Blog Article
Rural Maine Out-Scores Tucson in Today's Nice Weather Rankings
Small Maine towns post the nation's highest comfort scores today, edging out Tucson and Las Cruces, while a 90-day Nice streak runs through the Sacramento Valley.
Freedom, Maine Just Out-Scored Tucson, and Almost Nobody Noticed
If you glanced at a map of today's nicest weather, your eyes would go straight to the desert Southwest, same as always this time of year. And that instinct wouldn't be wrong. But it would miss the actual top of the leaderboard, which is sitting quietly in rural Maine.
The Desert Southwest Is Doing What It Does
Tucson (91.8), Las Cruces (92.0), Sierra Vista (92.0), and Prescott (92.0) are all sitting at Beautiful today, riding dry high pressure with near-zero rain chances, light winds, and mostly clear skies. Flagstaff joins them at 81.9. This is the honest, dependable September script for the high desert: warm days, comfortable dewpoints in the 40s and 50s, and a sky that just won't quit. Portland, Maine and Dover, New Hampshire also crack the day's top ten at 92.0 apiece, which is your first hint that something's going on up in New England too.
But the Real Top of the Leaderboard Is in Rural Maine
Here's the part that would surprise almost everyone. Look past the big-city rankings and into the full nationwide list of today's best scores, and you find towns like Freedom (97.6), Palermo (97.4), Liberty (97.1), China (97.0), Morrill (96.9), Somerville (96.5), Dayton (96.4), Buxton (96.3), Hollis Center (96.2), Waterboro (96.1), Windsor (96.0), Shapleigh (95.8), and Alfred (95.7). Every single one of those numbers beats Tucson's 91.8 and ties or edges past Las Cruces and Prescott's 92.0.
The scene behind those numbers is exactly what you'd want from a fall Saturday inland Maine: mostly sunny skies, fall-like highs in the 60s, and air dry enough that mornings feel genuinely crisp rather than damp. It's porch-coffee weather, apple-orchard weather, high school football weather. And on paper, it's outscoring the desert.
Same Ceiling, Different Reasons
Here's the twist. Despite those higher raw numbers, those Maine towns land in the same Beautiful category as Tucson and Las Cruces, not a tier above. Nowhere in the country reaches the top Perfect tier today. In the desert, the blockers are specific and named in the forecast discussion: UV running 7.2 to 7.6 at Tucson, Las Cruces, and Flagstaff, and an average air quality index of 44, both just over the strict thresholds required for the top category. The same style of gate is likely at play up in New England's zone, where the broader air quality reading also runs above that Perfect-tier ceiling even though the sky and wind numbers are nearly flawless. Score high enough and you still don't clear the bar if the fine print says no.
Meanwhile, Sacramento's Neighbors Haven't Had a Bad Day All Summer
While Maine quietly wins the day, a different kind of streak is running through Northern California's interior valleys. Fairfield, Antioch, Napa, Suisun, Rio Vista, Vallejo, Vacaville, Sacramento, Stockton, Elk Grove, Roseville, Citrus Heights, Livermore, Tracy, San Ramon, Pleasanton, Folsom, Arden-Arcade, American Canyon, and Green Valley are all sitting on 90-day live streaks at Nice or better. That's not just a long run, that's the entire window this tracker has been keeping score, dating back to June 22. As far as this data goes, these towns simply haven't had a bad-weather day all summer. Several of them, including Rio Vista, Sacramento, Stockton, Elk Grove, Roseville, Arden-Arcade, Citrus Heights, Tracy, and Folsom, even touched Perfect as recently as August 29.
Where the Good Air Heads Next
The pattern doesn't sit still. By Sunday, the spotlight swings to the central Rockies and Intermountain West as a departing low gives way to building high pressure. Albuquerque, Tucson, Boise, Salem, Eugene, Hillsboro, Missoula, and Olympia all climb to Beautiful, with scores at or near 92.0 and dewpoints in the mid-40s.
Monday keeps the desert Southwest and Northern Rockies in the mix (El Paso, Tucson, Las Cruces, Missoula, Great Falls, Grand Forks, Minot, Butte, and Helena all Beautiful again), before the pattern shifts west for days 4 through 7. Los Angeles, Phoenix, the Bay Area, and the Central Valley start dominating the top-city lists through midweek, though everything that far out is capped at Nice by the forecast-day rule regardless of how clean the underlying numbers look, so treat that stretch as a decent bet rather than a lock.
Worth Knowing Before You Head Out
If you're in the desert Southwest chasing that Beautiful air, plan around the UV. Index values in the 6s and 7s mean real sunburn risk by early afternoon even with a comfortable temperature. Dry air spreading into the Southwest and Intermountain West this weekend is also nudging fire danger higher where vegetation has cured, something the forecast discussion flags directly for the days ahead.
Elsewhere, the loud story remains loud. WPC has a moderate risk of excessive rainfall draped across the Midwest and Ohio Valley today, and the Storm Prediction Center has a slight risk of severe storms from the central Plains into the Colorado Front Range. If you're at Shaky Knees in Atlanta or Sea.Hear.Now in Asbury Park this weekend, you're dealing with thicker cloud cover and a marginal storm risk rather than anything close to the nation's best sky, even if you stay dry.
For a live, day-by-day look at exactly where the nicest air is sliding next, our Nice Weather outlook page tracks all of this as it updates.