Nor’easter pummels region Weekend snowstorm ranked as new year’s first blizzard

The first storm of 2003 lived up to the name nor’easter, officially dumping 6 to 18 inches of snow in central and Down East Maine during the weekend.

High winds caused whiteout conditions on Interstate 95, state highways and local roads, earning the storm the added distinction of being the year’s first blizzard.

“When we get very cold air coming down from Canada that meets warm air from south over the Atlantic Ocean, it sets up the formation of a large storm like the one we had Saturday,” said Gregory Zielinski, state climatologist.

“This was a blizzard because of the winds and low pressure that led to the blinding-type snow, a lot of drifting and bad driving conditions,” he said Sunday.

“The definition of a blizzard is winds gusting to 35 mph or greater and sufficient snow to reduce visibility to half a mile.”

Bangor International Airport remained open Saturday, but several morning flights were canceled and some arrivals were delayed. The Downeaster rail service from Portland to Boston continued its scheduled runs as did buses.

The speed limit on I-95 was lowered to 45 mph, but most people heeded warnings to stay off the roads, according to Maine State Police.

Crews worked more than 24 hours straight to clear streets in Bangor, according to Marcia McGrath of the city’s Public Works Department. The whole crew of nearly 50 employees worked day and night Saturday before heading home to rest Sunday morning.

Some workers were expected to return late Sunday to remove snowbanks downtown and at major intersections, she said.

The storm brushed southern Aroostook County, dumping 11 inches on Island Falls, but missed the St. John Valley entirely, according to the National Weather Service at Caribou.

Officially, snow accumulation at the airport in Bangor was 8 inches, making a total of 11 inches on the ground.

Accumulation ranged from 20 inches in Wellington in Piscataquis County to 18 inches in Topsfield in Washington County and 16 inches in Dexter in Penobscot County.

Information on snowfall amounts in Knox, Waldo and Somerset counties was not available from the National Weather Service in Gray on Sunday afternoon.

Nor’easters are notorious for dumping a lot of snow on the mid-Atlantic region and New England. The reason is that the storm’s circulation taps into moisture-rich air over the Atlantic and moves that air up and over cold air situated over the land, according to the AccuWeather Web site. The result is increased condensation and billions upon billions of snowflakes.

The name nor’easter came about long ago when people believed that these storms came from the northeast. Benjamin Franklin was the first to figure out that the storms actually came up along the coast. He did this through mail correspondence with his brother in Boston, according to information on the AccuWeather Web site.

When a storm hit Philadelphia one day before it arrived in Boston, Franklin concluded that it must have a wind circulation pattern and, even though the wind was from the northeast, its overall movement must be in the opposite direction.

A competing Web site, www.Weather.com, agreed that a nor’easter hit Maine and listed the golf index for Bangor as 0 or very poor.