LEWISTON — Slippery? You bet.
For most of the day, cars, trucks and minivans slid off roads just about everywhere. An SUV crashed into a tree in Sabattus early in the day, a car slid over an embankment in Buckfield hours later and by the evening commute, traffic was still moving at a cautious speed.
And sloppy? It sure was. In most areas, police spent at least part of the day advising public works on which streets and roads needed tending. After snow and ice in the early part of the day, a steady rain fell all afternoon, creating slush everywhere you turned.
Meteorologist James Brown from the National Weather Service said 1 to 3 inches of snow fell in most areas Wednesday before it turned to freezing rain and rain.
Dismal? You bet. After a weekend of mostly sun and warm temperatures, Wednesday’s snow, rain and fog was an out-and-out bummer. By nightfall, nearly an inch of rain had fallen across Androscoggin County, with similar amounts recorded in Oxford, Cumberland and Franklin counties.
The mixed bag was also trouble for power lines, although by early evening, only a handful of Central Maine Power customers — roughly 75 in both Oxford and Kennebec counties — were in the dark.
Weather officials said Maine and New Hampshire were in a battleground between cold high pressure to the northeast and two areas of low pressure to the south. The cold high dominated Wednesday but the large low will eventually win the battle Thursday and bring higher temperatures into the entire area.
Thursday’s temperatures could get into the 50s, although wind and rain are also in the forecast.
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