A heavy band of snow moved through the state late Tuesday, dumping about 7 to 9 inches of snow in central Maine.
Much of the snow that fell across the state came during a “thunder snow,” with snow falling at a rate of several inches per hour during the night and early morning hours.
“You know how hard it can rain during a thunderstorm. This was essentially the same, except snow,” said Tom Hawley, of the National Weather Service in Gray. “It can snow very hard during a thunder snow.”
The weather service reported 7.5 inches of snow in both Augusta and Waterville, 8 inches in Oakland, 8.7 inches in Litchfield and 9 inches in Monmouth.
Hawley said there may be some lingering off-and-on snow showers Wednesday, but the accumulating snow has moved out of most of the state.
In Portland, 6.7 inches of snow were recorded at the jetport.
The speed limit was reduced to 45 mph for the entire length of the Maine Turnpike. No major accidents were reported early Wednesday.
Police in and around Kennebec County responded to a number of reports crashes overnight, though no serious injuries were reported. The crashes continued long after the snow stopped Wednesday morning as drivers struggled with slush and snow-covered roads.
The crashes included a pair of rollovers in Readfield and Winthrop. In Readfield, a driver lost control on Fogg Road. The crash occurred around 9 a.m. when a car skidded and rolled over before coming to a rest, Fire Chief Lee Mank said. The driver, the only person in the vehicle, was treated at the scene for minor injuries but was not taken to the hospital. The car had to be towed away.
Another driver escaped injury a couple hours later in Winthrop when a 2005 Toyota Matrix skidded out of control on Metcalf Road. Winthrop police Chief Ryan Frost said the car slid across the centerline and rolled onto its side in the ditch. The driver, the only person in the car, was not hurt but needed help from a Department of Transportation employee and a Winthrop police officer to get out of the car.
In Skowhegan, Road Commissioner Greg Dore said about 7 inches of snow fell overnight Tuesday. He said it was an easy storm to plow, even with the Highway Department’s 2008 International dump truck and plow down with a broken cam shaft.
“We didn’t have any problems, other than being short a truck,” Dore said. “The snow was light and easy to move and it didn’t get overly slippery. It was a pretty easy storm.”
The National Weather Service is predicting another snowstorm Friday night, into Saturday, but Dore said it was too early to worry about that on Wednesday.
“There’s a potential for a good size storm, but it’s a little far away to make any predictions now, I guess,” he said.
Meteorologists say the storm could bring snow or a mix of snow and rain to Maine on Saturday morning. Hawley said models are indicating another storm, but it’s too soon to say exactly how it could track.
“It could be all snow or partly rain,” he said. “There’s a chance it could miss us. We’ll see what happens.”
Staff writers Craig Crosby and Doug Harlow and Portland Press Herald staff writer Gillian Graham contributed to this report.
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