PORTLAND, Maine — A storm moving up the East Coast dealt a blow to New England, with powerful winds knocking out power along with a deluge of rain and warming temperatures that washed away snow and made ski areas more humid.
An atmospheric river transported moisture from the tropics northward and brought heavy rainfall. Utility workers were deployed to deal with power outages after winds were expected to peak overnight on Thursday.
In Maine, nearly 52,000 customers had lost power as of Wednesday evening poweroutage.us. In Massachusetts, nearly 11,000 people were without power.
A deepening low-pressure system was responsible for the winds that battered the region, said Derek Schroeter, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.
Forecasters were concerned bombogenesisor a ‘bomb cyclone’, characterized by rapid intensification over a 24-hour period.
“Is that what they call it?” said Jen Roberts, co-owner of the sporting goods store Onion River Outdoors in Montpelier, Vermont. She lamented that a five-day snowfall that drew ski customers to the shop was washed away, underscoring the region’s fickle weather. “But you know, this is New England. We know this is what is happening.”
Ski resort operators called it bad luck as the holidays approached.
‘We don’t say the ‘r-word’ here. It’s a forbidden word,” said Jamie Cobbett, marketing director of the Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire, which was lashed by rain on Wednesday. “We’re going to have some damp and wet weather today. We will put the mountain back together.”
Skier Marcus Caston was bothered by water, but shrugged it off. “The conditions are actually quite good. The rain makes the snow nice and soft. It’s super fun,” he said while skiing in Vermont’s Sugarbush.
New England wasn’t the only region with wild weather. Heavy lake effect snow was expected through Thursday in parts of Michigan, along the Lake Michigan shoreline, and in dangerously cold areas of the Upper Midwest.
But New England weather brought the greatest variety, with the storm bringing a little bit of everything. Wednesday it started with freezing rain. Then came a deluge of regular rain and warming temperatures — topping 50 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, for example.
Alex Hobbs, a college student from Boston, hoped the weather wouldn’t hinder her plans to return to San Francisco soon. “I’m a little concerned about delays due to heavy winds and rain, and possibly snow,” she said Wednesday.
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Associated Press writers Lisa Rathke in Waitfield, Vermont, Michael Casey in Boston and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.