A foot of snow could be headed for Lewiston and Auburn

Our winter storm begins early Friday.

We’ll likely see a few rain or snow showers before sunrise, with lighter precipitation for the morning hours.

The steadier precipitation moves in for the late morning and early afternoon hours.

We’ll likely see rain along the coastline, with heavy snow falling just a few miles inland.

Highest totals for this storm in the mountains, and high totals as well for areas just a few miles inland of the coast. Still a big question mark on exact totals in the Portland area, but a few inches are likely at least. WGME graphic

In the Portland area we will see a sharp gradient in totals, we may see just a couple slushy inches on the Portland peninsula with several inches on the west side of town.

The heaviest precipitation moves in Friday evening and overnight.

The heavier precipitation rates will likely pull the rain/snow line closer to the coast, so if we are all rain in Portland Friday afternoon, we may see things switch back to snow Friday evening and overnight.

Either way, coastal totals are very tricky as we may switch between rain and snow several times.

Winds will also be the strongest Friday night.

While they are not looking overly impressive, with the heavy wet snow we could see some scattered outages.

Gusts will be up to 40mph along the coast, with 30-35mph gusts inland.

Rain at the very immediate coastline and snow further inland continues into Saturday, and much of the day is looking windy and snowy.

As cold air moves back in on Saturday afternoon, many coastal areas seeing rain will likely change back to snow.

The whole event winds down on Saturday evening and overnight, with a few snow showers lingering into early Sunday.

Totals look impressive inland. Up to a foot is possible in Lewiston-Auburn, up to 6 inches in Sanford, and up to a foot and a half are possible in the mountains.

For the Augusta area, totals will likely be slightly lower in the 3-6 inch range. Still very iffy on Portland area totals.

A scenario could play out where Westbrook gets 6 or more inches of snow, yet downtown Portland sees just a slushy couple inches.

Temperatures will have to be watched very closely through the entire event. I would plan on treacherous travel from Friday early afternoon through Saturday evening.

After the storm moves out, a quiet stretch of weather begins next week.