THE WEATHER BEAT · OCT 30

Gardiner's wettest day on record: 8.3 inches of rain on October 30, 1886

On October 30, 1886, the Gardiner, Maine, gauge measured 8.3 inches of rain, the wettest day in our archive and the oldest record it holds for this date.

By the Weather Rock October 30, 2026, 8:20 p.m. · 2 min read

GOES satellite view of the event region — Afternoon satellite view of Maine on October 30, 2026, over the Gardiner gauge that set its wettest-day record on October 30, 1886. Image: NOAA GOES-East GeoColor via NASA GIBS, 2026-10-30 20:00Z.

Key points

On October 30, 1886, the Gardiner, Maine, gauge measured 8.3 inches of rain in one day. That is the wettest day on record there in our archive.
The record is the oldest one our archive holds for this date. It is also the first year of the gauge's span, which runs 1886 to 2025.
Ten Maine towns sit near that gauge, and the figure comes from our archive of NOAA daily station reports. It still stands.

On this date in 1886, also a Saturday, the rain gauge at Gardiner, Maine, collected 8.3 inches in a single day. In our archive that is the wettest day ever recorded there. The gauge's span begins in 1886, so this is a record from the opening year of the station's history. No day since has beaten it.

The Kennebec River town of Gardiner is not alone in sharing that gauge. Our archive matches ten Maine towns to it. They are Gardiner, Randolph, Farmingdale, Chelsea, West Gardiner, Pittston, Richmond, Litchfield, Whitefield and Monmouth. The gauge sits closest to Gardiner and Randolph. Chelsea is the town page that carries the record with us.

Our archive does not give the storm a name or a cause, and this story does not give one either. All the archive says is that an October day in 1886 outdid every wet day since.

Date	Town	Gauge	Record	Record with us
Oct 30, 1886	Gardiner ME	Gardiner	8.3 in, wettest day	1886 to 2025

*Source: myweatherrock's archive of NOAA daily station records (GHCN-Daily), station USC00173046.*

Look at the last column. The record sits at the very start of the span. The next time a soaking autumn rain comes to central Maine, check whether the gauge ever gets close to the number in the table.

This is a look back at a historic weather day, not emergency information. For current conditions and warnings see weather.gov and your local officials.

The rock's live forecast for the places in this story