While heavy wildfire smoke has dominated headlines across the Eastern U.S. this week, chilly air has quietly worked its way into Northern New England over the past few days. In fact, snow has been falling across the higher elevations of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

The weather station atop Mt. Washington at 6,288 feet reported 4.2 inches of new snow for the day on Wednesday, June 7th.

Check out the wintry scene at the summit on Thursday morning, June 8th:

As of 5:00 pm local time, snow cover remained on the summit with a temperature of only 33ºF. Also, air quality has been good across Northern New Hampshire on Thursday as the plume of wildfire smoke originating from Canada has shifted west and south of the area.

How unusual is it for Mt. Washington to receive snow at this time of year? Snow itself is not that unusual as the summit weather station averages 1.3 inches of snow during the month of June.

However, the amount of snow that accumulated on Wednesday was impressive for this time of year from a historical standpoint. The all-time 24-hour snowfall record on Mt. Washington's summit in June is 5.1 inches (1988). So Wednesday's event came within an inch of the record.

Also, Wednesday marked the fourth day in a row with measurable snowfall on the summit, and Thursday will likely end up being the fifth day in a row with measurable snow. 

The summit weather station has now received a total of 6.1 inches of snow for the month as of the end of the day on Wednesday. 

The all-time June snowfall record is 8.1 inches (1959), so depending on how much snow accumulates on Thursday and possibly Friday, breaking this record is not out of the question.

OpenSnow's estimated snowfall for the top of Mt. Washington has been close to reality this week with 6 inches estimated to have fallen in the past 5 days.

Our estimated snowfall is based on our own proprietary weather model blend and is especially useful for backcountry regions (for both hiking and skiing) when first-hand snow reports aren't available, as most mountain summits do not have weather stations like Mt. Washington does. 

Looking ahead, Mt. Washington and the White Mountains will see a gradual moderation of temperatures starting on Friday (June 9) and continuing into next week.

Snow will remain possible through Friday, then a transition back to predominantly liquid precipitation can be expected in the days to follow along with gusty winds and a chance of thunderstorms. 

Check out our 10-day and Hourly Weather Forecast for Mt. Washington:

And don't forget that you can use our Forecast Anywhere feature to find the best weather windows for hiking and any other outdoor activities this summer. This feature allows you to get and save custom point forecasts for any location and elevation in the world.