Flood in Maine, December 18, 2000

Record warmth and very heavy precipitation also accompanied the low tracking through the St. Lawrence River Valley. The record warmth rapidly melted much of the early season snowpack. In addition...winds upsloping into the mountainous terrain of the region produced orographically enhanced rainfall totals of 3.00 to 4.00 inches...with some locally higher totals. The combination of runoff from the melting snow and heavy rains led to rapid rises on area rivers including the Piscataquis River and the Kingsbury Stream. The rapidly rising waters caused a break up of some of the early season river ice which had begun to form...leading to several ice jams.The combination of increased river levels and ice jams led to areas of flooding along the Piscataquis River and some of its tributaries. Although the Piscataquis River at Dover-Foxcroft crested around 10.1 feet...just below the flood stage of 11.0 feet...some spillover onto low lying areas bordering the river did occur around Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford. Another ice jam on the Kingsbury Stream near Abbot Village caused some spillover onto low lying areas...including the Back Abbot road which had to be closed for a time. The receding waters left large chunks of ice on the road which had to be cleared before the road could be re-opened. Although the flooding subsided...the ice jams froze in place with the return of colder air and will likely persist through the rest of the winter.