GRAY — Keep your shovels handy for snow on Saturday, no joke.

An April Fools’ Day storm is expected to hit.

Some predictions are calling for 5 inches, others up to 10 inches.

“It won’t be crippling,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Hawley said, but it could bring the potential of power outages.

Hawley, who said he did his fair share of April fool jokes — “Mom, it’s snowing” — is predicting just 5 inches for the Lewiston area.

Channel 13 meteorologist Charlie Lopresti’s forecast is calling for up to 10 inches in the Lewiston-Auburn region.

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The “jackpot” is going to be 12 to 18 inches of snow in higher terrain between Nashua and Keene in New Hampshire, while interior sections of southern Maine can expect up to 10 inches.

Snow will start falling by 9 p.m. Friday and continue into Saturday afternoon, ending between 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

“It’ll be heavy and wet,” Hawley said. There’ll be significant weight on trees and power lines. The coast could get some snow and rain.

An April snow doesn’t happen most years, “but it’s not unusual,” Hawley said. The record for Maine was 15 inches on April 10, 1906, and 14 inches on April 6, 1982.

Whether the storm dumps 5 or 10 inches, it will pile onto the already high amounts of snow this winter. Any winter that gets 10o inches or more “is quite a bit,” Hawley said.

Most parts of Maine have surpassed the 100 inches.

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For Gray, a typical winter snowfall is about 84 inches. “This year Gray’s had 109 inches,” Hawley said.

In Poland, the average is 76.5 inches, this year Poland has received 106.4 inches.

Those inches don’t include rain. “That’s all snow.”

Saturday’s snow shouldn’t last too long.

Sunday will be nice, mostly sunny with highs in the mid to high 40s.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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