FORT KENT, Maine — Most Mainers expecting to wake up to blizzard conditions Sunday morning were either disappointed or relieved, as the National Weather Service dropped the expected amount of snowfall over most of the state.
Heavy snow and high winds are still expected along the coast in far eastern and Down East Maine, according to Victor Nouhan, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in Caribou.
On Sunday morning Nouhan said areas of Down East had received around a foot of snow overnight and could see an additional 6 to 12 inches throughout the day.
Snowfall amounts will taper off dramatically moving to the north, he said, with the St. John Valley and parts of Aroostook County seeing only several inches of snow on Sunday.
Previous snow accumulation estimates exceeded 2 feet in much of southern, eastern and central Maine. Nouhan said the snow totals were lowered after the track of the storm’s low took it farther to the east than originally expected. In addition, he said the temperatures in the upper atmosphere remained too cold and dry to produce heavy snow.
Portland television station WGME, CBS 13, reported 21 inches of snow fell in York, but only 2.3 inches in Portland. The NWS reported snowfall in Penobscot County from 1.3 to 3.5 inches. The largest amounts fell Down East, with some towns reporting more than 2 feet by Sunday afternoon.
Throughout the state wind will be the story of the day, Nouhan said, with wind speeds of 40 to 50 mph expected along the coast and 30 to 40 mph further inland.
“So any snow that does fall will blow and drift,” he said. “But with the lesser amounts we are not looking at the extreme travel conditions we had anticipated.”
The speed on the Maine Turnpike was reduced to 45 miles per hour until about 1 p.m. Sunday. As of 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the website for the Maine Department of Transportation said the speed limit on Interstate 95 between Hallowell and the Stillwater Avenue exit in Bangor had been reduced to 45 miles per hour.
Whiteout conditions on Route 1 in Scarborough caused a four-car accident about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sgt. Tim Baker said. The road was shut down for two hours so it could be cleared.
Three of the four cars needed to be towed, he said. Several people were treated at the scene for minor injuries, but no one was take to a hospital.
The state’s power companies were prepared for the blizzard, with plans to add extra crews in the event of power outages. Fortunately, there were few outages reported.
The blizzard forced the cancellation of more than 1,750 passenger flights, most of them into and out of airports in Boston and New York, where gusts of up to 60 miles per hour were predicted. Most daytime flights in and out of Bangor International Airport and Portland International Jetport were canceled Sunday. Flights after 4 p.m. had not been canceled as of 10:30 a.m.
Concord Coach Lines and Greyhound Bus Lines canceled service Sunday. Amtrak’s Downeaster also was canceled.
Ferry services also was canceled Sunday.
Boston’s fourth major snowstorm in two weeks made February the city’s snowiest month since records began, the NWS said.
Boston had seen about 6 feet of snow since late January and had already set a record for the amount of snow in a single week.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker urged drivers to stay home on Sunday and said he was relieved the President’s Day holiday on Monday would give keep traffic down and give more room to the snowplows.
The area’s deepest snowfall on Sunday was the 20 inches recorded in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a coastal town northeast of Boston, said NWS meteorologist Benjamin Sipprell.
CBS 13 reported that a roof collapsed at a carpet business in Seabrook, New Hampshire, Sunday morning.
By early Sunday morning more than 380 cancellations had been listed on the Bangor Daily News website. About half were church-related events or worship services.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland on Friday urged priests and parishioners “to exercise caution and prudence when making the decision to travel to Masses on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.” Canceled Masses will be listed on portlanddiocese.org.
BDN writer Judy Harrison and Reuters contributed to this report.
Watch bangordailynews.com for updates.
