Following the record low temperature of Monday morning, the mercury dropped rapidly again Monday evening until at midnight the thermometer registered 10 degrees below zero. In the early morning hours of Tuesday however, there was some moderation of the temperature and at 6 o’clock yesterday morning the average reported in Augusta was 6 to 8 degrees below zero.
Snow began falling about 10 o’clock Tuesday morning and continued throughout the day with increasing intensity in the afternoon and evening. With the low temperature, the storm, which was driven by a bitter wind from the northeast, made it particularly disagreeable for all who had occasion to venture forth.
The big, feathery flakes fell thickly all of last evening, making rapidly until at midnight there was a fall of about seven inches on the ground from the storm. The snow was very light and in the outlying districts was whipped up by the wind and swept into the cuts and across the roadways in huge drifts. Snowplows were being sent over the lines of the Androscoggin & Kennebec railroad from mid-afternoon and the cars on all runs out this city were off schedule all through the late afternoon and evening.
The schedules on the electric lines were not interrupted by the drifting snow so much as by the slippery condition of the rails. Even in the badly filled-in cuts the plows experienced no considerable difficulty in displacing the drifts, but the extreme cold of Monday, which had little abatement yesterday, affected the steel rails so that even with the first filming of new snow it was almost impossible for the car wheels to get any traction.
Superintendent Bowie stated late last night that the plows would be kept working on the several lines all night if necessary and anticipated that cars would be running on schedule this morning. The same condition of slippery rails was experienced to a lesser degree by the Maine Central Railroad, and while the afternoon and early evening trains were but slightly behind schedule time, No. 2, the night Pullman, came into Augusta 20 minutes late.
The snow of yesterday was not of the composition to hamper the power and communication lines to any extent, and no serious difficulty was experienced by the Central Maine Power Company or the New England Telephone Telegraph Company.
At midnight the storm had not lessened in intensity and with the high wind it was somewhat rough without, and there was every indication that the total fall would exceed that of any previous single storm of the present winter.
Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME, January 21, 1925