CARIBOU (AP) – A blizzard warning remained in effect Friday in northern Maine as fierce winds scattered a foot or more of snow that broke Caribou’s 53-year-old seasonal snowfall record.

The National Weather Service in the northern Maine city said the latest storm brought the seasonal total to 182.5 inches, breaking the old record of 181 inches set during the 1954-1955 season. Snowfall records began in 1939.

“Even though it was spring yesterday, we still have winter on our doorstep,” spokeswoman Ginny Joles of Maine Public Service Co., northern Maine’s major electric company, said Friday.

Wind was gusting up to 50 mph and a couple of more inches of snow were expected to accumulate through Friday, though total accumulations would vary widely, the weather service said.

Near-blizzard conditions were also reported above 1,500 feet in the state’s western mountains. Along the coast, Rockland recorded 44 mph gusts.

The powerful winds uprooted trees and brought down power lines. By mid-afternoon, Central Maine Power said more than 6,300 customer accounts were without service, with the heaviest concentration in the Brunswick area.

Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. reported more than 1,600 accounts in the dark, with Penobscot County being hardest hit.

Several travelers who checked out of the Caribou Inn and Convention Center had to return Friday because whiteout conditions made it nearly impossible to drive.

“It’s better to be stuck here where it’s safe and warm than to be out in a snow drift somewhere,” said Denise Yenidogan, who was working at the front desk.

While residents enjoy the snow, the city was running out of places to put it. Yenidogan said she watched out the window as a gazebo in front of the hotel slowly disappeared from view as the snow piled up over the winter. Eventually, she could no longer see the weather vane.

“As much as we love the winter and everything, we’re done,” she said. “We just don’t have any other place to put it.”

Snow drifts ranged from about 5 feet to 10 feet in some areas, said meteorologist Mark Bloomer. Drifts along the sides of northern Maine roads, already several feet high, were even higher with the latest storm.

“The snow drifts that come over the top pile up on the lower side in the street,” said Bloomer. “It’s going to be a lot of work for the plows.”

A state Transportation Department employee said 40 plow trucks were in service in Aroostook and parts of two other northern Maine counties as whiteout conditions persisted Friday afternoon. Trucks had to go over some areas repeatedly because of the constant roadside drifting.

The high winds caused the postponement of the 2008 U.S. Alpine Championships, which were due to open at Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley on Friday. Organizers rescheduled the slalom for Saturday, but other race details were incomplete.

In northern Maine, temperatures in the 20s Friday were being chilled to the single digits or as low as zero by the wind, which was expected to subside some Friday night. High winds were also blowing across southern Maine, bringing a winter chill to early spring.