Once again, we have received another batch of snow for New England, causing the greatest impact in the northern portion of New Hampshire as well as coastal Maine. Though the storm was more localized in terms of snowfall, many locations received in excess of 6 inches added on to their snow pack. Mountains such as Wildcat, Cannon, Sugarloaf, Sunday River, and Attitash received near a foot of snow, an impressive amount from such a variable storm. Other locations not in the centralized snowfall region received around half a foot, such as Jay Peak and Bretton Woods. The snow pack for New England overall is very impressive due to the bounty of storms we have been hit with recently.

Some lingering snow showers will persist for the remainder of the morning as the system circulates north of Maine. The result will be a strong pressure gradient that will induce a strong northwesterly wind, meaning some cold temperatures for the next couple of days. While today’s high will remain in the lower 30’s, the overnight low will drop down into the teens with a windchill factor dropping these temperatures even lower.

Friday looks to have the same outlook with regard to temperature, but in addition, we will finally be granted some partly sunny skies during a lull in the seemingly constant slamming of storms that New England has received over the past couple of weeks. This will mark the beginning of our downward trend toward the start of spring.

This weekend and the coming week is looking to be both a warm up and a much needed break for the Northeast, as no storms are currently in sight. A brief system may bring some snow showers to extreme northern NH and VT on Sunday, but is not likely to amount to much. Temperatures, especially this weekend, will be abnormally high for February, as many will see daily highs in the high 30’s to low to mid 40’s, a drastic change from the bitter sub-freezing temperature we have grown accustomed to over the first half of this month.

As can be expected from a rise in temperatures, melting is definitely expected for many of the slopes in New England, which may not be too good of news for skiers. However, the overnight lows will for the most part stay below freezing, meaning snow-making will still be possible to make up for the snow pack we will likely lose as a result of this warm up. Though spring is not here yet, the first tastes of warmer weather are certainly making it look like it could be just around the corner.

Julia Moreland, Undergraduate Plymouth State University/New England Daily Snow