By staff reports

Maybe Old Man Winter is slightly deranged.

Unseasonably warm weather threw a monkey wrench into winter festivals around the state Saturday, while at the same time offering Mainers the rare opportunity to run around in T-shirts in mid January. By nightfall though, winds were whipping through the region with enough intensity to down trees and power lines, leaving about 3,000 area homes in the dark.

“It’s kind of odd having a winterfest with no snow in 50 degrees,” said Paul Tucker, who was attending the first Welcome to Winter festival in Lewiston. “But I’m not complaining.”

Others weren’t so resigned. Hundreds of snowmobilers at the annual Rangeley Snodeo had to hobble around on partially frozen lakes and gravel roads.

“This year (stinks),” said Brian Wargo, a man from Connecticut who’s been to the Snodeo for the past 11 years.

A group of anglers hoping to ice fish on Lake Anasagunticook lost all their gear when their ATV broke through the thin surface ice earlier this week. They were back looking for the gear Saturday, without luck.

And over in New Gloucester, a little unexpected darkness couldn’t come between 135 hungry people and their baked beans. Despite the loss of power around 5:30 p.m., the crowd at the AMVETS Post 6 supper dined at first by emergency lights and then by full illumination, thanks to a generator (hurray for gas!). Fortunately, the beans were already cooked; the generator was at hand because the post is a designated shelter for the town.

The post was one of the 7,500 power outages Central Maine Power was tracking at 6 p.m. Kevin Howes, a spokesman for CMP, said winds began to pick up about 5:30 p.m. and reports of outages began soon thereafter. By 9:30, the number of customers without power fell to 7,200 with about 288 in the Bridgton service area, 724 in Farmington and 1,800 in the Lewiston service area.

“We’ve got crews out working to restore everyone’s power,” said Howes.

He said he expected the worst of the winds associated with a cold front moving through the region would be over by 8 p.m., although elevated areas could continue having winds as high as 47 miles per hour through the night.

Besides the wind, the cold front brought temperatures more typical of mid January. Forecasts called for overnight temperatures in the teens, with the wind chill bringing them down into the single digits.

Quite a difference from Saturday, where the high temperature in Lewiston-Auburn was recorded at 55.4 degrees – a mere .6 off the record of 56 degrees set in 1902.

To one pedestrian observing the swirling debris on a downtown Lewiston street, the wind and the warmth were more than he could fathom.

“It’s just wacky.”