Another day, another storm and more (maybe) in the forecast.

Friday looked a lot like Tuesday, although the latest storm lacked the punch of Juno earlier in the week. By the supper hour, a mere 5 inches of snow had fallen in the Lewiston area and similar numbers were reported across the region.

Five inches? Is that even worth mentioning?

Apparently so. This storm had one thing Juno did not: the capacity to vex Friday commuter travel as winter-weary folks tried to get to and from work.

It was snowing when they drove in, it was snowing when they drove out.

“Heavy snow!” the National Weather Service announced, with a rare use of an exclamation point. “You may encounter roadway hazards without adequate time to safely avoid them.”

Police across the area reported scattered car wrecks, but as late afternoon turned to evening, a familiar scene was repeated in and around Lewiston: cars and vans with their front ends buried in snowbanks at roadsides; frantic travelers spinning wheels as they struggled to crest even moderate hills, such as those on Webster and Pleasant streets in Lewiston, and the hilly areas around Goff Street in Auburn.

Plows rumbled up and down the streets, temporarily burying cars whose owners did not heed the parking bans. Tow trucks were all over the place, hauling those vehicles away to impound lots.

The all-day snow was wet and it made roads slushy, forcing traffic to a crawl. The sticky snow fell upon snowbanks already made mountainous by Juno, which dropped up to 30 inches in some areas and 2 feet in others. Navigating around the snowbanks on city streets was a feat — a clinic in patience and timing.

“It’s like driving around with one eye closed,” said Butch Pratt, transportation director for Lewiston schools.

The schools, by the way, were closed.

The Weather Channel, bent on getting through the alphabet before winter’s end, dubbed Friday’s storm Kari. With that in mind, forecasters were turning their attention to the next storm, already named Linus. Sweeping in from the coast, Linus is expected to arrive in our area Monday, possibly bringing up to 10 inches of snow to add to to the heap.

Possibly. It could blow out to sea.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty at this point on whether we’ll get the snow or whether it will sweep out to the fishes,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Margaret Curtis.

Monday is also Groundhog Day, during which a woodchuck, also known as a whistle pig, is said to reveal how much of winter remains. But, really, who needs a whistle pig when we’re looking at nearly 3 feet of fresh snow in less than a week?

“We’ll stick with the science,” Curtis said. “We keep trying to teach the science to the groundhog, but he won’t listen.”

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