Power Outage in Livermore, ME

The second in a series of winter storms over the course of a week developed on the 22nd over the Gulf Coast. Low pressure moved northeastward along the Eastern Seaboard, passing very near the elbow of Cape Cod by sunrise on the 23rd. The proximity of the storm track allowed some mixed precipitation to move in over parts of far southwestern Maine. Farther northwest a pivoting band of moderate to heavy snow brought double digit snowfall to the rest of western Maine south of the Longfellow Mountains. As the storm moved into the Canadian Maritimes snow quickly came to an end during the evening of the 23rd. The combination of the back-to-back storms and wet nature of the snow led to power outages in York County.

January 22, 2023

On December 16th low pressure develop near Chesapeake Bay and slowly moved northeastward along the coast to a position near Nantucket late in the day. Eventually low pressure moved into the Gulf of Maine on December 17th and continued towards Nova Scotia. Despite a climatologically favorable track for significant snowfall, the antecedent near surface air mass was marginal for snow south of the mountains. Temperatures aloft were cool and supportive of snow, but rain mixed in south of the foothills. Due to the heavy wet snow, significant power outages occurred across interior Maine with 80,000 outages reported. Oxford, Franklin and Somerset Counties were impacted the hardest. There was a significant upslope and elevation component to snowfall totals when precipitation finally came to an end on the 17th.

December 16, 2022

Strong Wind. Gusty southeast winds through the day on October 14th along with heavy rain caused numerous snapped branches and a few downed standing dead trees. Power outages in Southwest Maine peaked at 69,500 outages during the afternoon hours when the peak wind gusts were occurring.

October 14, 2022

A southeaster storm brought widespread gusty winds to Maine that downed branches and a few trees causing power outages to the region. Winds remained below high wind warning criteria but gusts mostly in the 40 to 50 mph range along with heavy rain still downed numerous branches and trees causing scattered power outages across Coastal and Western Maine.

October 14, 2022

Drought. On the August 2nd drought monitor, Androscoggin County was 24% in severe drought and 66% in moderate drought. By the end of the month, 9% of the county was in severe drought, 26% in moderate drought, and 64% abnormally dry. The improved designations were the result of scattered heavy rainfall. The rainfall for the month ranged from 3 to 5 inches. ||The state of Maine activated its Drought Task Force in July 2022. Several towns instituted voluntary water restrictions. Hydro operators balanced needs of lake levels, hydroelectric power generation needs, and the discharges to maintain stream flow needs downstream. Most of the reported water quantity issues were from southern and coastal areas. Farmers without irrigation experienced stressed vegetation from a lack of rain and above normal temperatures in July. First-cut hay crop was near normal, but subsequent hay growth was slowed. Most streamflow stations in central and southern rivers with 30+ years of record were between the 10th-25th percentiles compared to normal.

August 01, 2022