– By DAVE GRAM

The Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. – A fierce late-winter storm blanketed northern New England and upstate New York with as much as 30 inches of snow Monday.

In northern Vermont, drifting and blowing snow caused whiteout conditions and a 10- to 12-mile section of Interstate 89 was closed for hours. Thirty inches of snow was reported in Jericho in northwestern Vermont at midday, the National Weather Service said, and the Burlington Airport got its biggest March snowfall on record: 24.3 inches by 5 p.m.

Spring’s arrival in just two weeks meant the most popular types of snow shovels were sold out at Aubuchon Hardware in downtown Montpelier. Grass seed was on display.

“Smile, folks — it’s coming,” Tom Walbridge said of spring.

It was a different story outdoors.

Amy Newman jogged along Main Street pushing a three-wheeled stroller with knobby tires and carrying her 3-year-old son, Wakeland. She laughed about her disrupted routine.

“We tried going to the library, but it was closed. Then we tried La Brioche” — a popular bakery — “but it was closed, too.”

The storm helped push the winter of 2010-11 up the record list. It’s now the fourth-snowiest winter on record in Burlington, at 121.4 inches, and the storm appeared potent enough to challenge the famous Valentine’s Day storm that dumped 25.7 inches on Burlington in 2007, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bruce Taber.

“We had almost a tropical air mass across southern New England that was trying to push north at the same time a polar air mass was trying to push south,” he said. “It was that battleground that created this intense snowfall.”

Maine got rain on the coast, and as much as 20 inches of snow in some inland areas.

“There’s a little bit of everything,” said Margaret Curtis, National Weather Service meteorologist in Gray, which got freezing rain at one point during the storm.

In northern Maine, rain fell for 18 hours and then turned to sleet and heavy snow. That added to the misery for mushers who left Saturday from Fort Kent on a grueling 250-mile dog sled race, the Can-Am Crown.

About half of the participants dropped out. The others began crossing the finish line Monday, said race marshal George Theriault.

Several rivers were nearing flood stage in New Hampshire as heavy rains combined with melting snow. Officials were also concerned that higher temperatures would cause ice dams to form.

Firefighters in Newport, N.H., used a boat to rescue an adult and three children as the South Branch of the Sugar River rose around their home.