With predictions of up to 12 inches of snow for much of Maine in the days leading up to Tuesday’s storm, many central and southern Mainers were scratching their heads by midafternoon — there wasn’t even and inch on the ground.

“Well, I mean we still have some snow to come tonight,” National Weather Service forecaster Andy Pohl said about 4:30 p.m. “Whether or not we get up to 6 inches remains to be seen.”

Pohl said nor’easters can sometimes be difficult to forecast exactly where and when the heaviest bands of snow will set up. While the forecast made good on areas like Baldwin and Berwick, which had around six inches, Windham and Porter had around 3 inches and there was only a dusting from Farmington down to the coast, Pohl said.

Meanwhile, Cheshire and Hillsborough counties in New Hampshire had 24 to 30 inches.

Pohl said by late afternoon, he had not received any updates from spotters in Androscoggin County because, well, there was nothing to report.

“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen in the next six hours and then things taper off,” Pohl said. “After midnight it really won’t be much in the way of accumulations. It’ll just kind of taper off for light snow and then it should be done before the morning commute.”

As of 5:45 p.m. Central Maine Power reported over 7,500 customers without power, most in York, Lincoln and Knox counties.

By 6:15 p.m. snow was falling hard and just over 14,000 were without power, but in the span of another half an hour, Androscoggin County jumped from six without power to over 2,000. At the same time, Kennebec County’s numbers jumped from 326 to 960, and Cumberland County’s numbers multiplied by over 40 times with 6,930 without power.

By 7 p.m., over 30,000 CMP customers were without power.

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