Winter Storm 'Noel'

I thought this was very interesting. If you haven't been outside, you will notice that it is very chilly out there in southern New England. Its nearly 1PM and the temperature outside my window is 42 degrees with winds up to 20mph, making it feel more like 35 degrees. There is real cold in northern Maine and that is where the National Weather Service currently has a WINTER STORM WATCH in affect for much of northern Maine. All the moisture from the leftovers of Hurricane Noel will move into northern Maine later this afternoon and evening, hit the temperatures in the low 30's and we have snow. It will be a bonified snowstorm for northern Maine. Here I outlined where the heaviest of the snow will fall. In extreme NW Maine in northwest Aroostook County, I am forecasting a heavy 6-9" of snow with a few places maybe picking up close to one foot of snow in the highest elevations. Further south into Caribou, there will be a good 4-7" of heavy wet snowfall that could cause some local power outages, but since most of the leaves are off the trees, I think they will be spared the worst. Finally further south from there, a slushy 1-2" of snowfall is possible. Maine is like a different country here in our six state region. Only Maine will see a winter storm out of a tropical storm. Winds will gust up to 60mph during the peak of the snow tonight and a few claps of thunder are also possible. The news hasn't really picked up on this side of Noel for the Cape is really getting blasted with up to 3-5" of rain and wind gusts in excess of 85mph later this afternoon.

Finally, I want to remind everyone that we are getting an extra hour of sleep tonight because we are returning back to standard time. The sun will be setting at around 4:35 tomorrow afternoon. The sun will be out tomorrow and we will have highs in the mid 50's, so it will feel much better than today, but the winds could still be a bit gusty, but only up to 30mph at the coast.

Sit back and enjoy the storm.