The Winter snow season got off to a strong start with a major East-coast 'Nor-Easter'.

This storm impacted many parts of the United States East Coast, bringing snow from the Mid-Atlantic states into Canada. This storm was a classic example of a true Nor-Easter with secondary redevelopment. Media outlets gave the term 'One-Two Punch' to this storm, since it brought snow in two distinct intervals. The primary storm dipped into the Gulf-Coast region and had good upper-level support. The primary storm brought an early snow to our Nation's capital, while the secondary storm brought snow to the Northeast. This storm was occluded by the time it reached New England. Occluded lows occur when the Cold front 'reaches' the Warm front, resulting in a relatively homogeneous environment and limited frontal dynamics. This can also be called a Neutral Occlusion. This resulted in the moisture and upper-level dynamics (Jet Streaks) being displaced to the East of Maine. This limited the snowfall totals along the coastal regions.

The interior regions of Maine had enhanced snowfall due to the location of the 'deformation zone' and to Upslope flow. The Deformation zone is defined as 'The change in shape of a fluid mass by spatial variations in the velocity field, specifically by stretching or shearing.' The upslope winds are winds that blow over terrain of increasing height. This results in oragraphic lifting and essentially 'squeezes' water out of the air, resulting in enhanced precipitation amounts. This Nor-easter had a fairly well-defined 'eye' in the visible satellite imagery. Also of note was a tropical system in the Atlantic (December is not in "season" for tropical systems). This tropical system was later absorbed by the Westerlies in the trough from which this storm got its upper-level support.

Snow fall totals over the region were extremely variable. Here in South Portland (Coastal Cumberland County- zone 24), we only got about one foot of snow, while Bridgton (Interior Cumberland- zone 19) officially got 32.1 inches of snow! The jackpot of snow in this storm was located in the Mountainous regions of Maine and New Hampshire. Rangely, Maine got 41.0 inches of snow, while Pinkham Notch in New Hampshire got 52 inches of snow in this one storm! Also of note with this storm is strong winds. Mount Desert Rock reported a wind gust of 82 mph!