampshire saw their crops submerged under multiple feet of water. -
Farmers along the Connecticut River are experiencing significant losses from recent flooding. The river, the longest in New England, is filled with floodwater from storms that hit Vermont with heavy rainfall and catastrophic damage.
