By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — A one-two punch of cold temperatures and biting winds caused folks in northern Maine to bundle up tightly during the past week while wading their way through a growing snowpack in order to reach their shovels. Below-zero temperatures have transformed the snow from last week’s two storms into that quintessential January-in-The-County crunchy snow.
Aroostook Republican photo/MaryMargaret Portera
Bethany Turcotte, at left, had a ball sliding around in the fresh snow with her friend Sierra St. Peter on Friday during recess at Hilltop Elementary School. Recent below-zero temperatures and biting wind chills have kept the kids inside during recess more often than not.
Officials with the National Weather Service office in Caribou recorded temperatures as low as -24 degrees at Clayton Lake in the Allagash on Monday morning. Wind chill data was unavailable from the same NWS data center, but it doesn’t take computer data for Aroostook residents to understand how cold winds have been compounding the chilled air blowing throughout the region.
Speaking in strictly mercury readings, Houlton places pretty high on the low-temps list with 23 below recorded on Tuesday morning — and the already snowy city received over a foot of snow from storms in the last week.
Caribou and Presque Isle have been pretty even temperature wise; Caribou’s low was -14 on both Monday and Tuesday morning, while Presque Isle was -13 Monday morning and -15 Tuesday morning. Both cities have around seven inches of snow — most all of which was received during the last two storms.
Though southern Aroostook has been taking the brunt of winter’s stormy wrath this year while the northern part of the county’s been enjoying a pretty mild season, the difference in weather that’s visually apparent at the end of an hour’s drive from Presque Isle to Houlton is not indicative of a grand change in Mother Nature’s plans.
“That’s just been the favored track recently,” said Maureen Hastings, forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Caribou. “The last few storms we’ve had have stayed south.”
Exemplifying the southern-staying storms, Hastings highlighted the snowfall totals for Bangor versus Caribou.
“Bangor has 30 inches of snow right now, and we only have seven in Caribou,” she said.
While time will tell as to whether snow becomes evenly distributed in The County — and whether Houlton shovelers can take a breather — everyone can look forward to a bit of reprieve from the cold weather toward the end of this week with high temperatures nearing 20 degrees.
