Thousands of Mainers were without power late Thursday night after a wintry storm hit the state overnight Wednesday into Thanksgiving Day, bringing heavy winds and as much as a foot of snow to some areas.
By 1:30 p.m. Friday, the number of outages had dropped to 3,500, according to CMP. Most of those outages are in Somerset and Piscataquis counties.
Chris Kimble, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Gray, said wind gusts of up to 41 mph were recorded in Augusta on Thursday, while Portland saw a peak gust of 37 mph. Kimble said the winds were expected to diminish slightly on Friday and more on Saturday, but the weather would remain blustery as forecasters were still calling for gusts up to 30 mph on Friday and up to 25 mph on Saturday.
“Today was the windiest, but it is still going to be a bit breezy tomorrow and we are even still seeing strong winds into Saturday,” Kimble said Thursday.
About 7,800 homes and businesses were without electricity late Thursday night, according to reports from Central Maine Power and Emera Maine, which serves northern and eastern Maine. Hardest hit by the storm were Somerset and Penobscot counties, where wind and snow combined to knock out power to 4,593 customers. Another 1,700 customers in Piscataquis County were without power and Franklin County had 1,300 outages. There were only 200 customers without power in Cumberland County.
Snow amounts across the state varied on Thursday, with parts of western and northern Maine seeing as much as a foot of snow while Portland and points south saw no accumulation, Kimble said.
Kimble said Farmington reported 4 inches of snow on Thanksgiving Day, while Rangeley had 7 inches and Houlton had 8.5 inches. The small town of Lakeville in eastern Penobscot County reported 11.5 inches, Kimble said.
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