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Has the climate in Bar Harbor changed?

Bar Harbor has warmed about 3.3°F between 1983 and 2013.

About 1.1°F per decade, measured from Bar Harbor's official daily weather records, 1983–2013. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Bar Harbor's climate has warmed faster than most other cities in United States.

What has actually changed

Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span the headline and the chart use.

Freezing nights
24 fewer nights
1970s
151 / yr
Recent
127 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+2.1°F
1970s
45.3°F
Recent
47.5°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
about the same
1970s
2 / yr
Recent
2 / yr
About the same number of heat days
Rainy days
6 more days
1970s
134 / yr
Recent
140 / yr
Wetter on average

Bar Harbor's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1983 to 2013.

42°44°46°48°50°1983: 46.4°F1984: 46.0°F1985: 43.9°F1986: 43.9°F1987: 44.1°F1988: 44.8°F1989: 44.4°F1990: 48.0°F1991: 47.7°F1992: 44.1°F1993: 44.9°F1994: 45.7°F1995: 46.0°F1996: 45.1°F1997: 45.1°F1998: 48.1°F1999: 48.1°F2000: 43.8°F2001: 47.7°F2002: 47.0°F2003: 46.2°F2004: 45.2°F2005: 46.6°F2006: 48.5°F2007: 46.5°F2008: 47.3°F2009: 46.6°F2010: 49.7°F2011: 48.5°F2012: 49.4°F2013: 46.4°Flong-term trend19831990200020102013
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year

Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones. Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope, not a straight climb.

In day-to-day terms, that long-term shift shows up as about 8 fewer freezing nights a year compared with the 1970s.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 23 years of daily observations at Acadia NP, a weather station, about 5 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →