Northern Maine is famous for its winter. With a ski mountain in our backyard and snowmobile trails, it’s a winter paradise. This year, however, fluctuating weather has given us both rain and snow leading to icy and dangerous conditions. The Big Rock Ski Resort even had to close on Feb. 14 due to the weather being too cold.
According to weather.gov, northern Maine has seen 14 days with snow and two days with rain in the month of February of this year. The average maximum temperature was 27.4 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 degrees Celsius), with a minimum temperature at 9.5 degrees Fahrenheit (-12.5 degrees Celsius). Precipitation is averaging 1.42 inches. Northern Maine has even seen fog 13 days this month. One out of the 13 days of fog the visibility was so bad that you couldn’t see beyond a quarter of a mile.
“Winter or spring, because the back and forth snow and rain isn’t fun and quite annoying,” Michaela King said with irritation. King is a resident of Mars Hill who regularly commutes to Presque Isle for school. The switching between the hot and cold temperatures was not as extreme last year.
Last year in the month of February weather.gov reported the average maximum high temperature was 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9.4 degrees Celsius) and minimum temperature was -9 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius). There were 19 days with snow and two days with rain, with precipitation averaging at 0.66 inches. There was two days out of the 12 fog days where visibility was so bad that you couldn’t see beyond a quarter of a mile.
“I remember all the snow we got and how big the snow banks where,” Sarah-Jane Parker, a resident of Presque Isle, recalled last year’s winter season. That was unlike this year where in some areas grass is visible through the white snow. In some areas you can even see the dirt from the fields.
Even though the weather keeps switching between rain and snow, there is still snow on the ground. It might not be much, however it won’t stop those winter enthusiasts from checking out the snowmobile trails or taking a run down the slopes. Even though northern Maine doesn’t have much snow, it’s still enough to build a snowman.
