Heavy Snow — Interior York, Maine

2019-12-01 to 2019-12-03 · Interior York, Maine

Event narrative

On the evening of December 1st a band of heavy snowfall lifted out of Massachusetts into extreme southwest Maine. The band stalled before getting very far into York County. Snowfall totals overnight were highest south of Route 202. Snow showers an occasional mixed precipitation continued through the day on December 2nd. The majority of the accumulation came on the 3rd as surface low pressure retrograded into the Gulf of Maine. Several bands of heavy snow developed and rotated westward over western Maine before weakening. Snowfall rates during the mid morning hours exceeded 1 inch per hour at times. Storm total snowfall generally ranged from 5 to 16 inches.

Wider weather episode

A closed upper low progressed across the northern half of the U.S. with multi-center surface lows pinwheeling around it. One surface low approached New England on the evening of December 1st. A band of heavy snow moved into extreme southwestern Maine before stalling and weakening early on the 2nd. Snow with occasional mixed precipitation continued off and on through the 2nd across extreme southwestern Maine with surface low pressure stalled near the 40N/70W benchmark. On the 3rd a strong shortwave trough approached from the northwest and surface low pressure once again deepened and retrograded into the Gulf of Maine. This led to the development of several bands of heavy snow on the 3rd that rotated westward across western Maine through the day. Eventually these weakened and moved east, bringing snow to an end.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 860554. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.