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FARMINGTON – While only eight inches of snow or less fell across much of the county Monday, residents could be forgiven for thinking it had been a lot more. Swirling winds, including gusts measured at 40 mph, piled up drifts and created white-out conditions throughout much of the day.
The storm was forecasted as primarily a coastal storm and generally followed those predictions, dumping significant amounts of snow in southern Maine. In western and northern Maine, however, colder air prevented the storm from bringing larger snowfall totals further north.
Sheriff Dennis Pike, who is also a NOAA weather observer, said he had to rely on totals derived from the meltdown formula, as the high winds made a simple yardstick measurement difficult. Pike said he measured a wind gust at 40 mph today, noting that Franklin County seldom sees gust out of the 30s. By way of comparison, Pike said the most powerful gust he had ever measured was 44 mph.
Central Maine Power prepared for the storm by readying extra crews, but relatively few outages were reported across the state and only a handful in Franklin County. Cold temperatures prevented wet snow from forming on the lines.
“Broken limbs and fallen trees cause most of the outages in storms like this, but so far, the temperatures have stayed low enough to keep the snow from sticking on the trees,”
John Carroll, CMP spokesman, said earlier today as part of a prepared statement.
Most state government functions were shut down Monday, with Governor John E. Baldacci declaring a State of Emergency Sunday evening. The governor cited predicted blizzard conditions, including poor visibility and drifting snow, in his statement.
“The National Weather Service is warning of extremely dangerous conditions,” the governor said, as part of the announcement. “The best advice is to avoid all unnecessary travel, to stay off the roads and allow road crews and emergency responders to do their work.”
While no new, significant snowfalls are anticipated, a Blizzard Warning remained in effect until 6 p.m., due to high winds creating whiteout conditions on roads and highways.
