Extreme cold breaks created "frost quakes" in northern Maine
Feb. 4—Overnight temperatures throughout Maine plummeted to double digits below zero, with hefty wind gusts causing an extreme cold Maine hasn't seen in decades.
In northern Maine, it was so cold there were reports of "frost quakes" or cryoseisms, which can sound like an earthquake. Frost quakes happen when the temperature falls so quickly that the moisture in the ground freezes and expands, creating a loud explosion noise, Stephen Baron, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray said.
In Portland, the overnight temperature dipped to 14 degrees below zero with a wind chill of 45 degrees below, said Baron.
Portland's cold came close to breaking a record, 16 degrees below in 1957, Baron said. There is no wind chill recorded that low "so it could be a record," Baron said.
Wind gusts were powerful early Saturday, with the peak wind speed measuring 44 miles per hour in Portland. Wind gusts were similar through much of Maine.
The wind was diminishing at daybreak Saturday, however, gusts will remain throughout Saturday.
As of 8 a.m., the temperature in Portland was eight degrees below with a wind chill of 31 degrees below.
In other parts of Maine, overnight lows were 17 degrees below in Augusta and Gray, and 24 degrees below in Greenville. Greenville appeared to have the coldest temperature recorded without considering wind chill.
In Caribou, the overnight low dropped to 21 degrees below with a wind chill of 52 degrees below. "It was one of the coldest we've had," said NWS meteorologist Nathaniel Clark.
In New Hampshire's Mount Washington, the cold broke records with an overnight low of 46 degrees below zero, and a wild chill of 108 degrees below zero according to the Mount Washington Observatory.
The emergency warming center at the Salvation Army in Portland had 92 people overnight, said spokeswoman Jessica Grondin, up from 62 people who were at the shelter at 7 p.m.
To accommodate more people at the shelter the city opened, additional chairs were added which take up less space than cots, Grondin said.
City park rangers checked homeless camps Friday and Saturday doing wellness checks and urging people to go to shelters.
The cold also resulted in some power outages during the night.
Maine Central Maine Power Co. reported there were 1,767 outages as of 9:40 a.m. Saturday, the most in Somerset County where 1,035 customers were without power. Outages numbered 412 in Oxford County, and 49 in Cumberland County, according to CMP.
The extreme cold will soon go away, with more normal winter weather on Sunday when temperatures will rebound into the 30s, getting near 40 degrees, Baron said.
This story will be updated.
