PORTLAND, Maine — Storm track has not been our friend the last two times in Maine. "Inland runner" tracks pull waves and wind in an unfavorable direction, creating significant to major impacts, especially when they happen back-to-back. All of us would much rather have snow this time of year, but that’s not been the case consistently yet. The winter season of 2023-24 has already been one of the worst, if not the worst in history for storms. Let’s discuss what is happening.
An "inland runner" or "inside track" storm is a reference to low pressure moving inland instead of up the coast or just off the coast like a coastal storm or nor’easter typically would. I wouldn’t say these are happening more frequently, it’s just been bad luck, especially when lined up with the King tide like the last one. A King tide is one which the highest tide of the month happens on that day.
The map shows a nor’easter track that gives us a northeast wind, something that rarely brings major power outages unless you have very high wind and heavy, wet snow.
Looking back on Jan. 10, 2024, you see the radar and cloud picture. For part of the state, this was the worst coastal flooding they’ve ever seen. I’ll get to more of that later…
No two storms are the same, but a nearly identical low-pressure system took a similar track on Jan. 13, 2024. The cold front becomes occluded as it catches up to the warm front, but the damage has already been done. A southeast wind helps to push the waves and water up onto the coastline of Maine. It’s the worst possible scenario based on how the coastline of Maine is situated.
Record high water levels were set on both dates thanks to the destruction of natural defenses, like sand dunes. It didn’t take a strong low-pressure system to put many communities over the edge for the Jan. 13 storm. We were sitting ducks without flood protection. Think of it like the USS Enterprise stranded in space with no shields or engine power. A Klingon bird of prey is locked on with torpedoes and there is nothing we can do about it.
The preliminary numbers are in, and they are staggering. Observed water levels for Bar Harbor and Cutler came in at the all-time highest. Calais and Bangor ranked 2nd all time and Eastport reached their 4th highest water level.
Portland, Maine’s tide gauge beat the 1978 blizzard with a 14.57’ measurement during high tide Saturday. That’s an all-time high that no one has ever seen before.
Storm tide is the combination of predicted tide, anomaly (King tide), and storm surge. All you had to do was add a few feet of surge onto the King tide and the records were shattered. Bad timing for a storm that wasn’t necessarily the “strongest” by way of pressure.
It all turned out to be a record-setting few days along the coast of Maine.
It was so bad at Fishermen’s Point in South Portland that the nearly 100-year-old fishing shacks were pulled into the ocean.
Soon it will be time to rebuild before the next "inland runner" comes our way.
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