LEWISTON — Central Maine got its first plowable snowstorm Tuesday, with sleet and freezing rain hitting some areas.

Justin Arnott, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, said Androscoggin County would remain under a winter storm warning until midnight Tuesday, but the storm had already started tapering off in the evening.

It was the first plowable storm of the season, and Lewiston Public Works Director Dave Jones said his staff would have been more than happy to put it off a bit longer.

“I’ve been here since 1999 and I don’t recall any year where we’ve gone this long without a plowable storm,” Jones said. “We’ve enjoyed it, especially after last winter — which was a bear. In fact, most of my guys were saying they didn’t care if we got any snow.”

Jones said plow crews started clearing Lewiston’s major arteries, like Lisbon, Sabattus and Main streets, early Tuesday morning. They’d moved on to larger side streets by midmorning and were beginning to work on neighborhood streets by 1 p.m.

A citywide parking ban went into effect at noon Tuesday and Jones said crews were giving residents a little time to relocate cars parked on side streets.

He said a sidewalk plow had made a pass on downtown Lisbon Street earlier Tuesday. Downtown merchants complained last winter that the plow was not downtown often enough.

“But we did it today as we always do, even when they complained about it last year,” Jones said Tuesday. “It had been plowed last year — it just had not all been cleared away. So we’ve been down on Lisbon Street, and we’ll probably be down again near the end of the day.”

Twin Cities police said they were pleased with traffic from the storm on Tuesday. Neither Lewiston nor Auburn police reported major accidents during Tuesday’s morning commute.

“We only had two crashes, but nothing significant,” Auburn Police Lt. Anthony Harrington said. “We had several vehicles go off the road and some having trouble getting up the hills. But overall, not too bad for our first storm.”

Lewiston Police Sgt. Michael Whalen agreed.

“I don’t think we had any this morning, until the last few hours,” Whalen said Tuesday.

Whalen said police were concentrating on towing cars that violated the neighborhood parking ban Tuesday afternoon.

Arnott said forecasters were predicting a return to seasonable 30 degree highs for the rest of the week, with more precipitation possible overnight New Year’s Eve into New Year’s Day.

staylor@sunjournal.com

More storm coverage: 

• Weather challenges drivers on Oxford County roads
• So this is what winter looks like

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