The winter season of ’07-’08 should arrive with a wallop tonight.

“With things as cold as they are, it looks like we will be getting over a foot in a lot of places,” said Art Lester, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray.

Temperatures in the 20s will combine with “some pretty good” Northeast winds to give the snow a big “fluff factor.” This will be a light, powdery snow, so blowing and drifting will be an issue, Lester said Saturday night.

Temperatures at the beginning of the storm tonight could well be in the teens, but will linger in the 20s for most of its duration.

The storm is expected to begin around midnight today and continue through Monday night. Lester said predictions call for the heaviest snowfall during the day Monday.

Snowfall around the state will be fairly uniform, the meteorologist said. “A lot of times there is mixing (of rain and snow) at the coast, but there is nothing that looks like that this time,” Lester added.

This is the same system that wreaked havoc in the Midwest on Friday and Saturday. Lester said the Arctic air in place over Maine will prevent development of any ice or freezing rain.

– Heather McCarthy