BANGOR, Maine — The overnight storm that left as much as 17 inches of snow in parts of Maine will make way for subzero temperatures and winds gusting up to 25 mph Saturday night through Super Bowl Sunday, National Weather Service forecasters said Saturday.
Forecasters also are tracking another snowstorm over the Midwest that might leave 6 inches or more in Portland and areas south of the city.
“The biggest deal right now is the blowing and drifting of snow,” National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Foisy of Caribou said Saturday. “There are some pretty strong winds blowing from the northwest, and they are making visibility difficult, especially in the open areas away from trees. It will be down to a quarter mile or lower, at times.
“The snow that we have is light and fluffy and easy to blow around. There will be some really big drifts,” he added.
Snow was still falling Saturday morning from an exceptionally slow-moving storm system that stretched from Bar Harbor to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The storm that began Friday morning wasn’t expected to clear out of Maine until later Saturday afternoon, Foisy said.
Washington County received the most snow on Saturday. Eastport reported 17.3 inches of snow, with Columbia getting 6 inches of snow. Edmunds, Robbinston, Calais and East Machias reported 12 to 14 inches of snow. Sherman led Aroostook County with 10 inches of snow, and the rest of northern Maine reported accumulations of 6 inches to a foot.
State police and county dispatchers reported poor driving conditions but no fatalities.
Temperatures were expected to fall to 10 below zero degrees Saturday and Sunday nights. With wind chill factored in, that will feel like 30 below zero, Foisy said. Winds will still blow 20 to 25 mph.
“It is going to be pretty brutal out there on Sunday,” Foisy said.
If it hits Maine, Monday’s storm is expected to start shortly after midnight and continue through most of the day, said Chris Legro, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Gray. The bulk of the storm was tracking to hit the Atlantic Ocean in the New Jersey and Delaware areas, leaving northern Maine likely to get little more than a dusting of snow and the Portland area accumulating maybe half a foot.
“The good thing about this storm is that it will be cold enough that it will be an all-snow scenario,” Legro said.