April storm dumps snow throughout the County

By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
    CARIBOU — Friday’s storm was certainly a frantic forte of flurries, yet the fruition of the weather event has been fleeting in the county. In Caribou, for example, there were 6 inches of snow on April 1 before the storm hit. After the storm, there were 13 inches. As the weekends temperatures warmed area, the snowpack diminished steadily until Tuesday morning reading showed a snowdepth of 7 inches.
    While the region’s snow is currently dwindling, The County still got walloped during the April 1st snow. Oakfield saw the highest amount of snow at 15 inches with Houlton just trailing behind at 14 inches. Presque Isle accumulated 11.5 inches and Caribou, just a few miles away, received 7.9 inches of snow. The most snow fell in Dover-Foxcroft, where they received 18 inches of the white stuff.
    Meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Caribou, Todd Lericos confirmed that this last storm could very well have been winter’s last hoorah, “though the chance of a serious storm still remains possible until mid-April,” he said.
    Lericos said that the snowfall that does reach the county will most likely be mixed with rain or, when falling by itself, snow will be rather wet and heavy and the odds of the snow sticking around are not very good.
    With the snow waning and warm weather waxing, true spring will be signaled when the flora becomes vibrant and the ice jams — neither have happened yet, but neither can be too far away.
    According to Lericos, there’s still a log of ice on the Allagash and the St. John headwaters, and that holds for the Penobscot and Aroostook rivers too. That ice is expected to break up in the next week or two, and the jams are expected to set up like they do every year.
    “Stay tuned to anything that we broadcast on that issue,” Lericos said, “because the ice jams have a short duration but a high impact.”
    Additional information regarding The County’s weather can be obtained by visiting the National Weather Service’s webpage at www.erh.noaa.gov/car.