CARIBOU, Maine — Anyone who has Martin Luther King Day off on Monday will likely spend it clearing away between 10 and 20 inches of snow from an expected nor’easter, according to the National Weather Service in Caribou.
Mal Walker, meteorologist at the NWS in Caribou, said Thursday that forecasters are still watching the radar, but most of the state will be under a large swath of a major snowstorm late Saturday night and throughout Sunday.
“This is going to be a very intense storm,” he said. “It is being caused by a low pressure system moving out of the Ohio valley and up along the coast.”
He said snow totals will depend on the storm track, but that there is a chance that places such as Caribou and Bangor could see 20 inches of snow by the storm’s end.
Greater Bangor can expect nearly as much snow to fall this weekend as has fallen so far this season. Walker said 32.6 inches of snow have fallen over Bangor through Thursday, compared with Caribou where 78 inches have fallen.
That snow will be accompanied by bitterly cold temperatures in the single digits in the north to the low teens south toward Bangor, according to the weather service.
“We have to stress that we would not want anyone on the roads,” he said. “Travel will be extremely dangerous, with heavy snow, blowing and drifting snow, and whiteouts in some areas. People should stay off the roads, because there will be travel problems.”
Walker said that Aroostook County could still see some impact from the storm on Monday and even after the snow tapers off, snow will continue to blow and drift on Monday as high winds whip across the state.
