Much of Maine awoke to an intense whiteout Thursday, as a massive blizzard pummeled the state with what is expected to amount to a foot of snow in most places.
Snow that start falling late Wednesday isn’t predicted to stop until Thursday afternoon and evening, according to the National Weather Service. As of 8 a.m., the worst was over, as the bulk of the snow had already fallen, leaving a scattered range of 7 inches to 18 inches already on the ground, forecasters said. Bangor is predicted to get about 11 inches.
The storm gained strength overnight, greasing the roads before the morning commute, as wind gusts churned the flakes aloft and restricted drivers’ visibility.
“This morning’s commute will be the worst of it,” Rich Norton, a meteorologist with the weather service in Caribou, said. “It’s still going to be snowing at lunchtime, but then it should let up. There’ll be a lot less falling snow.”
The hazardous road conditions have forced dozens of schools, businesses, and government offices to close or delay openings across Maine on Thursday. All state offices are closed. Speeds along the Maine Turnpike have been reduced to 45 mph between Kittery and Augusta.
As of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, the late-winter storm had knocked down power lines and caused outages that left nearly 21,000 people in southern Maine without power.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Nor’easter bears down on Maine, causing widespread closures and outages,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Callie Ferguson, please follow this link to the BDN online.
