FORT KENT, Maine — It’s looking more certain that the low pressure system heading toward Maine on Friday will produce significant snowfall to the north and rainy conditions Down East this Easter weekend.
“That low is going to spread snow into the [north] Saturday morning and looks like it will mix with rain Down East,” Priscilla Farrar, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou, said Thursday morning. “We are looking at 4 to 6 inches of snow across northern Maine at this point.”
Weekend weather primarily will be a rain event in central and Down East areas, where residents could see up to three-quarters of an inch of rain, Farrar said.
Central, southern and Down East Maine are under a hazardous weather outlook, and northern Maine is under a winter weather advisory starting Friday and lasting through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
A separate winter weather advisory has been issued for northern Maine from 8 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday because of a storm that will bring snow over northern areas very late Thursday afternoon before mixing with sleet, freezing rain and rain by late evening, according to Farrar.
Northern Maine could see between 2 and 4 inches of snow with one-tenth of an inch of ice.
By Friday morning, Farrar said, the precipitation will turn to all rain.
“It’s a messy forecast,” she said.
Temperatures are going to vary widely over the next few days, with highs reaching 50 degrees in some areas Friday before dropping back to the mid-30s along the coast and into the 20s in northern Maine by Sunday.
Farrar said it is too early to say how much if any impact the next several days will have on rivers and streams and the potential for flooding.
“If we get into the 50s tomorrow for the highs, that could start some ice moving,” she said. “We could see some water rising on the rivers, but it’s too early to say exactly how much.”
On Thursday, Gov. Paul LePage met with the Maine River Flow Advisory Commission to discuss potential flood risks around the state.
In a release issued Thursday afternoon, he indicated that “while forecasts were still being developed, minor to moderate flooding on rivers such as the Kennebec appears possible; ice jam flooding potential is a concern in central regions and in the north; and small river and stream flooding is possible in all areas.”
LePage added that if serious flooding does occur, local, county and state emergency management officials would be well prepared.
“We can’t control Mother Nature, but we will do all we can to protect life and property,” he said.
