Winter Storm — Coastal York, Maine

2023-01-22 to 2023-01-23 · Coastal York, Maine

Event narrative

Snow began during the evening of the 22nd. Snowfall became moderate at times during the morning of the 23rd. Parts of the southwestern coast remained just on the southern end of a mesoscale band of snow that was nearly stationary through the day. Snowfall had a high snow to liquid ratio, and fell at an inch per hour at times. At the same time the southernmost part of Maine near Kittery mixed with freezing rain and rain at times during the day. Light snow continued into the evening on the 23rd. The wet nature of the snow allowed for weighing down of tree branches which led to approximately 30,000 power outages in the county. Snowfall totals ranged from 5 inches near Kittery to 9 inches near Saco Bay.

Wider weather episode

The second in a series of winter storms over the course of a week developed on the 22nd over the Gulf Coast. Low pressure moved northeastward along the Eastern Seaboard, passing very near the elbow of Cape Cod by sunrise on the 23rd. The proximity of the storm track allowed some mixed precipitation to move in over parts of far southwestern Maine. Farther northwest a pivoting band of moderate to heavy snow brought double digit snowfall to the rest of western Maine south of the Longfellow Mountains. As the storm moved into the Canadian Maritimes snow quickly came to an end during the evening of the 23rd. The combination of the back-to-back storms and wet nature of the snow led to power outages in York County.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1069636. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.