Winter Storm — Southern Somerset, Maine

2020-04-09 to 2020-04-10 · Southern Somerset, Maine

Event narrative

Precipitation overspread southern Somerset County during the morning of the 9th as mostly rain at the lower elevations, and some snow in the mountains. Temperatures gradually cooled into the upper 30s, but by late afternoon heavier precipitation moved in, temperatures fell to the lower 30s, and rain changed to snow. Snow continued into the very early morning hours of the 10th heavy at times as a band set up over the area. As low pressure pulled away snow quickly tapered off early on the morning of the 10th. Snow totals ranged from 7 to 12 inches.

Wider weather episode

An upper low pressure ejected out of the Southwest and reached the East Coast by the 9th. A strong jet streak exiting the Mid Atlantic coast with a coupled jet to the north helped initiate intense secondary cyclogenesis along the New England coast. Pressures in the center of the storm fell over 30 mb in 24 hours by the time it reached peak intensity near Penobscot Bay on the 10th. This storm spread snow over interior areas with rain at the coast. By the afternoon of the 9th rain flipped to heavy, wet snow generally along a north of a line from the White Mountains to Portland, Maine. As snowfall approached and exceeded 4 inches downed limbs began to cause power outages. Where snow exceeded 6 inches the power outages were significant with 100,000 outages reported.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 878609. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.