Where in Maine gets the Most Snow? (Portland, Brunswick: living, move)

[Danmac]

What are the best seasons to visit Maine?

And what city's, towns would you recomend someone looking to relocate visit to get a good feel for the state of Maine?

[RANGER.101ST]

the best time to visit maine is in the fall.
as far as towns to visit to get a good feel for maine.that a vague question.every town is different.
each part of the state is different.and without knowing what you like or what you dont like its imposable to answer.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by Danmac

What are the best seasons to visit Maine?

And what city's, towns would you recomend someone looking to relocate visit to get a good feel for the state of Maine?

Northern Aroostook County will be the most likely to get the most snow. It is furthest from the Gulf of Maine, and therefore will have the least impact of the warmer ocean. That being said, there is no "rule of thumb" about the weather in Maine for ANY season. Sometimes snow fall along the coast is heaviest, and sometimes much of the state enjoys a mostly "open" winter with relatively little snowfall. The mountains of Maine have a pretty large ski industry, but I have seen winters when the ski areas were crying because it wasn't really cold enough to make really good snow. But as a general statement, I think that the northen most part of Aroostook County and the mountains of western Maine...the eastern portions of the White Mountains will get the most snow.

As far as which time of year is best to visit, it will depend on what you are trying to do while you are here. An awful lot of Maine is dependent on tourism and that means the late spring through early fall months. In addition, it is easier to get around Maine in the warmer months than the cold ones because travel conditions are easier. If your intent is to travel around the state a lot, so see as much as possible, probably the easiest time is from the last of August through mid October.

As far as getting a "feel" for the state for the purposes of relocation is concerned, IF you can spend at least a month or two traveling around, you can see a lot of the state. But Maine is a very diverse place. The greater Portland area, in the southwestern part of Maine, is much like a suburb of Boston, and is called "North Boston" by a lot of us.

Once you have traveled about fifty miles into to the state from the New Hampshire border, you begin to see the rest of Maine, which is mostly small towns separated by miles and miles of wooded rural land. Most of the population of Maine lives in the southwest corner of the state, from Brunswick to New Hampshire.

Here are a couple of things for you to think about...perhaps you already know this:

• The largest city in North Carolina is Charlotte with a population that is TEN TIMES the size of Maine's largest city, Portland.
  
  The entire population of Maine is smaller than the metropolitan Charlotte population. There are only 1.3 million people in Maine, which is about 90% smaller than North Carolina.

Hopefully what this will mean is that Maine is a far more rural place than North Carolina, with far less opportunity for employment, and most of what the rest of the population of this country's urban culture deems to be necessary for "modern" living.

I doubt that there are many people on this forum who would dispute that before you even THINK about relocating, that you come and visit a lot. It is also very important that you be very clear about what it is that you will need to sustain you if you do move here. If you will need to find work, plan on having a hard time. That's the simple truth.

[7th generation]

Snow depth:
NERFC Snow Depth Map

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Snap a string from Providence, RI to Burlington, Vermont. Maine is bigger than all the other 5 New England states combined and has just as much variety as they have. All of Vermont and all of NH is south of where I live.

[GreenGene]

The best season to visit Maine depends on what you intend to do. Winter is obviously the best time for skiing and other winter sports. Summers are wonderful for the coast and lakes - boating, fishing, hiking, etc. Fall is good for foliage, for hunting, for other "winter's coming" kinds of things. And of course spring is good for mud and bugs.

But for general sightseeing, I've found that the best time (if your schedule permits) is September, right after Labor Day but before the leaf-peepers are out in full force. Just about everything is still open, the weather is fantastic, there aren't any crowds ... it's just a really good time.

[NJ Bear]

Statistically I believe the highest average annual snowfall, IIRC by a significant margin, occurs in the mountains in the extreme western part of the state right near the Quebec border.The snow depth map posted above seems to correlate with this.

But if you're talking about places with "towns", Aroostook County usually would win.