Snow, Heavy at Times Expected Tomorrow, With Slippery Travel Continuing Through Tomorrow Night

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - Good evening everyone and happy Thursday. We did see a mild day across the northern half of the state today. Temperatures during the overnight hours fell back into the mid and upper 30s and sat there through the overnight hours. With some sunshine peeking out in spots today, temperatures were able to warm up into the mid to upper 40s, places further south like Bangor even made it into the lower 50s earlier this afternoon.

This evening’s weather setup shows the area of low pressure sitting off to our west. It’s this low pressure that will eventually make its way into the region during the day tomorrow, bringing with it moderate to heavy snow showers. Colder air will continue to stream in from the north during the overnight hours tonight, keeping a cold pocket of air in place at the surface. This cold air keeps us as snow for northern and central parts of the county during the morning hours, while allowing for precip to re-freeze and fall as sleet through the southern part of the county.

With winter weather expected for much of the day tomorrow. The national weather service has issued a winter storm warning for the entire county beginning during the early morning hours of Friday, and continuing through late Friday evening. While snow won’t be falling during this entire time, blowing snow will also be a concern with the light fluffy nature of the snow combined with breezy northerly winds. This impact, along with snowfall rates close to if not over an inch an hour at times going into the day Friday will result in dangerous driving conditions. Please make sure to leave plenty of extra time if you do have to travel and leave plow crews plenty of room to do their jobs.

Going hour by hour through the rest of tonight shows cloud cover increasing. Originally last night snow was looking to start closer to midnight, the latest computer model runs have been delaying the onset of the snow to just before sunrise Friday. Once the snow does begin, it looks to be heavy in nature, with places especially through the central part of the county reporting an inch an hour snowfall rates. Temperatures at this time are also expected to be cold, only sitting in the upper teens and lower 20s, meaning the snow that does fall will be of the lighter fluffier variety. Snow showers begin to lighten up during the afternoon hours, with most of the snow falling from the sky coming to an end by Friday evening. Northerly winds continue to be gusty Friday night, resulting in blowing snow and travel concerns remaining in the forecast at least through saturday.

Snowfall totals with this system shows most communities now have a better chance of seeing a foot plus worth of snow. With this snow being of the lighter, fluffier variety, and winds expected to be breezing into Friday night, it will be difficult to measure this snowfall as it continues to blow around. I think most spots will be looking at another foot of snow once this is all done Friday night, with blowing snow remaining a concern at least into Saturday.

Wind gusts won’t be as strong as what we’ve seen with some other blowing snow events, but winds are still expected to be gusting Friday between 25 to 30 mph. This will keep blowing snow a concern through the day but will also work to reduce visibility on the roadways. The risk for power outages with this system is very low, which of course is good news going into the weekend.

High temperatures tomorrow likely won’t make it out of the teens for most spots. I think the best chance of seeing the lower 20s tomorrow will be over southern parts of the county, but overall this colder air is what will keep the precipitation as snow.

For more details on the forecast, make sure to check out this evening’s Weather on the Web Video Forecast, posted in this article later this evening. Stay safe out there!

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