BANGOR, Maine — Snow started to fall in southern and western parts of Maine early Wednesday for the third storm this week, but the heaviest snowfall wasn’t expected to hit the state until after sundown, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s nothing near to the storm we had earlier this week,” meteorologist Mal Walker of the National Weather Service Caribou office said referring to a blizzard that dumped 2 to 3 feet of snow in some areas of the state over Sunday into Monday.
“Right now, we are experiencing light snow on and off,” meteorologist Francis Kredensor said Wednesday morning. “The main body of the storm, we expect, will hold off. The bulk of what we’re forecasting will fall overnight.”
For example, he said, “by 7 p.m. in the Bangor area, we’re only expecting 1 inch.”
Once the sun goes down, however, a low pressure system from the West carrying moisture is expected to intensify and begin dumping snow across the state, especially southern, central and Down East Maine, he said.
While early forecasts called for as much as a foot of snow in the Bangor area, the numbers were dipping by late Wednesday afternoon.
“The trend has been a downward drop,” Walker said just before 4 p.m. “The Bangor area is in for just about 7 inches.”
The forecast was still for totals of 6 to 12 inches in Hancock and Washington counties but much less further north with only 1 to 2 inches expected in northern Aroostook.
The brunt of the storm was expected to hit further south, with the National Weather Service Gray office projecting 12 to 18 inches for Augusta, Lewiston and Rumford with up to a foot in surrounding areas.
Meteorologist Margaret Curtis of the National Weather Service in Gray said parts of southern Maine, especially along the coast, actually saw rain on Wednesday that turned to snow as the day cooled.
“We just had the switch over here, and we had really huge flakes — 2-inch flakes,” Curtis said just before 4 p.m., adding she went outside to see the massive snowflakes that have since disappeared.
“Down here we’ll see as much as a foot to a foot and a half,” Curtis said. “The Bangor area … will really be on the edge of the storm and compared to us, [Bangor] is getting off easy.”
A winter storm warning remained in place for much of the state from 1 p.m. Wednesday until 1 p.m. Thursday, alerting drivers to more blowing snow and reduced visibilities caused by wind gusts of up to 35 mph.
This latest storm comes on the heels of a blizzard that dumped 2 to 3 feet of snow in some areas overnight Sunday into Monday, bringing parts of Maine to a virtual standstill.
While some Mainers were still digging out from the earlier storm, one reader called the Bangor Daily News Wednesday afternoon to express his thanks to whoever had cleared off his car in the parking lot at Bangor International Airport.
“We were dreading it,” Joseph Rahill said of returning at about 11 p.m. Tuesday from vacationing in sunny Florida and expecting to have to dig his car out from under 2 feet of fresh snow.
“I get out there, and it was cleared. Someone had cleared not only my car but 30 to 50 cars” parked in the airport lot, he said. “My girlfriend and I were so happy.”
Rahill drove to his home in Bangor but called airport officials and the manager of the parking lot to thank them Wednesday. No one would take the credit, however.
“The parking lot manager told me it wasn’t him or his crew — ‘must have been a snow angel,’ he told me,” Rahill said.
From New Jersey originally and having lived in Washington, D.C., Rahill added, “This is what makes Maine such a great place to live.”