PORTLAND – The wet blanket of snow left by Friday’s storm may be short-lived, as temperatures rise to the mid-40s today in southern Maine.
Ski areas that are still open could benefit, however, as the mountains continue to get the occasional snow shower today.
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The day will feel chilly, with 10 to 15 mph winds and gusts approaching 20 mph, said Margaret Curtis, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray.
The April Fools’ Day storm left 6 to 12 inches of snow across the state.
State offices and many town halls and schools were closed. Commuters who did drive to work Friday morning had to negotiate slippery slush that forced them to go slowly.
Some who didn’t paid a price.
“During the (morning) commute we had cars off the road everywhere, so fast we couldn’t keep up with them,” said a Buxton dispatcher, Kathy Mullen.
Police and tow truck drivers in York and Cumberland counties and the midcoast were kept busy all morning, with dozens of cars sliding off roads or involved in accidents.
The speed limit on the Maine Turnpike was lowered to 45 mph before the commute even began, dispatchers said. The speed limit on Interstate 295 was lowered to 40 mph.
“What we’re dealing with are extremely slippery roads. The slush is creating a lot of problems,” said Saco police Sgt. Bruce Cote. “Public works is doing the best they can to keep up with the snow pack.”
Main roads weren’t too bad, but secondary roads were harder to negotiate and required extra caution, he said.
In Scarborough, a trash truck went off Pleasant Hill Road into a utility pole near Chamberlain Road, leading public safety officials to shut down the road until the truck was removed and the wire was repaired.
Crews spent the day clearing snow, and conditions had improved by the evening commute, in part because snow had tapered off in many areas and been replaced by rain in southern parts of the state and along the coast. The speed limit on the Maine Turnpike was restored to 65 mph by midafternoon.
As tough as the driving was, the storm didn’t break snowfall records in southern Maine, Curtis said.
In Portland, which got 5.9 inches on Friday, the record for an April 1 snowfall is 11.1 inches, set in 1922.
The record for a one-day snowfall in April is 15 inches, set on April 10, 1906.
The record for the latest and deepest snowfall is 7 inches, set on May 10-11, 1945.
As many as 25,000 Central Maine Power Co. customers were without electricity at one point in the early afternoon, said CMP spokesman John Carroll.
“While we do considerable tree trimming throughout the year to improve reliability, storms like this with heavy, wet snow and high winds can still be a challenge,” Carroll said in a written release.
In some areas, trees were uprooted and fell onto power lines, he said. CMP brought in private crews to help, and had as many as 600 workers in the field to restore power.
York and Cumberland counties had the most outages in the morning, but by late afternoon, Knox and Lincoln counties each had more than 3,000 customers without power.
By Friday night, the remaining 8,458 CMP customers without power were expected to be back online by the end of today.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard contributed to this report.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
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