Many area schools remained closed Wednesday as residents in central Maine spent the day digging out from a storm that dropped upward of 20 inches of snow in some parts of the region with more on the way.

The highest recorded snowfall in the state was in Sanford in York County, where the National Weather Service reported 31.5 inches of snow.

Storm totals varied in different parts of central Maine, with 30 inches in Greene, 22 inches in Farmington, 20 inches in Solon and nearly 17 inches in Winslow. The weather service did not have a specific snowfall total available for Waterville or Augusta.

High wind led to drifts that left snow on some roads, and plow crews remained at work in the area on Wednesday. The state was back open on Wednesday except for legislative committee work, but central Maine schools from Skowhegan to Richmond were closed for a second day.

“It was a very impressive storm,” said Bob Nardi, who was shoveling out the sidewalk in front of his house on Burleigh Street in Waterville on Wednesday. “It was nice to stay inside and watch it snow.”

Temperatures topped out at 23 degrees on Wednesday and it will be clear tonight and sunny on Thursday before another snowstorm on Friday that could drop 6 inches or more of snow in central Maine. That’s a significant total, but “nothing like what we had yesterday,” said Michael Cempa, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gray.

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While little damage was reported, there were several downed tree reports during the afternoon in the Madison-St. Albans area.

A winter storm watch posted Wednesday afternoon by the weather service calls for snow to begin Thursday night, with heavy snow possible during the day on Friday in western and central Maine. Cempa said snow could also come Monday, but it’s too soon to tell how much.

With state offices, schools and many businesses closed on Tuesday, there were few cars on the roads and few reports of car accidents or storm-related damage. However, an eight-vehicle pileup that involved a Gardiner ambulance closed both rotaries on state Route 3 near Interstate 95 in Augusta for about 30 minutes just before 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

Maine State Police Sgt. Blaine Bronson said two cars were stopped between the rotaries during a period of poor visibility. The ambulance, behind them and taking a patient to nearby MaineGeneral Medical Center, couldn’t stop and knocked one car into the other. A truck ran into the ambulance and another truck hit that truck. Then, Bronson said two other vehicles saw the crashes and stopped, but an eighth vehicle ran into them, narrowly missing a cruiser occupied by the sergeant. No injuries were reported.

“It was like watching a bad video game,” Bronson said.

But in Waterville, Mark Turner, the city’s public works director, said “there was low traffic and not a lot of activity so that made it easy for us” to clear roads. A citywide emergency parking ban that had been put in place at midnight Tuesday was lifted at 6 a.m. on Wednesday.

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“The storm mostly occurred during daylight hours, so the visibility wasn’t as bad as it could have been at night,” Turner said.

A similar ban in Augusta was extended through 6 p.m. Wednesday. Lesley Jones, Augusta’s public works director, said crews came in at 3 a.m. Tuesday and would work through Wednesday night — more than 36 hours straight when finished — to clear and dump snow.

“It’s still cold, so we’re still working on the slush and the snow accumulation that the traffic is mealing up,” Jones said.

On Wednesday morning, many Waterville residents were shoveling and plowing driveways and sidewalks. Outside the Waterville Public Library with school out on Wednesday, 16-year-old Ryan Madore was going into his fourth hour of shoveling sidewalks as a library subcontractor.

“The snow is pretty light. There’s just no place to put it,” he said.

Turner said some of his crew actually enjoyed the storm, “because we don’t usually get this much snow to push around.”

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Peter Bolduc, an independent plow operator in Waterville, said he had been extremely busy since Tuesday morning. By 10 a.m. Wednesday, he had been out plowing for 10 hours with few breaks. “I’m getting tired,” he said. “So far I’ve plowed all my customers out at least once and am on the second round.”

In Somerset County, there were few reports of accidents or storm-related damage, according to Emergency Management Director Mike Smith.

“There were a few small power outages, but it was an insignificant amount compared to things we’ve seen in the past. There were maybe 30 or 40 residents without power for a short period, but CMP was right on top of it,” Smith said. There were some minor reports of trees and wires down, but for the most part people stayed off the roads, Smith said. Many roads were still partially snow covered during the day, but overall conditions had improved, he said.

The storm added significantly to snowfall totals for the season, but still leaves most of the state behind snowfall totals for last year.

“Despite the 20 plus inches of snow, we’re still running behind last year,” said Cempa, of the weather service. “We haven’t had a lot of storms between that one in November and now, although we did make it up a little bit in one storm.”

Michael Shepherd — 621-5632

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mshepherd@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @MikeShepherdME

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368

rohm@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @rachel_ohm


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