A winter storm warning has been issued for most of central Maine through Saturday evening.

According to meteorologist Hunter Tubbs at the Gray National Weather Service, the Augusta area will see around 5 to 8 inches of snow by late afternoon, with the potential for freezing rain.

“A storm warning generally means impact for weather conditions are expected,” Tubbs said. “The winter warning is different than advisory, where it is more cautionary, and warning is higher impact on travel and life.”

Sean Goodwin, director of the Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency, is not phased by the storm.

“It’s around 4 inches of snow, it’s no big deal,” he said. “People are still out traveling and shopping and we don’t consider it a problem.”

He doesn’t think that power outages should be an issue for the Augusta-area and Tubbs agrees that the outages are not the main concern of the storm. As of 1:30 p.m., 202 people were without power in Clinton, the only town in Kennebec county and central Maine to experience outages at that time. By 2:54 p.m., power appeared to be restored as Central Maine Power was listing no outages for Kennebec County.

Tubbs said the bigger concern is the impact of travel, especially as snow starts to cover spots that received mixed precipitation.

“It may cover up icy spots and people may not be able to see (the ice),” Tubbs said. “It will create slippery sidewalks and road conditions.”

The storm is moving up north quickly and more freezing rain may be expected later on in the afternoon.

As for snowfall totals in the morning, Augusta and Hallowell had 3 inches at 8:42 a.m., rising slowly to 4 inches just after 1 p.m.

The city of Augusta released a reminder to the community about snow removal, explaining that residents of the city are not allowed to shovel their own snow and dispose of it into the street. In addition, residents can not shovel snow from their property and dispose of it onto their neighbors’.

For the Waterville-area, the town can expect to see around 4 to 6 inches by the evening, according to meteorologist Derek Schroeter, also from the Gray National Weather Service.

As of 1 p.m., Schroeter said that the snow will taper off by late afternoon, but that there would still be potential for the area to receive around 8 inches of snow. Winslow was reporting about 5 inches of snow, but there were no reports of snow totals in Waterville or Skowhegan, yet.

On Sunday, the state should not be seeing much wind and temperatures are expected to be in the low 30s throughout the week, he said.

Schroeter is watching another low pressure system off the coast on Sunday night into Monday and doesn’t think that it will make it to shore, but he notes Mainers may see overcast skies and flurries of snow as a result.