Flash Flood — Somerset, Maine

2023-06-29 · near Lake Parlin, Somerset, Maine

Event narrative

Heavy rain fell across Enchanted Pond just south of Jackman between 5 and 7 PM, bringing a radar estimate of 4 inches, most of which fell between 530 and 6 PM. This torrential rainfall caused a small retention pond in the hills above the lake to collapse. The resultant debris flow included uprooted trees and boulders, along with high flowing water around 3 feet deep. A campground located below the hill sustained significant damage.

Wider weather episode

During the afternoon of June 29th, showers and thunderstorms developed across the western Maine Mountains and foothills. While most of these storms moved from southwest to northeast, a few remained stalled over the same location for multiple hours leading to radar estimated rainfall of over 3.5'. With some very localized areas approaching estimated rainfall of up to 5'. Over 2' of this rain occurred in one hour. While two trained weather spotters in Rockwood, Maine, reported 3.45' and 3.72' of rainfall, respectively, there were no trained weather spotters or automated rain gauges near the location of the heaviest rain surrounding Jay. The heavy rain fell in less than 6 hours and led to extensive run-off which caused erosion damage of secondary roads and flooding of primary roads. Numerous road washouts and road closures occurred in Jay and surrounding towns with additional road closures and washouts further to the northeast in Somerset County in the vicinity of Brassua and Moosehead. Considerable flash flood damage occurred in Jay which was the hardest community. Additional flooding was reported in remote areas of Somerset County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (45.4493, -70.1890)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1109519. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.