Winter Storm — Central Interior Cumberland, Maine

2023-03-14 · Central Interior Cumberland, Maine

Event narrative

Rain changed to snow for most of southwest Maine the morning of the 14th. Snow struggled to accumulate quickly during the day, but as the sun angle got lower in the afternoon snowfall rates became moderate to heavy at times. Snowfall totals ranged from 5 to 8 inches for most locations, but were lower near I-95 and Sebago Lake.

Wider weather episode

Low pressure developed off the coast of the Carolinas early on the 13th. The low deepened rapidly overnight into the morning of the 14th. The storm became occluded off of Cape Cod and retrograded into the Gulf of Maine, where it stalled through the morning of the 15th. Given the later season nature of the storm, precipitation type was highly dependent on elevation and time of day. Snow began earlier for higher elevations, and it took until late afternoon and early evening for lower elevations to change to accumulating snowfall. Heavy, wet accumulations and gusty winds led to scattered power outages, with widespread outages across the Mid-Coast region. Power outages peaked at 80K+ with most of the outages near the coast. After the storm occluded the precipitation intensity came down quickly and remained off and on snow showers into the 15th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1090584. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.