Record Breaking October Snow in Maine

Perennial skeptics, a lot of Mainers took this weekend’s Nor’Easter with an “I’ll  believe it when I see it” attitude.  And see it they did. Most of the state was covered in a record breaking blanket of snow Sunday morning, with totals at the Portland Jetport measuring over 5 inches. This breaks the record for not only the most snowfall in October, the previous record being 3.8 set in 1969.   Though the immediate coast was spared high snowfall amounts, island communities and other coastal areas experienced heavy rain and wind Saturday night and into Sunday morning. 

Heavy, wet snow on trees still laden with fall foliage cause a number of problems including closed roads and widespread power outages. The majority of the outages occurred in the southernmost part of the state, with CMP reporting over 140,000 customers out, while Bangor Hydro, which serves Maine residents further inland reports outages for about 7,200 customers. More outages could occur throughout Sunday afternoon and evening, as high winds continue to pound the state. Temperatures in the 20s predicted for Sunday night certainly won’t help matters any, with melting snow turning to ice. Corey Day of Saco told New England Post that in her area, “It was wet, heavy snow that didn’t amount to much. We lost power briefly during the night but it was back on by morning. The cell tower is having some problems.”

Though many Mainers were caught a bit off guard by the early snow, many are prepared for winter storms, no matter what time

of year. “Sure, it’s a bit early, but we have a generator, and I filled up the tub and some containers with water in case the power goes out.” said Betsy Mahan of Damariscotta.

Charles Griffin of Warren reported 3-4″ of snow. Griffin was relieved he’d listened to the weather reports and told New England Post, “I’m glad I moved a weeks worth of wood into the basement yesterday.”

With highs near 50 predicted for Monday, it’s a pretty safe bet to say that Trick or Treaters will be able to leave their snow pants at home, and with any luck parents will be able put away shovels and snow blowers for at least a few more weeks.

Posted by kate kastelein on Oct 30 2011. Filed under Featured - For home page featured article, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry