FORT KENT, Maine — Northern Maine’s colorful fall leaves may get tinged with white this weekend thanks to a weather system that could bring up to an inch of snow to the St. John Valley.
“We are looking at a two-tier event,” Joe Hewitt, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Caribou said late Thursday afternoon. “We are projecting rain [on Friday] with a second system that could bring light snow Saturday night into Sunday.”
Temperatures could drop enough to turn any leftover rain Friday night into light snow going into early Saturday morning, Hewitt said, but higher ground temperatures should keep it from sticking.
A second system from the south may bring an inch or less of snow on Sunday to the higher elevations in Frenchville, Fort Kent and the western end of the St. John Valley, Hewitt said.
Earlier forecasts on Thursday of up to 4 inches of snow for parts of northern and central Maine had prompted the weather service to issue a hazardous weather warning for the weekend, but that has since been cancelled, Hewitt said Thursday evening.
“I am going out on a limb and saying we may see an inch or less of snow with this,” he said. “And it really is elevation dependent with areas above 800 feet getting any snow.”
Any snow that does fall will not last as temperatures are expected to rise again next week, Hewitt said, adding that it is not unusual to see snow this time of year.
And there is a scenic upside, he said.
“It will be pretty on the colorful fall leaves,” Hewitt said. “But you don’t want a ton of snow, either.”
