Tuesday’s nor’easter brought a late-season coating of snow across Maine, and prompted some wacky weather.
Bangorians started hearing thunder during the snowstorm at around 4:45 p.m., according to the Caribou office of the National Weather Service. The thunder could be heard near the Hermon town line, and lightning was reported.
The thundersnow had been seen traveling across Waldo County at around the same time, according to WGME meteorologist Charlie Lopresti.
Thundersnow, much like thunderstorms, occurs when a cold front and a warm front collide, causing instability in a storm system. It typically occurs when the air is holding a lot of moisture, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm brought heavy wind gusts across much of Maine, with wind speeds reaching 53 miles per hour in Eastport and 51 miles per hour in Winter Harbor, according to the NWS.
Inland, wind speeds reached 48 mph at Bangor International Airport and 40 miles per hour in Greenville, according to the Caribou NWS.
Heavy snow has fallen along much of Maine’s coast, and has left thousands without power on Tuesday afternoon. As of 5:35 p.m., West Pownal officially received 3.9 inches of snow, while Shapleigh saw 10 inches of snow by 5 p.m., according to the Gray NWS office.
Meanwhile, Bangor had received 2 inches of snow as of 5:30 p.m., Hampden reported 5 inches of snow accumulation and East Surry reported 4.9 inches of snow.
To the north, winds in Aroostook County topped out around 35 miles per hour in Houlton, while minimal snow accumulation was reported.
As of 6:10 p.m., more than 10,000 people on Central Maine Power’s grid were affected by outages, while Versant Power reported 2,241 outages.
The majority of Central Maine Power outages impacted Lincoln County residents, with 1,680 outages reported in that service area. Meanwhile, 1,062 Cumberland County residences were affected by outages.