Winter Storm

Caribou, Maine, Had a Foot or More of Snow on the Ground for a Record-Shattering 132 Consecutive Days

At a Glance

Caribou, Maine, had a foot or more of snow on the ground every day from Nov. 30 through April 10.
This was a record for most consecutive days with a 12-inch snow depth or greater.
The streak ended Tuesday morning when the snow depth was measured at 7 inches.

Monday was the 132nd consecutive day with a snow depth of a foot or more in Caribou, Maine, but the streak came crashing to a halt Tuesday.

Snow depth, which refers to the amount of snow on the ground, was down to 7 inches as of 8 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning in this northeast Maine city. Prior to Tuesday, the last time Caribou had less than 12 inches of snow on the ground was Nov. 29, when 7 inches was also the early-morning snow depth.

This shattered the previous record of 120 consecutive days with a foot or more of snow on the ground, set during the winter of 1968-69. Weather records in Caribou date back to 1939.

(MORE: Where Winter 2016-17 Set Records)

On April 1 and 2, a snow depth of 24 inches was measured at Caribou Municipal Airport, the 10th-highest on record for the month and the most snow on the ground on any April day since April 9, 2014, when 24 inches were also measured.

This is due to 23.6 inches of snow that piled up in March, led by 15.2 inches March 14-16 from Winter Storm Stella, along with an average temperature of 20.1 degrees – 4.4 degrees below average for the month.

(FORECAST: Caribou, Maine)

There was actually more snow on the ground to end March (27 inches) than there was to begin the month (22 inches). Snow did not melt easily with temperatures as cold as they were.

As of April 11, Caribou has received 121.6 inches of snow this season.

Based on 1981-2010 data, Caribou averages 111.9 inches of snow, so this winter will finish 9.7 inches above average if no more snow accumulates. Caribou averages 8.3 inches of snow in April and 0.5 inches in May, so additional accumulating snow is not out of the question.

(MORE: 7-Day Rain/Snow Forecast)

It's not only northeast Maine – a large swath of northern New England still had a deep snowpack as of April 10, according to the Northeast regional snow analysis by NOAA's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center.

Northeast Regional Snow Analysis
This is the estimated snow depth as of 2 a.m. EDT April 10.
(NOAA/National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center)

Northern Maine into New Hampshire's White Mountains have the deepest snowpack, and several inches remain on the ground in the higher elevations of Vermont's Green Mountains and New York's Adirondack Mountains.

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The snow cover is easily visible on NASA's Worldview visible satellite, as depicted by the white areas in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York's Adirondacks and, to the east of Maine, parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.