An overnight storm dropped a half foot of snow in most areas but by midafternoon Friday, weather mayhem was mostly at a minimum.
No widespread power outages were reported. At its worst, Central Maine Power reported 1,796 by Friday morning. By the middle of the afternoon, that number was whittled down to 460 outages.
City crews kept on top of the storm and streets in the Lewiston-Auburn area were bare of snow by late Friday morning. By then, area schools and municipal offices had already declared snow days so more people sat the storm out at home.
By New England standards, the storm was ho hum. Even the snow totals were not enough to wow many people, although skiers and snowmobilers were happy to see some snow.
Steve Vurnakes of Auburn has been hankering to use his new snowmobile, purchased just last year. But last year’s mild winter followed by this early winter’s paucity of snow has kept his machine mostly parked.
“Tuned and cleaned it up, rode it a few times around the yard and down to the lake during the derby,” he said. “Then the snow left.”
About 2:30 p.m., the National Weather Service in Gray released a list of snow totals. Most areas got between 5 and 7 inches. In Auburn it was 5, in Lewiston 6 inches fell.
Leslie Miller shovels her driveway Friday in Auburn. “We really did get spoiled,” Miller said about the lack of snow earlier this winter. “I thought we would get away with it this year, but it looks like it will catch up with us over the next week.” Miller moved to Auburn from Texas, and her new workmates laughed at her when she thought out loud that we would not be getting any snow this winter. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
Some parts of Oxford County, including Otisfield, Brownfield and Norway, saw 7 inches or slightly more of fresh snow. At the Portland International Jetport and some surrounding areas, more than 7 inches were reported.
In Kennebec County, slightly smaller amounts were recorded. In Waterville, 5.5 inches of snow were reported, with similar amounts in Hallowell and Augusta. Some parts of the county, including Farmingdale and Whitefield, saw fewer than 5 inches.
Snow continued to fall throughout the day Friday but no significant accumulations were expected. It was a lighter snow, not as wet as what fell earlier in the storm.
The latest storm is over and there’s just enough time for cleanup before the next round of storms come plowing in. The first of them is expected Sunday night and into Monday. What is expected with this one? There’s a chance for up to 8 inches of snow in the Lewiston-Auburn area and regions in the western part of the state, although forecasters acknowledge that there’s still a chance the storm will not move that far inland.
Whatever amount of snow falls early in the week, it’s expected to be heavy and wet, creating more back aches for power crews and anyone who has to go out and shovel it.
As though winter means to make up for its mild start, storms are also possible on Thursday and then next Saturday.
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