Welcome to WeatherMaine
WeatherMaine Archives
Welcome to WeatherMaine
March brings a renewed blast of winter to Maine.
A storm that rapidly intensified in the Gulf of Maine brought heavy snow to the interior sections of Maine on the 8th. A relatively unimpressive storm as it approached rapidly gained intensity as it passed right up the Maine coast. The immediate coast had a heavy Ice Pellet event which limited accumulation amounts; inland, however got much more accumulation as the storm brought mostly snow.
|
More Snow for Maine |
|
| > 2 feet | Aroostook County |
| 17 inches | Hartford, ME |
| 12 inches | Bridgton & Windham |
| 5 inches | South Portland |
In addition to the snowfall, this storm brought high winds to the Portland area as it departed. A tight pressure gradient set up over northern New England which brought very gusty winds to Southern Maine.
| Strong Winds in Southern Maine 3/9/05 |
|
| 53 mph (gust) 31 mph (10-min) |
Portland (PWM) (12:51am gust) |
| 49 mph | Lewiston (LEW) |
After a relatively mild January across most of the East, record-cold air poured in from Canada fueling a strong storm and reducing windchills to dangerous levels.
Bangor, Maine reported a record -29°F on January 22nd, which broke the previous record of -28°F set in 1934; -29°F is also the lowest temperature ever recorded at Bangor for the whole month of January. Other areas of Maine experienced extreme cold, a summary is below:
| Winter Cold Snap 1/22/05 |
|
| -29°F* | Bangor (BGR) |
| -28°F | Fryeburg (IZG) |
| -13°F | Portland (PWM) |
| -14°F | S. Portland (WeatherMaine) |
| 1/21/05 | |
| -24°F | Bangor (BGR) |
| -7°F | Portland (PWM) |
The National Weather Service issued Blizzard warnings over the coastal regions of Maine and Hurricane Force wind warnings over the coastal waters. Over a foot of snow fell in most of southern Maine, with mostly around a foot of accumulation. Localized ocean-effect snow bands, occurring right before onset of widespread precipitation, created higher snow totals in some areas of Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough. The deflection zone of the storm was positioned south west of our area; the areas affected by this area of precipitation enhancement received in excess of 3 feet of snow. The extreme cold meant high liquid-to-snow ratios, resulting in a light, fluffy snowfall.
The winds presented additional problems for a wide area of the Northeast. Very strong winds and the powdery snow worked together to undermine the efforts of road crews everywhere. White-out conditions and slippery roads kept all but the most intrepid inside watching the New England Patriots beat up on the Pittsburg Steelers, securing themselves a place in another Superbowl.
High winds created special problems for parking garage owners in Portland. The high winds brought snow into the parking garages, creating very slippery conditions from the lack of road salt (concrete).
Some of the high wind speeds from this event are listed below:
| Maximum Wind Speeds 1/23/05 |
|
| 83 mph | Nantucket, MA |
| 65 mph | Cape Elizabeth |
| 47 mph | Portland (PWM) |
Mainers awoke on the 8th to some serious ice accumulation.
During the night, power outages were common over many areas of Cumberland County. And it was not the morning to sleep-in either, as the overnight freezing rain coated most cars with a thick layer of scraper-breaking ice. The ice also made any walking surface not either sanded or salted virtually impassable.
After the ice accretion, the temperatures rose above freezing during the daytime heating. The Sun's radiation combined with the warm air-temperatures resulted in an interesting melt where the sky was clear but the trees made it seem like it was raining.
For the Portland area, this is the 3rd winter storm of this season. The one prior left about 3.5" of snow at WeatherMaine in South Portland, Maine.
The first snow of the 2004/2005 Winter season fell with not much more than a whimper, in Maine at least.
Like most of the late-season storms last Winter, this storm was held to the south by a High Pressure system nosing down from the Candian Maritimes. The cold air being brought down from Canada made it sufficently cold in southern New England to give some areas in excess of 6 inches of snow. The dome of cold air also worked to keep the storm track south of Maine, resulting in only minimal snow fall totals in the Pine Tree State.
After 86 years, the Boston Red Sox are World Champions!
The 86-year championship drought for the Sox was capped off under the reddish hue of a Lunar eclipse. The weather played a role in the whole post-season, the most notable being a rain-out against the Yankees that put life back into the beleaguered sox.
 |