Bottom pressure measurements, coastal synthetic subsurface pressures, and wind stresses, derived from operational wind measurements throughout the Gulf of Maine, are used to explore the seasonal wind-forced response of the gulf. Barotropic pressure fluctuations throughout the gulf are highly correlated all year (>0.75) and even more so in the winter (>0.85), with more than 90% of the variance explained by the relevant mode 1 empirical orthogonal functions (EOF). Both the pressures and the wind stress variability are concentrated in the 2- to 10-day weather band, with typical winter wind stresses (0.10 Pa) about 5 times more energetic than those in summer (0.05 Pa). Pressure fluctuations are highly correlated with 255¿--75 ¿T wind stress fluctuations. Typical gulf-scale westward wind stress fluctuations force general gulf-scale increases in the sea level pressure of about 10 eq cm in winter and about 4 eq cm in summer. The spatially averaged gulf pressure response to westward wind stress is 92¿6 eq cm Pa-1 in winter and 83¿8 eq cm Pa-1 in summer. The Gulf of Maine wind stress-forced pressure variability was numerically modeled using the Dartmouth linear, homogeneous, three-dimensional (3-D), finite element diagnostic model (FUNDY 5). A series of 36-hour-averaged, spatially variable, optimally interpolated operational wind stress patterns was used to force model sea level pressure time series, which looked like observations and explained about 40% of the observed variance. The model provided detailed information on the linkage among the fluctuating near-westward (eastward) wind stress-forced surface Ekman transport into (out of) the gulf, the compensatory outflows (inflows) around Georges Bank, and the intensified flow along the western coast of the gulf. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union