“Rain usually weighs the snow down before washing it away,” Kredensor said, “but we didn’t get enough rain to wash it away.”
As a result, Kredensor says that the weight of snow on unshoveled roofs has increased, making it harder to shovel.
The forecaster adds that this storm presented a rare instance in which ice formed from the rain, despite the air temperature being above freezing.
“One of our night shift forecasters reported that the main roads were all fine, but some of the side roads were getting icy because the road temperatures were still above freezing,” Kredensor said.
County-wide totals were somewhat static, with Caribou receiving two inches of snow, Presque Isle receiving about one, and both cities getting about a quarter of an inch of rain.
Southern Aroostook, according to Kredensor, had less than central Aroostook while the northern towns received a little more.
“Houlton had, at most, a half inch of snow before it switched to about a quarter inch of rain,” Kredensor said. “As of 7 a.m., Van Buren reported 2.5 inches of snow and Fort Kent reported two, but it kept snowing until eight, and they had maybe about a tenth of an inch of rain at the end. It looks like the St. John Valley had an average of two to three inches of snow overall.”
In a related matter, Aroostook County’s electric utility is reporting outages in northern central Aroostook County.
According to a report from Emera Maine, 1,346 customers are without power as of noon on Wednesday, January 11.
In an email from Emera spokesperson Bob Potts, crews are busily responding to widespread and scattered power outages across the region on Wednesday, mostly due to strong winds bringing tree limbs and trees down onto power lines.
“More than 1,300 of those currently out are in Caribou, New Sweden, Perham, Stockholm, Westmanland and Woodland,” Potts said in the report.
“The cause of that outage is currently unknown, but crews are patrolling the lines looking for damage and will make any necessary repairs safely and as quickly as possible to get all customers restored,” he said.
The power company urges drivers of vehicles to slow down or move over and change lanes, when possible, if approaching utility crews working on roadways, to ensure everyone’s safety.
Potts estimated the time power will return should be by 2 p.m., but additional outages due to wind may delay restoration.
