The tail-end of statewide cold front caused closures and delays for a handful of schools Tuesday, but a reprieve of slightly warmer air will arrive Wednesday ahead of a Thursday snow that could drop up to 9 inches of snow on Bangor.
Sub-zero temperatures in North Berwick caused frozen water pipes to burst at Noble High School, forcing the district to call off classes on students’ first day back in the new year, according to WGME.
A number of schools in Greater Portland also closed, after school buses had trouble starting their engines. Other districts had delayed openings.
But the frigid weather that has chilled the state for the past week is on its way out — if only for a few days, and not without returning on the heels of a Thursday storm.
On Tuesday, temperatures in Greater Bangor were expected to hover between 5 and 10 degrees, but by Wednesday, the air will warm into to the high teens, maybe even reaching the 20-degree mark, according to Vic Nouhan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou.
In the southern counties, temperatures Wednesday are predicted in the low 20s.
“It’s going to feel like a heat wave,” Andy Pohl, a forecaster with the NWS in Gray, said.
On Thursday, a coastal storm front will move in from the eastern Atlantic, pounding the Down East region especially hard with between 10 and 15 inches of snow, Nouhan said.
Greater Bangor is predicted to get between 5 and 9 inches, starting late Thursday morning and winding down overnight and into Friday.
“Most of the damage will be done in the afternoon,” Nouhan said.
Snow totals will taper west along the coast. Rockland could see 8-10 inches, Cumberland County will get 4-6 inches and York County 3-5 inches, Pohl said.
Snow amounts in the northern half of the state will vary but on average will be between 4 and 6 inches.
By Friday, the storm will have swept away Thursday’s warm temperatures, dragging a wave of cold air that will send the state back into the single-digits and low teens for throughout the weekend, Pohl said.
This story appears through a partnership with the Bangor Daily News.