Widespread power outages were a major concern that New England Storm Center had leading up to this storm, and that scenario has come true. As of 7pm Monday evening, more than 115,000 customers across five New England states are in the dark.
New Hampshire bore the brunt of the outages. As of 7pm, nearly 67,000 customers are without power. Broken tree branches tore down power lines and closed roads across the state. In Bedford, a downed tree sparked a dramatic transformer fire. The state's utility companies Unitil, Eversource and Liberty have brought in extra crews from all around, including Canada and even other New England states not hit as hard.
Pine tree straining power lines in New Hampshire on January 23, 2023. Shared by Unitil.
In Maine, the outages are almost exclusively in the state's southwest corner. 99% of outages are in York County, with the other 1% coming from the neighboring Cumberland county. The scenes in Maine were similar to those in New Hampshire, with downed lines blocking roads. Maine Central Power has crews out clearing roads, and have told residents to give crews space to work throughout the night.
Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut were not hit quite as hard with outages, but, as of Monday evening the three states have a combined 26,000 outages. Central Massachusetts was the hardest hit among these states.
Many utility crews are methodically working through the outages and most outages are still being assessed as of Monday Evening.
With temperatures dropping below freezing across New England tonight, and snow still winding down, there will likely be more outages throughout the night as the snow will be freezing to the trees. The good news is that the hardest hit areas will see temperatures rise above freezing tomorrow, so snow will begin to fall off the branches and ease the strain on the trees.
Live updates for this storm can be seen here. Stick with NESC for complete coverage of everything weather in New England.
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