Tens of thousands of Mainers were left without power Saturday night as the state’s first major snowstorm of the season swept across the state, dumping several inches of snow on central and western Maine.
The National Weather Service in Gray put a winter storm warning into effect Saturday morning that will remain in effect until 1 p.m. Sunday.
According to the National Weather Service, snowfall is expected to accumulate at “1 to 2 inches an hour” with winds “approaching 40 miles per hour” through the night.
Many Mainers were already feeling the impact of the storm late Saturday afternoon.
As of 4 p.m. Saturday, more than 23,000 Central Maine Power customers were left without power, including 6,000 customers in central and western Maine. Within an hour, the total number of customers without power jumped to 45,000. By 9 p.m., 170,928 were left in the dark.
Meteorologist Michael Cempa said that in the Lewiston/Auburn area, there was a sudden shift from rain to snow around noon on Saturday, the result of a rapid drop in temperature.
Cempa said that from South Paris down into interior York County, “we’ve been getting reports of 1 to 2 inches of snow an hour.”
“That’s pretty fast accumulation,” Cempa said. “We expect everything to stay snow until Sunday, unless you live near the coast.”
While the winter storm warning will remain in effect until 1 p.m. Sunday, Cempa said that he expects “any significant snow to wind down by daybreak on Sunday.”
“You might see some light snow here and there later Sunday, but it’ll dwindle down pretty quick,” he added.
Auburn Police Sgt. Chad Syphers said Saturday night that there had been a steady flow of accidents throughout the afternoon and evening, but none of them were serious.
“I know a lot of other towns have been inundated with crashes, but it hasn’t been anything out of the ordinary for us,” Syphers said.
Phone calls to the Lewiston and Lisbon police departments were not immediately returned.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.