LEWISTON – It may seem like Mother Nature is relentless in her assault of Maine and the Northeast this year as yet another winter storm charges across the region Monday threatening upwards of 14 inches of snow. But in actuality, the region falls more than 25 inches shy in snow totals compared to last year at this time.

Mike Cempa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, said that the region received 85.7 inches of snow thus far this year, not including Monday’s totals, compared to 111.9 inches last year by the start of March.

“In general, we’re running lower, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some spots ended up with more,” Cempa said. “Last year we didn’t have as many big storms, but it seemed like it snowed almost every day.”

Another big dump is just what the region can expect most of Monday from a storm system out of the southwest that could bring as much as 2 inches of snow per hour. Cempa said the storm system is predicted to drop 10 to 14 inches of snow by early afternoon Monday, and then taper off to light snow in the afternoon and evening.

Like most of his counterparts at area school systems, Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque expected to be closely monitoring the weather Monday morning. He starts getting weather updates around 4:30 a.m. from meteorologists, road crews and the Police Department before making a final decision about whether to cancel classes.

As of Sunday, schools in Auburn and Lewiston have had four snow days.

Parking bans

The following parking bans have been issued:

Auburn: 7 a.m. Monday-7 a.m. Tuesday

Brunswick: Midnight-7 a.m. Monday

Lisbon: 10 p.m. Sunday-3 a.m. Tuesday