Hello everyone!

Today will feature cool temps and cloudy skies as our next storm system begins to approach from the southwest. Precipitation from this system will arrive in southwestern NH around noon in the form of light snow. Yesterday’s Canadian high pressure has dug in over Nova Scotia this morning and will be providing a constant drip of cool dry air throughout the day. As a result, most snowflakes will be evaporating before they hit the ground during the early afternoon hours.

That will change later in the afternoon as a coastal storm begins to intensify off the North Carolina coast. Bands of steady snow will move into southern NH by 4-5 PM and will become heavy shortly after that. Most spots in western Maine can expect steady snow by 6-7 PM with heavy snow arriving in southern areas by 8-9 PM. While this storm will start off as an all-snow event, areas east of I-95 south of Portland and south of route 1 east of Brunswick (the “immediate coastline”) may mix with or change over to rain later tonight.

Snow will continue through the overnight hours before tapering off early tomorrow morning.

Snow totals will range from around 1″ along the coast and in far northern parts of the mountains to around 10″ in interior southern NH. The greatest forecast uncertainty is, as usual, near the rain/snow line right along the coast. It’s also unclear exactly how far northeast the heavy banding needed to produce >6″ totals will extend.

Either way, the snow that does accumulate will be very heavy and wet due to warm temps right around 31-33F. Be ready for some tough shovelling and some power outages especially where >6″ accumulates. That’s usually a good benchmark for picking out spots where tree limbs will start to break under the weight of the snow. Nicer weather returns tomorrow before another system approaches later in the week.

-Jack