On Feb. 2, 1976, Groundhog Day, some wicked weather lashed the state of Maine. Last Tuesday was the 40th anniversary of what has come to be known as the “Groundhog Gale.”
This was a particularly intense area of low pressure, made so by a jet stream configuration which suctioned air away at the top of the troposphere, which is the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the layer in which our weather occurs. so that more air at the surface could rush in. This storm blasted Bangor with a 90 mph wind gust, and it even went triple digits, 115 mph at SW Harbor on Mt. Desert Isle! (The minimum threshold to be called “Hurricane Force” is 65 knots, or 74 mph) But it wasn’t just the fierce wind, it was the wind direction which was the key to the flooding. The wind was blowing from the southeast, piling up water along the Maine coastline, and when the incoming tide arrived, that extra water came with it, aided by the wind, pushing it along, right up Penobscot Bay, and right up the Penobscot River.
A true storm surge made it all the way up to Bangor, which is about 20 miles inland from the head of Penobscot Bay! That’s right, the water that flooded Bangor so suddenly, had come all the way in from the ocean! At around 11 o’clock that morning, water started spilling out of the Kenduskeag Stream channel, which cuts through the center of Kenduskeag plaza in Downtown Bangor. In only 15 minutes, the surge had submerged 200 cars while reaching depths of up to 12 feet. The fact that it reached maximum depth in only 15 minutes, officially classifies Bangor’s surge flood also as a flash flood.
In the early 2000s, I had the chance to interview Charlie Hart, who got to see the entire event unfold from a front row seat, the 2nd floor of the bank where he worked, looking right onto the stream. Mr. Hart told me that at first the water was just slapping over the banks of that concrete channel, but then, all of a sudden, “the water was just pouring over”. Incredulously, he watched, as the water swiftly rose, all the way to within 3 feet of his feet, and just then, a green VW Bug floated out from directly below him and sank.
Bangor was not the only location impacted by this powerful storm, and if you would like to red the full USGS report on the storm, it can be found at this website: https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1087
Here is an excerpt from that report:
“The unusually high water resulted from a tidal storm surge caused by prolonged strong, south-southeasterly winds which occurred near the time of astronomical high tide. In Bangor, the resulting flood was the third highest since 1846 and is the first documented tidal flood at Bangor. Within about 3 hours, the floodwater had receded with the outgoing tide.”
Do keep in mind, if you ever move elsewhere, that *any* tidal river is susceptible to storm surge. The Potomac River flows through my hometown of Alexandria, Va., and Hurricane Isabel, in 2003, pushed water right up the Chesapeake Bay, and right on up the Potomac, causing significant flooding in Alexandria.
By the way, Maine’s Groundhog Gale set a record at Caribou, a record which still stands, for lowest barometric pressure, WAY DOWN THERE, at 28.26”. The Low 28s is a big deal, seldom seen in “these here parts”.
Ted Shapiro holds the Broadcast Seal of Approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. An Alexandria, Va. native, he has been chief meteorologist at WAGM-TV since 2006. Email him at tshapiro@wagmtv.com.
