Good morning, skiers and snowboarders! Most of New England woke up to temperatures in the single digits - teens this morning under mostly cloudy skies. Mountain snow showers are likely throughout the morning and afternoon hours today. Accumulations will likely not be significant, but these brief showers could provide a thin layer of fresh snow for many resorts. Clearing is possible during the afternoon today. Plenty of snow should be left over from Sunday’s storm, so expect snow conditions to be mostly powder / packed powder, along with machine-groomed terrain.

Photo from yesterday at Bretton Woods (courtesy of @bretton_woods on Twitter).

High pressure returns briefly tonight into Wednesday. Overnight lows will drop into the lower teens and single digits for most of New England under partly cloudy skies. Clouds will arrive on Wednesday morning ahead of a major low pressure system. This storm is very good news for ski resorts around the region. Snow will begin falling in New York and Western New England before noontime, and will encompass the entire New England region by the early afternoon. Snowfall will be heaviest during the afternoon-evening hours. The rain-snow line for this system will align roughly with the coast of Maine as this storm traverses the region, so the majority of ski resorts will see snow for the duration of the storm. Possible exceptions to this are Massachusetts and southernmost New Hampshire resorts, which could see some mixed precipitation in addition to snow. Here is the current NAM run:

GIF courtesy of College of DuPage.

By the time the low pressure center moves to our east overnight, snowfall accumulations of 8-12” will have fallen across the region. Here is a graphic of projected snowfall amounts for this storm:

Total snowfall estimates map courtesy of Plymouth State.

Some upslope snow showers will likely linger into Thursday. Otherwise, skies will be partly sunny with high temperatures in the upper teens. It’s definitely a safe bet to call Thursday a powder day, regardless of which mountain you choose to ski at.

New England will continue in a very active stretch of weather as we head into the weekend. The chance for more snow returns on Friday in the form of an Alberta Clipper. This system will bring snow showers to our area throughout the day. Accumulations will likely be on the order of 1-3”.

High pressure builds again over New England on Saturday before another low pressure system arrives on Sunday. As of now, above freezing temperatures look to be in place prior to this storm, making a rain-snow mix a possibility for Sunday. This storm is still 5 days out, so we will continue to monitor changes in this pattern as we work our way through this week. Please continue to check back for updates! Thanks for reading!

Lauren McCarthy, Plymouth State Graduate Student