Parts of Maine get first snowfall of season

By Bill Trotter, Bangor Daily News Staff

Maine got its first widespread accumulation of snow Saturday morning in the western mountains, but the vast majority of it is not expected to survive the weekend.

Roughly half a foot of snow fell Saturday morning at higher elevations ranging from Coos County in northern New Hampshire to the northeast through parts of Oxford, Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties in Maine, according to the National Weather Service. Rain fell Saturday morning across the rest of the state.

“We still have some snow going on,” Derek Schroeter, a meteorologist with the NWS office in Gray, said around noon Saturday.

Weather spotters had reported 8 inches of snow in Coburn Gore in northern Franklin County and 6 inches north of Jackman in Somerset County, he said.

Mount Washington in Coos County, New Hampshire had gotten 7 inches so far and was expected to get more through the afternoon. A few inches of snow already had accumulated at the summit of the mountain, which is the highest on the East Coast, prior to Saturday, Schroeter said.

Greg Cornwell, a meteorologist at the weather service’s office in Caribou, said between 3 to 6 inches of wet snow is predicted to fall Saturday in northern Somerset and central Piscataquis counties. He said his office had not yet gotten any official snowfall depth counts from spotters in its area, but they have been told of smaller amounts between a dusting and 1 inch falling in western Aroostook County.

“It is the first accumulation of the season,” Cornwell said. “Most of it has been [since] early this morning.”

Aside from tall mountain peaks, most of the snow is expected to melt off on Sunday.

“It will be a pretty nice day tomorrow,” Cornwell said .

Schroeter said that rain and snow will clear Saturday afternoon into Saturday evening from New Hampshire to western Maine, with overnight temperatures expected to dip below freezing at higher elevations. Sunny weather and temperatures in the 50s and 60s Fahrenheit are expected on Sunday.

“It will probably be hard to keep this snow,” he said. “It’s still a little early.”