On January 4th, the coast of Maine was rocked by a blizzard causing the worst flooding the state has seen in almost 40 years.
The effect was seen and felt most distinctly in Portland as the third highest tide of all time was recorded, at a whopping 13.79 feet. The subsequent flooding was caused by a “perfect storm” of events. The first being that there was nearly a full moon at the time, causing higher than average tides. In addition to this, the blizzard contributed plenty of additional water from snow melt. This expressed itself in two ways. The first being that the tide itself was bolstered by additional water while the tide was building. Secondly, once the tide made landfall, snow present on the ground melted and only increased the flooding seen. The last element contributing to the flooding was the storm surge associated with the weather system that brought the blizzard. As low pressure systems travel across open water, sea levels swell due to the lack of pressure.
The historical context of Maine should be considered as well. Portland, and much of the area affected by this flooding, lies on the Gulf of Maine. For roughly 200 years this body of water has been experiencing rapid sea level rise, due to a number of factors, mainly the climate warming being experienced in many parts of the world. With the Gulf of Maine experiencing this sea-level rise, flooding events like this will become more frequent. The infrastructure currently in place to deal with these type of events isn't designed to cope with rising sea levels and its consequences. For instance, as storms such as the one seen on January 4th travel over the Gulf of Maine, they generate larger storm surges than previously. This, along with other contributing factors, then leads to the extreme flooding felt in Portland.
This flooding had a widespread impact on the area. The Portland Pier was left submerged and local business and buildings reported up to 3 feet of water in there establishments. Many streets were blocked off with police telling people operating vehicles not to attempt to brave the streets. On a more macro-level, experts feared that the flooding had the potential to erode beaches and damage coastline infrastructure. There were also lingering fears about how resilient the coastline could be after dealing with all this damage. If another major storm event had hit, the damage could have been exponentially worse.
Sources:
Russel, Eric. “Storm Triggers Maine's Worst Tidal Flooding since Historic Blizzard of 1978.” Press Herald, 5 Jan. 2018
Photos provided here.
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Gehrels, W. Roland, et al. “Rapid Sea-Level Rise in the Gulf of Maine, USA, since AD 1800.” The Holocene, vol. 12, no. 4, 2002, pp. 383–389.
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Very interesting! I was just wondering if the city of Portland has any plans to better or fix their current infrastructure or are they thinking of creating a more stable and efficient one so events like this aren't as disastrous? Also, do you think that something similar this could become more common in your area or along the coast in general?
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