A spring storm is battering Maine with heavy rain and winds gusting up to 65 mph.
The National Weather Service has placed most of the state under a hazardous weather outlook through Tuesday night, while a coastal flood advisory and a high wind warning are in place for the immediate coast until the afternoon.
The winds buffeting the state left more than 13,000 without power across the state as of 8:20 p.m., with the highest amount now concentrated in Versant Power’s service area. That’s down from more than 31,000 earlier in the day.
Adam Desrosiers, vice president of electric operations for CMP, said that coastal Maine has been hardest hit with outages but they have been reported further inland as well.
CMP and Versant Power said they are working to restore power to affected Mainers.
Rainfall is expected to be heavy at times, with the strongest downpours falling over Down East Maine, where up to 3 inches may fall by Tuesday afternoon, according to the weather service’s Caribou office.
About 1.5 inches of rain is forecast over Greater Bangor and 1 inch in central Maine. That falls off toward the Canadian border, with about half an inch expected across much of The County.
The storm could produce snow and sleet up to 1 inch, but the greatest snowfall is expected only over parts of the western mountains, where Rangeley is forecast to see up to 3 to 4 inches, while up to an inch is expected in Jackman and less than an inch in Rumford, according to the weather service’s Gray office.
The strong winds accompanying the storm could produce more outages as the storm advances. The gusts on the coast could hit as high as 65 mph, while inland gusts are expected to top out at 30 to 40 mph.