Mainers endure another day of messy weather

Bob Bard, 84, shovels his driveway in Winslow on Monday. Bard says he has been blind for about 30 years and uses his hearing and sense of touch to shovel. He spent about two hours clearing his driveway. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Mainers had to endure another day of messy weather Monday as a storm that formed in the Atlantic dumped a wintry mix of snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain over coastal regions of the state.

The wintry mix left roads and walkways slick, making for tricky driving for people who ventured onto the roadways. Police reported a number of vehicles sliding off roads, but no major crashes on Monday.

Milder weather should be in place Tuesday and Wednesday, but another wintry mix of weather will move into Maine Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service Office in Gray.

“It has been a really messy mix of sleet, rain, and snow for most of the day in Portland,” weather service meteorologist Maura Casey said. “The Portland area has experienced just about every type of precipitation we could muster out of this system.”

Casey said the storm formed out over the ocean, but instead of moving in the traditional storm track of west to east it retrograded east to west bringing with it a blend of precipitation that made it hard to forecast.

“In this case, the storm parked over the east coast and moved east to west. It is certainly not unheard of, but it is unusual,” Casey said.

The diverse of mix of precipitation also made it difficult to measure accumulation amounts, with Portland probably getting between 1 and 3 inches of snow, Casey said.

Though no major crashes were reported, Paul Merrill, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the state deployed 360 trucks in response to weather conditions that made roads slippery to drive on. Crews started at 4:00 p.m. Sunday and worked through the night sanding roads and clearing them of snow.

Power outages were kept to a minimum. Central Maine Power Co. reported a total of 455 outages at 7:45 p.m., with most of those in Kennebec County.

Casey said precipitation in Portland should begin to taper off around midnight. Tuesday’s forecast in Portland is calling for mostly sunny skies with a high near 40 degrees.