Tropical-like rain and winds on Christmas Day will yield to sun and increasingly colder weather Saturday, but flood watches will remain in place after heavy rain that fell on melting snow swelled rivers statewide Friday.

National Weather Service meteorologists in Gray warned motorists to be cautious, both for standing water and frozen surfaces.

“There’s a good chance there will be some black ice in spots early tomorrow,” meteorologist Derek Schroeter said late Friday. But it will still take awhile for cold air to hit Maine as the sun returns Saturday, limiting some icing risks.

By Saturday night, Schroeter said, “We will have plenty of cold air.”

Overall wind and rain from the storm were milder than expected and caused little damage, though flood watches for several rivers remained in effect for large parts of the state Friday night.

Ski resorts across the region, not closed for the holiday, also shuttered most on-hill operations and activities on Christmas Day while others announced they would remain closed to skiing Saturday to recover from the meltdown.

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Power outages were also not as widespread as feared, but holiday lights across the state did flicker off and then back on – and sometimes off again – for thousands of homes.

As of 11 p.m. Friday, 1,624 of the more than 650,000 Central Maine Power customers were without electricity – 1,058 of them in Kennebec County.

Versant Power, which serves about 159,000 customers in northern and eastern Maine, had 36 active outages affecting 421 customers.

The storm brought 1 to 2 inches of rain for most of southern and central Maine and wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph in some places.

“One to two inches doesn’t sound like a big deal, but we also have one to three inches of water sitting in the snow in the ground,” NWS meteorologist Mike Ekster said earlier Friday. “So you can almost say it rained 5 inches and that’s why we’re expecting all the river flooding.”

The weather service issued flood warnings Friday afternoon for the Androscoggin River in Rumford, the Presumpscot River in Westbrook and the Kennebec River in Augusta, Sidney and Hallowell. Minor flooding was expected due to the heavy rain and snow melt. A flood watch was also in effect across most of central, southern and western Maine. A flood watch means flooding is possible and likely to occur, while a flood warning means flooding is imminent or already occurring.

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The temperature in Portland reached 55 degrees on Friday, still 7 degrees less than the record Christmas Day high of 62 degrees set in 2015. Augusta, meanwhile, reached a record high of 59 degrees, according to the weather service. The previous high of 56 was also set in 2015.

Schroeter said late Friday that the story for higher elevations in the mountains of western Maine could be a little different, noting they would cool more quickly than the state’s coastal plain.

But that would be good news for Maine’s ski resorts, according to Shroeter. “They will be able to start making snow again,” he said.

Lost Valley in Auburn, which was closed for the holiday Friday, announced on Facebook it would remain closed for on-hill activities Saturday as it works to groom snow.

“Good news and bad news,” the resort posted on its Facebook page. “The bad news is we got hit pretty hard by the rain and need to give things a day to drain out and move it around.” The good news, the resort said, is that its brew pub and restaurant will still be open for diners.

Maine’s three largest ski areas – Sunday River in Newry in Oxford County and Sugarloaf and Saddleback, both in northern Franklin County – all suspended operations on Christmas Day due to heavy winds along with deteriorating snow conditions.

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Sunday River on Thursday announced the mountain would close for skiing, riding and uphill access Friday in anticipation of the storm. Refunds would automatically be issued for pre-purchased tickets, rentals and instructional lessons for those who were scheduled to be on the mountain.

“We’re expecting both rain and high winds to continue throughout the day, which is impacting our ability to run lifts, and in the current environment, we can’t safely allow guests to linger in base lodges to enjoy a few cups of coffee in hopes the weather improves,” the resort wrote in a message on its website. “Our operations team is on the mountain managing drainage and setting ourselves up to recover quickly as we head into the weekend.”

Wind gusts reached 40 to 50 mph in most of southern Maine Thursday night and Friday morning, and by Friday afternoon Ekster said most of the threat of damaging winds was over for southern Maine and had moved on to Down East Maine. The National Weather Service in Caribou reported Friday afternoon that the maximum wind gust reported was 61 mph on Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island and that the nearby Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport reported a gust of 56 mph.

Winds atop of Mount Washington, the tallest mountain in New England, late Friday were sustained at around 37 mph, with gusts approaching 80 mph. The temperature at the summit of the 6,288-foot mountain was 32 degrees at 8:15 p.m.

Ekster said winds were not as bad as had originally been forecast due to a temperature inversion that did not allow the strongest winds associated with the storm to reach the ground. The biggest concern for Friday evening into Saturday morning was the threat of flooding, he said. Most parts of southern and central Maine received 1 to 2 inches of rain.

“Even though we’re expecting the rain to end late this evening or around midnight, the rivers will take some time to rise because we’re still dealing with snow melt,” Ekster said Friday. “People should just be careful when driving around because there could be some deep water in low spots.”

The York County Emergency Management Agency shut down its emergency operations center and resumed regular operations around 3:30 p.m. Friday, said Megan Arsenault, emergency planning and preparedness manager for the agency.

“It looks like the storm is pretty much wound down for today,” Arsenault said at 4 p.m. “We haven’t had any significant issues other than a few power outages. It certainly wasn’t what we were expecting for this one.”

Matthew Mahar, director of the Cumberland County Emergency Management Agency, said utility companies had been responsive to issues reported through the agency.

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