BANGOR, Maine — Schools, businesses and municipal offices from Fort Kent to Lisbon closed for the day after winter storm Stella dumped at least a foot of snow across the state.
Bangor got 14.2 inches of snow, which is 2 inches less than the record for the day. However, Portland and Concord, New Hampshire set new daily records for March 13, meteorologist Andy Pohl of the National Weather Service in Gray said just before noon.
“Portland set a daily maximum snowfall record with 16.3 inches,” Pohl said. “The previous record was 10.6 inches set in 1961. Concord’s record is a little more impressive. Concord got 15.6 inches and the old record was 6.6 inches set in 1984.
“It smashed it. It little more than doubled it,” the meteorologist said. “It was a pretty impressive storm.”
Bangor, Baileyville, Biddeford and Brunswick schools are just a few that had two-hour delays to allow people to shovel out, according to a list of 329 closing on the Bangor Daily News website. Madawaska, Fort Kent, Swanville, Greenville, Glenburn, Lisbon and others closed for the day.
Caribou got 12.5 inches, 13 inches fell on Littleton and New Sharon received 12.5 inches, but Orono only recorded 11 inches, meteorologist Mark Bloomer of the National Weather Service in Caribou said Wednesday morning.
“Basically, we got a foot across the entire area,” Bloomer said.
The dig out also affected the governor’s schedule, spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett, said in a Wednesday morning email.
“Due to a parking ban in Gorham that is expected to last until tomorrow, Gov. Paul R. LePage’s town hall that was scheduled for tonight has been postponed,” she said. “The town hall will be rescheduled for a later date.”
The deeper snow fell in southern Maine, according to meteorologist Eric Sinsabaugh of the National Weather Service in Grey. Along the coast, snow switched to sleet or rain in some areas overnight, making for heavy early-morning shoveling for some Mainers.
“Portland saw 16.3 inches, Bridgeton came in at 21.5 inches. New Gloucester saw 18.1 [inches],” Sinsabaugh said. “It was just your run-of-the-mill nor’easter.”
Tuesday’s storm travel was so hazardous that some drivers were stranded on Interstate 295 in both directions between Topsham and Freeport Tuesday night, including some Department of Transportation plow drivers.
They escape unharmed, “except their pride,” MDOT spokesman Ted Talbot said Wednesday.
Meteorologists also are watching is coastal tides. The high tide is scheduled to hit at 1:37 p.m. Wednesday, which is when “there could be some splash over” along the coast, Bloomer said.
Wednesday’s sunny start will turn to clouds by mid- to late morning, Sinsabaugh said, adding that some areas may see some late-day snow showers from the back end of the storm.
“It shouldn’t amount to much,” he said.
There is another storm, currently located to the west of the Rocky Mountains, that may bring more snow to Maine, depending on what track it takes, Pohl said.
“The models are completely at odds with each other,” he said. “We’ll be evaluating that to see where it goes.”
If it does track toward the northeast, it would hit Maine “Saturday night into Sunday,” Pohl said.