Most of southern Maine saw more accumulating snow yesterday as a fast moving storm crossed the area during the afternoon.  As has been the case with so many storms this year, the snow came down hard and fast and accumulated at 1 to 2 inches per hour.  The snow didn’t last long, but it was enough to make driving very difficult and felt like another slap in the face from Old Man Winter. Some areas saw up to 4 inches of snow, with Portland receiving 1.7 inches in the afternoon.

One’s experience of winter in Maine seems to fall into two camps.  There are those of us who embrace winter snowmobiling, ice fishing, winter camping, skiing, snowboarding, skating, snowshoeing and simply enjoying the nesting atmosphere the winter creates.

On the other side of the coin are those who see it as something to get through.  We dread the driving, the shoveling, the heating bills, the lack of seeing our lawn for 4 months, having to wear layer upon layer and we wish it wasn’t so dark all the time. 

I tend to fall into both camps and depending on the day, I lean one way or another.  This year I have done a lot of snowshoeing, but have yet to make it up to Sunday River to ski.  I am still hoping I can get a few runs in before the snow does melt later in April.   I’m also very tired of shoveling and my heating bill is 50% higher than I expected back in October which of course limits funds for other things.  Perhaps you are finding the same thing.  I already keep the heat at 60F all day and allow myself a few hours of 63F at night, what a treat! 

When winter starts early, as it did this year, it can tend to drag on for a long time.  Some year’s we don’t see much snow before Christmas and it winds down in early March, this isn’t going to be one of those seasons.

The granddaddy season of snow is the winter of 1970-71.  I have written about this winter before.  I think those massive snow piles I saw as a kid were one of the things that excited me about weather and probably lead me to become a meteorologist.  There are likely budding meteorologists being created this year. 

Portland has seen 78.5 inches of snow so far this season  (71 inches last year at this time). The amazing statistic is that 34.2 inches of it fell in the past 15 days!  All of this is a whopping 35.9 inches above where we would typical find snow totals at the end of February.  Put another way, we have endured two winters of snow to date in the span of one.

So I was curious about that winter back in 1970-71, how much snow had they saw through February that year.  The answer is by the end of February 1971, Portland had gotten over 107 inches of snow or over 2 feet more than we have seen this year.  Of course, that winter remains number 1 for snow, but it’s interesting to look back.

If you are wondering, March 1971 had a little over 2 feet of snow and April saw about 9 more inches.  It didn’t snow in May that year which I’m sure didn’t disappoint anyone except the most sadistic of snow lovers.

We have more wintry weather on the way and for travelers, the road conditions early tomorrow will be slick, especially away from the coast.  The irony of the wintry mix for Friday morning is it’s due to warmer air streaming north.  As the warm air overrides the cold air at the ground it will produce a period of snow, sleet, freezing rain and eventually rain.  The further west from the coastline you are, the longer the frozen precipitation lasts and the less pure liquid rain you will see.  This is good news for ski areas which have some of the best conditions of the year and don’t need any rain. 

I’ll update the Friday forecast on Twitter @growingwisdom. Follow @growingwisdom

There will be a slushy coating of snow and sleet at the coastline early in the morning with up to 2 to 3 inches of this mix inland.  The precipitation begins after midnight, but will foul the Friday morning commute especially where it hasn’t changed to rain by then.   Before the change to rain there will be a period of icing coating everything.

The system moves out Friday night and leaves us with a dry, mostly sunny and milder weekend.  Temperatures will rise in the 40s on Saturday and be near 40 for Sunday.  Colder weather returns next week with storm chances on Wednesday and again late next weekend or early next week.  

It’s your choice to curse it or embrace it, but it’s not going away for a while.

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