High Wind — Coastal Waldo, Maine

2019-10-17 · Coastal Waldo, Maine

Event narrative

Strong wind gusts in the early morning hours of the 17th led to downed trees and power lines across coastal Waldo County. Local mesonet weather stations measured wind gusts ranging between 45 and 55 mph. Across Maine nearly 200,000 power outages were reported.

Wider weather episode

On the evening of October 15th a sharp upper trough dropped through the Upper Midwest, with surface low pressure moving into the Great Lakes. As the primary low pressure began to occlude on the 16th secondary low pressure development occurred on the Mid Atlantic coast. When the upper trough became negatively tilted the secondary low pressure rapidly deepened and tracked through New England overnight into the morning of the 17th. Low pressure ultimately bottomed out at 972 mb. Prior to the secondary low pressure occluding a strong low level jet lifted northeast across the coast of New England with strong wind gusts overnight on the 16th into the 17th. Uprooted and snapped trees along with downed limbs caused significant power outages along coastal Maine. Total power outages for the event in the state peaked around 200,000 customers without power.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 861797. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.