Winter Storm — Coastal Waldo, Maine

2020-04-09 to 2020-04-10 · Coastal Waldo, Maine

Event narrative

Precipitation overspread the Midcoast during the morning of the 9th as mostly rain. Temperatures gradually cooled into the upper 30s, but by late afternoon heavier precipitation moved in, temperatures fell quickly to the lower 30s. Rain quickly changed to heavy snow, and continued moderate to heavy at times through midnight. Snowfall rates exceeded 1 inch per hour at times. Snow quickly tapered off early on the morning of the 10th. Snow totals ranged from 10 to 15 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 878614. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.