FORT KENT, Maine — Not since his days as a lineman on a Montana cattle ranch in the early 1970s has Harry Snyder seen snowdrifts like the ones forming outside his Whiting home this weekend.
“Back then, I was snowed in for three days before they could get to me,” he said Sunday afternoon. “I was a lot younger then, and it did not bother me so much.”
Washington and York counties were ground zero for the weekend snowstorm that dumped up to 2 feet of snow in places while leaving much of the rest of the state with only a few inches.
“The storm was farther out to sea than expected, so a good chunk of the area did not see much snow,” Maureen Hastings, forecaster at the National Weather Service in Caribou, said Sunday afternoon. “There was a lot of coastal influence [on Saturday] that could explain why the extreme ends of the state saw the most snow.”
As of Sunday afternoon, Robbinston reported the highest snowfall total, with 25.4 inches, Hastings said.
Elsewhere in Washington County, Lubec reported 24 inches, Eastport reported 23.2 inches and Charlotte reported 19 inches. Snyder’s town of Whiting reported 18 inches of snow by Sunday afternoon.
“York County also got hit hard,” Hastings said.
York Beach reported 24 inches of new snow, Kennebunkport gained 18 inches, Kittery Point gained 17 inches, Ogunquit gained 17 inches and Old Orchard Beach gained 15 inches.
“Even in those places that did not get a lot of snow there were blizzard conditions due to the winds,” Hastings said. “People have had a hard time getting accurate snowfall totals because it’s been drifting so badly. We are getting reports of drifts 6- to 9-feet deep.”
The Weather Service early Sunday reported a sharp gradient between snowfall totals moving from south to north and east to west.
Portland, which instituted a two-day parking ban set to end Monday morning in anticipation of a major snow event, recorded just 2.3 inches of new snow by Sunday evening, Hastings said.
Bangor and Sherman received 3.5 inches and just under an inch had fallen in Caribou as of 1 p.m. Sunday, she said.
The wind was the big statewide story with the storm, Hastings said, with Eastport reporting a gust of 57 mph Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
“Many places were seeing winds in the 40 to 50 mph range,” she said.
The snow was expected to wind down over eastern Maine on Sunday night as the storm shifts into New Brunswick, Hastings said, and winds will remain gusty into Monday, reaching 30 to 35 mph.
Temperatures also are expected to remain on the low side, with northern Maine remaining below zero into Monday and areas to the south reaching 10-degrees for the day’s high.
Over in Whiting, Snyder said the snow was tapering off Sunday afternoon.
“I only had to shovel an inch off my walkway just now and not the 4 feet I shoveled this morning,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of acreage, but if we get more snow I’m not sure where I am going to put it.”
Looking ahead over the coming week, Snyder may be out of luck. Hastings said the state’s weather remains in an “active pattern,” with conditions setting up for possible snow events through the weekend.
