LEWISTON – Enough already.

As yet another April storm approached Sunday, local residents and business owners eager for more seasonable weather prepared for the mix of heavy snow, rain, and wind that is expected to linger into Tuesday.

By late Sunday afternoon, wet snow was falling in Lewiston-Auburn, but it wasn’t sticking to the streets. By Sunday evening, it was raining in the Twin Cities, but higher elevations – where up to a foot-and-a-half of snow was in the forecast – reportedly were getting steady snow.

As snow and rain swept across the state, Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed an emergency declaration Sunday night.

“We’re concerned about heavy snow, high winds and intense rain. State and local emergency management personnel on are duty, and we are preparing for what could be a significant event,” Baldacci said in a statement.

Police departments in Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties, busy with numerous vehicles sliding off the roads and minor accidents, urged motorists to use caution today.

Francine Richard of Wellman Avenue in Lewiston spent much of Sunday at her Central Avenue property cleaning up after last week’s snow in preparation for this week’s storm.

“The storm season is usually at the beginning of winter,” she said. “It would be nice to start planting flowers and gardens now.”

George Chaisson, co-owner of the Turner Highlands Country Club, is hoping for a May 1 opening for the golf course and shared Richard’s contempt for the late snow.

“My wife and I took a ride around the course about a week ago and there was still snow,” he said. “Since then we’ve had two storms, so we’re pretty much buried.”

“Hopefully mother nature will do it’s job and make the snow go away after this,” Chaisson said.

According to National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Schwibs, Chaisson just may get his wish.

“The snow your area is seeing tonight will switch over to rain tommorow as moist air from over the Atlantic comes inland,” Schwibs said. “By Thursday or Friday, temperatures should be right up around 50 degrees.”

Schwibs expects 2-3 inches of heavy rain to fall around the Twin Cities and melt any snow that accumulated last night.

“The heaviest rain should be over by tommorw night, but people are going to have to watch for urban and basement flooding,” Schwibs said.

A flood watch was in place for Lewiston on Sunday night and Schwibs said the potential for rising waters will last well past the end of the storm.

“Later on this week, snow melting in the mountains could create problems downstream for larger rivers.”

According to Schwibs, the mountain ski areas of Maine will likely see 8-14 inches of snow, which could melt fast with rising temperatures.

Rob Wallace, an employee at Irving Mainway in Bethel who usually sees an increase in business when it snows, reported that the Sunday River area was “really dead” Sunday night.

“With a storm at this time of year, I could take it or leave it,” he said. “It’s just going to make things muddier.”

“The boarders and skiers that have been coming in are saying that even with the new snow, conditions on the mountain aren’t going to be great,” said Wallace.

Besides the wet, slushy precipitation falling over the state, Schwibs said another feature of the storm was strong, gusting winds.

“You can see that this is quite the multi-faceted storm,” he said.

As of Sunday night, the storm wasn’t causing too many problems for Central Maine Power.

“We have less than a hundred outages, all in the Bridgton area,” a spokeswoman said. “But we’re anticipating the strong winds and we’re all staffed up and ready to go.”

People expecting to fly out of the Portland International Jetport today are being advised to call ahead.

“There were some cancellations yesterday and it is very possible that more flights could be cancelled today,” a Portland International Jetport spokesman said Sunday night.