Will This Week’s April Snowstorm Be the Largest in Maine History?

As the chill of winter gradually yielded to the promise of spring over the weekend, Mainers are reminded once again that anything can happen.

Depending on where you live, you could find cars covered under as much as 18 inches of snow by the time this week's storm wraps up. With the snow expected to start falling Wednesday afternoon and possibly not completely moving out until Saturday morning, this one is expected to pack a punch, and unfortunately, bring thousands of power outages along with it.

As resilient as we have become here in Maine, losing power (again) due to a nor'easter, especially in April, is an issue that none of us are looking forward to.

Maine's biggest April snowstorm was back on April 6, 1982. According to WGME, by the time the storm wrapped up the following day, Mainers were left to clean up between 10-20 inches of snow.

Just as you might imagine, communities across the state dealt with treacherous road conditions and heavy snow on the power lines and trees, plunging countless homes into darkness and chill. Schools and businesses also closed, crashing the rhythms of daily life to a halt.

Will we break the record for the largest April snowstorm in Maine history? Well, here's the deal. The storm of April 1982 blanketed the entire state, with some residents getting up to 20 inches of snow.

At the time of writing this article, the map is showing that some interior/mountain areas could receive up to 18 inches. That is only two inches away from the record, and we all know how storms can bring more or less of what's expected, so it's quite possible.

The storm that hit us last weekend ended up being way worse than expected, leaving a lot of us without time to prepare. This one is expected to be similar in the realm of thousands of power outages, so it's best to prepare now with lighting, batteries, fully-charged devices and whatever else you may need to keep life as normal as possible during the massive, inconvenient storm that is expected to whack Maine and New Hampshire.