A Christmas Eve rainstorm is expected to wash away the snow.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

Don’t put those umbrellas and rubber dingys away just yet. Apparently, the weather grinch has decided Maine needs some more rain.

Bob Marine, a National Weather Service forecaster in Gray, said the rain, which will be heavy at times, will start during the morning of Christmas Eve. Scattered rain showers are forecast for Christmas Day.

“What snow we have left on the ground will probably be wiped out,” Marine said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s going to rain everywhere, including in the mountains.”

That’s not all.

Besides rain, temperatures will rise into the high 40s Wednesday, and remain in the mid 40s Christmas Day, causing considerable snow melt.

Fog will also develop as invading warm air cools over snow on the ground, Marine said.

Those facts, and the predicted 1 to 1.5 inches of rain, has forecasters guessing about what flood-damaged towns in Oxford and Franklin counties can expect.

“We’re taking a wait-and-see approach, because it’s very hard to predict ice jams. They can suddenly move downstream and get caught up in a bend in a river,” Marine said.

The problem is a slow-moving storm that’s heading into St. Lawrence Valley. Marine said it would allow a south-southeasterly flow of warm air to spread over the state.

“There’s going to be snow melt in the mountains and the rivers will be coming up. But the big question is, are we going to have ice jams developing again?” he asked.

Marine couldn’t yet say if the weather service would issue a flood watch for western Maine.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, flood watches had been issued for most of northern Maine from Wednesday through Christmas Day.

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