When I saw the new run of the computer models and the European and the GFS and the NAM (all names for our models) pointed to another plowable to major snowstorm my heart kinda sank.  I guess we can consider this a 24 hour reprieve between big systems.  As if that wasn’t fun enough, more snow is possible Tuesday night or Wednesday from a clipper type system.   That could bring several inches ahead of the milder air for later next week.

I am going to keep this blog rather short this evening.  We all know what these storms bring at this point. There are some unique aspects to every storm.  This is going to be a quick hitting storm which happens in about 12 hours between 4PM Saturday and early Sunday morning.  The storm will still rage for the first few hours after sunrise Sunday over Down East Maine.   The snow totals are going to increase dramatically from Portland to Penobscot bay where nearly a foot could fall.   Some places in far eastern Maine could approach 2 feet if the storm track and intensity are just right (or wrong depending on your perspective)

The map you see is based on a very specific track to the storm and the fact it explodes into a very large storm very quickly.  This process of rapid intensifying storms is called “bombogenesis” and it’s a specific meteorological term.   For a storm to undergo this kind of development the pressure needs to fall 24 millibars in less than 24 hours.  As this happens to a storm, it becomes very large and creates a lot of wind.

Winds offshore are going to reach around 50 knots and seas will increase to over 20 feet!  These numbers are for the offshore waters, not for the harbors, but are indicative of the strength of the upcoming storm.

The snow will be heaviest from 8PM until 2AM and at times there could be blizzard like conditions over parts eastern Maine and perhaps the island communities east of Bath.

The snow is going to be light and fluffy, but get blow around a lot.  Winds will be strong with the storm and there could again be scattered power outages from this quick hitting nor’easter.  Cold weather returns behind the system for two days.  Highs Sunday and Monday only reach the 20s.  Tuesday night or Wednesday, we have the next storm with more snow or snow and rain, this looks to be light.  I’ll have details over the weekend.  It does turn milder after that and I promise highs reach at least the 40F by the end of the week. 

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