LEWISTON – Critter has cabin fever.
That’s the No. 1 worst thing about this year’s snowy winter, according to Critter, aka Norman Gene Child Sr.
“I get stuck inside, and I’m getting sick of it,” Child said.
He was out Friday morning collecting cans and trying to get himself settled in time for one more storm. Forecasters are calling for another 10 to 20 inches of snow from the storm that blew into Maine Friday night. Flurries are supposed to continue through the weekend.
“It call it cabin crazy,’ and I’ve had enough,” Child said.
He has plenty to be crazy about, according to the National Weather Service. This storm puts Maine on a record-setting pace for snowfall.
As of noon Friday, Portland recorded 89.6 inches of snow this season, nearly twice the 46.7 inches that fell last winter. That’s according to the National Weather Service in Gray, which has been totaling the snowfall in Portland since the winter of 1881-82.
The worst snow season was in 1970-71, when 141.5 inches was recorded. The lightest was nine years later, when only 27.5 inches was logged.
So far, the state has received a lot of snow, but nothing too radical, said Art Lester, a meteorological technician with the Gray weather office.
This winter so far ranks 28th for snowfall amounts in the 123 years that records have been kept. That doesn’t include this weekend’s snow, however. About 10 inches is forecast for the Portland area. Even more – 10 to 20 inches – is predicted to fall in Lewiston-Auburn.
“We could break the top 15,” Lester said.
Mike Marcous of Leavitt Avenue wasn’t all that worried on Friday. He was shoveling out the walk in front of his house for the second time since Wednesday’s storm – city street plows buried his walk after he dug it out the first time – knowing full well that he’d be at it again in 24 hours.
“I’m 40 years old,” he said. “I need the exercise.”
This is Maine, after all, and it snows in Maine. It just makes more sense to keep a good attitude and keep digging, Marcous said.
“And get a snowblower,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve minded shoveling at all since I got my first snowblower, and that was in 1997.”
Others, like Florence Houle of Horton Street, just carry on no matter what the weather is like. Houle normally bicycles all over Lewiston collecting bottles and cans for the nickel deposit, no matter the weather.
“I do like the snow better than the ice, because I have to walk my bike more on the ice,” she said.
Houle said it’s also more difficult to pick bottles and cans from the trash when they’re covered with snow. But she has managed so far, she said Friday, on her way to cash in the bottles and cans before the storm.
And for mail carrier Jean Samson of Lewiston, the weather beats the heck out of a humid, 90-degree day.
“I don’t deal well with the heat,” Samson said. “The snow is no problem. You just deal.”
Staff Writer Dan Hartill contributed to this story.
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