Flash Flood — Franklin, Maine

2023-06-29 · near North Chesterville, Franklin, Maine

Event narrative

A concentrated area of 3 to 6 inches of rain fell across southern Franklin County during the afternoon of June 29th into the early evening hours. Between 400 pm and 700 pm, a stalled thunderstorm brought 2 to 3 inch per hour rainfall rates which peaked between 430 pm and 600 pm where most of the rain fell. These rains fell across previously saturated soils and hilly terrain. Flooding developed quickly and the hardest hit community of Jay had considerable damage. More than a dozen roads sustained significant washouts and were closed to traffic. Several major roads including Routes 4, 140, and 133 in Jay were damaged. A bridge was washed out on Macomber Hill Road and another in Woodman Hill Road in North Jay. Several homes were cut off for an extended period of time due to complete washouts. The majority of the damage was to infrastructure from roads to public sewer systems, however some property damage was incurred to driveways, yards, and basements. The following roads in Jay were reported flooded; Route 133 between Farmington and East Jay Road, Route 156 between Davis Road and Soules Hill Road, Franklin Road between Hyde and Beedy Roads, Old Jay Hill Road, Intervale Road, Macomber Road near Lomie Rivers Road, Murphy's Lane washout, Davenport Hill Road major washouts, Canton Mountain Road major washouts, Look Brook Circle major washouts, 900 Block of East Jay Road, and Keep Road.

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 → (44.5895, -70.1239)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1112698. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.