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Signs of Mainers' Impatience with Winter Abound

March 11, 2009 - PORTLAND -- Into every life a little snow must fall.

And then a little more.

And then a little more.

Three inches of wet, late-winter snow coated southern Maine on Monday, luring a few plows out of their garages and slowing midday traffic.

Tonight, the National Weather Service is expecting another harbinger of spring: at least 2 inches of snow that will change to sleet and then rain Wednesday. That will push the year's total snowfall in Portland to about 83 inches, or 22 inches above the average for the date, the weather service says.

But it's not enough to push spring, which begins on March 20, out of the minds of Mainers. The signs of the coming season, and an impatience for it to arrive, are easy to find.

Look no farther than Fore Season Indoor Golf, a virtual golfing center on Forest Avenue, where balls thwacked against simulated fairways as snowflakes swirled in the parking lot.

Owner Geno Echevarria says he's noticed an upswing in business lately.

"Most golf courses target to open up in mid-April," he said. "I think the guys are getting antsy."

On Monday, the guys included Chuck Scheib, who was grooving his swing for a trip south.

A cross-country skier who lives in Wayne, Scheib once relished long winters and heavy snows. "Not so much now," he said.

Across town at Hadlock Field, snow piled up on a statue of Slugger the Sea Dog, mascot for the Portland Sea Dogs minor league baseball team. But over his head, a sign flashed the reassuring news that only 31 days remained before opening day, April 9.

Chris Cameron, the team's director of media relations, said front office staff measured 11 inches of snow on the field Friday. But that was before the weekend's balmy temperatures.

"I know the grounds crews have already started cleaning out the bullpens," which have an artificial surface, he said.

Cleaning crews have begun work on the concourse under the stands, Cameron added, and merchandise for the 2009 season is arriving almost every day in the souvenir shop.

Over in South Portland, workers at Broadway Gardens are tending 13 greenhouses stuffed with a riotous collection of young geraniums, cyclamen, petunias and hibiscus.

Manager Shawn Huck said the weekend's sunny weather forced them to open and ventilate some of the greenhouses, which attracted a steady stream of customers anticipating spring planting.

Even on Monday morning, as snow gathered in the parking lot, customers drifted in and headed for the rows of scarlet and purple blossoms.

"They want to see a little bit of color," said Charlotte Brewington, an employee who filled flats with potting soil for transplanting seedlings. "They just want to walk through and breathe in the damp and warmth."

Weather service meteorologist David Glenn said Portland had received 79.1 inches of snow before Monday's snowfall, which is 25.4 inches above the long-term average.

But this year is running well behind the winter of 2007-2008. By this date last year, 96.4 inches of snow had fallen, and the total for the winter was 103 inches.

It's all a bit much for Glenn, a North Carolina native who is experiencing his first Maine winter.

"I'm ready for the springs and summers I keep hearing about," he said.

By DIETER BRADBURY, Staff Writer, Portlnad Press Herald, March 10, 2009


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