Heavy Snow — Interior Waldo, Maine

2019-12-02 to 2019-12-03 · Interior Waldo, Maine

Event narrative

Little snowfall occurred December 1st through December 2nd, with precipitation remaining too far south. 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 in the heavy bands exceeded 1 inch per hour at times. Around midday the dry slot moved into parts of the Midcoast and snow lightened up and mixed with sleet or freezing rain at times. This kept storm total snowfall on the lower side, generally ranging from 4 to 7 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 860563. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.