CARIBOU, Maine — Whiteout conditions produced by Monday’s high winds caused accidents up and down the county — six in Caribou alone.
A Van Buren couple was seriously injured during whiteout conditions on U.S. Route 1 when their car crashed headon with a tractor-trailer.
Josh Bresett of Van Buren and his wife, Heather, were being treated in Bangor and Caribou hospitals for serious injuries as of Monday. The driver of the tractor-trailer and Bressett’s infant son were not injured in the crash.
Authorities have linked the accident to zero visibility with blowing and drifting snow, and that blowing snow topped 48 miles per hour in Caribou — 47 in Presque Isle and Houlton.
Caribou’s snow depth is currently around 18 inches, according to Meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Caribou Victor Nouhan, and that wind-beaten snow made for dense drifts.
Nouhan explained that the snow was relatively lightweight when it first fell, but the flakes lose their hexagonal structure after a lengthy period of high winds and become more like round circles, plates or columns without much air left between them — and tightly packed snow means solid drifts.
“That’s the reason people were struggling to shovel out the drifts,” Nouhan explained, “They were really packed.”
Whiteout conditions in an Aroostook winter aren’t uncommon — Nouhan said the region experiences one or two every winter — but the duration of the windy weather that started over the weekend was uncommon, occurring maybe once every three to five years.
Nouhan also added that the high winds were caused by a steep pressure gradient and strong winds aloft during daylight hours.
