Much of The County was spared the brunt of the third nor’easter to hit the state in two weeks, though the latest storm dumped nearly two feet on parts of southern Aroostook over two days.
Hodgdon saw the worst of it in Aroostook with 23 inches of snowfall, according to John Cannon, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray.
Weston and Houlton also were hard hit, with 22 inches and 19.5 inches of snowfall respectively. Other areas of The County fared better with snow accumulations of about 10 inches in Fort Kent and 8.7 inches in Presque Isle, and about 5 inches in Lille and Caribou.
The rest of Maine got a least a foot of snow Tuesday and Wednesday. The southern coast, midcoast and central Maine — including Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville — got between 12 and 18 inches.
Peter Gendreau of Ludlow works on making a snowman Wednesday afternoon in Houlton. The massive snowstorm dumped plenty of sticky, wet snow that was perfect for making snowmen. (Joesph Cyr)
The biggest two-day snowfall totals were for Little Lyford Pond in central Piscataquis County and Copeland Hill in Holden just outside Bangor, each of which got 30 inches of snow, according to the weather service.
Many schools and offices, and some businesses closed for part or all of the day Wednesday in Aroostook as people hunkered down at home to stay off the roads.
While The County was spared, the nor’easter caused scattered power outages throughout most of Maine. Central Maine Power had about 8,000 outages at one point while Emera Maine struggled with than about 14,000 outages, mostly in coastal Hancock and Washington counties.
Cannon said Thursday that “pretty much most of the accumulation has occurred. The storm is over but there will still be snow showers for days on and off.”
It appears that winter will be hanging on in Aroostook County at least through March, he added.
“I’m looking out for the next 10 days and I’m seeing below normal temperatures, so there will be no big warm up,” he said.
The latest storm was the third nor’easter to hit the Northeast this month and the biggest of the three in terms of snowfall for Maine.
A March 2 storm battered the New England coast with high tides and powerful winds, knocking out power to an estimated 2 million electricity customers in the Northeast. On March 8, much of Maine got roughly a foot of heavy snow and approximately 27,000 Mainers lost power, most of them in York County.
There may be another nor’easter on the way as well, next Tuesday or Wednesday, the NWS meteorologist confirmed.
“That’s still a ways off, but we are tracking that,” Cannon said. “We’re monitoring it very closely.”
Cannon shared some possible good news for those looking forward to spring, although he cautioned that long term weather outlooks are not as reliable.
“The early indications are relatively snowy and near below normal temperatures for the next week or so, then perhaps above normal temperatures as we get into April.”
BDN writer Bill Trotter contributed to this report.
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- Dave Russell submitted this photo showing the snow slowly overtaking his home at 255 Bangor Road in Houlton. Many homes have seen large amounts of snow pile up in front of their homes from the recent storm and from snow sliding off their roof. (Courtesy of Dave Russell)
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- Mim Weston of Houlton tosses some snow into the air while playing outdoors Wednesday afternoon. The new fallen snow had many local children outside enjoying their day off from school. (Joseph Cyr)
