New2Maine.com

She and I are finally back from our 1300 mile journey to see family and friends for the holidays. We’re tired, the car is tired, and we’re glad to be home, but it was great to see everyone. We’re getting ready to have friends over for some football, some food, and some celebrating of the coming year, so I just wanted to write a quick post to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I’ll have some more time to post tomorrow, especially with yet another snow storm on its way. There was a good deal of melting while we were gone, but we got 8″ or so after we got back last night, and another good-sized storm is on its heals. Good thing I picked up a new shovel last week!

With Wednesday and Thursday’s storm adding another 6-7″, our pre-winter snowfall total reached the 2½ foot mark. Yes, that’s right, we got well over 2 feet before winter even started this year. Amusingly enough, with winter officially upon us now, the weather is supposed to warm up. We’re forecast to get above freezing for the first time in a while tomorrow and some of the white stuff might melt. It’s even supposed to be in the low-to-mid 40s on Sunday! Of course, it’s currently 15° F, so we’ll see what happens.

Everyone I’ve talked to around Portland is shocked at how much snow we’ve gotten so far. According to a report on WGME 13 the other day, we’d had 0.4″ of snow at this time last year. So we’ve gotten about 60 times more snow than last year. Yikes! I wonder what winter is going to bring…

Wow. I just checked weather.com to see what the rest of the week looks like and lo and behold, the National Weather Service has this to report:

A SNOW ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 5 PM EST THURSDAY.

EXPECT A STORM TOTAL OF 4 TO 7 INCHES. SNOW WILL BEGIN LATE THIS AFTERNOON… WITH LESS THAN AN INCH OF ACCUMULATION BY EVENING RUSH HOUR. SNOW WILL BE LOCALLY HEAVY LATE THIS EVENING AND TONIGHT…GRADUALLY TAPERING OFF THURSDAY AFTERNOON. SNOW MAY MIX WITH OR CHANGE TO RAIN AT TIMES…MORE SO OVER THE ISLANDS.

Another 4 to 7 inches? It’s not even winter yet!

I haven’t been able to find any official snowfall totals, but by my rough estimate, we got just under a foot yesterday. The wind caused some drifting and the snow plows caused even more, so it’s tough to tell exactly. I do know that it took me the better part of an hour (and a snow shovel that now needs replacing) to chop through the plow’s pile and clear the sidewalk in front of our house so that I could walk the dog. I’ll try to get a picture of some undisturbed snow and a yard stick, but I think we’re well over 18″ on the ground right now. If this is late fall, actual winter should be interesting…

UPDATE: User SteveG, apparently a more intrepid web surfer than I, writes in with the following list of snow accumulation totals:

• Portland 8″
• Gorham 7.7″
• Bridgton 6.7″
• Auburn 5.5″
• Lewiston 7″
• Augusta 8″
• Bethel 8″
• Saco 8″
• Kennebunk 8″
• York 10.5″
• Westport Island 7″
• N. Sebago 8″
• Gray 7″
• Mexico 14.9″
• Sugarloaf 15.5″
• Sunday River 11″

The ski areas got a good coating. I think I need to get my skis waxed and ready to go.

With 12 days left until Christmas, we’ve just topped 12″ of snowfall for the month in Portland. And the weather forecasters are saying that we’re going to get “a real storm” on Sunday. With 8″ last Monday, close to half a foot today, and God knows how much this weekend (weather.com says it could be another foot, though the Maine shore might get rain), I think it’s safe to conclude that it’s going to be a white Christmas in Maine.

WGME 13’s Skycam shows Portland covered with the white stuff.