NH braces for third winter storm in a week, as some remain in the dark

Paul Feely, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
·2 min read

Jan. 25—As a third winter storm system in less than a week taking aim at New Hampshire Wednesday evening, about 1,400 customers in the Granite State remained without power from the last storm.

Even as utility crews worked through the day Wednesday to restore power Eversource, the state's largest utility, warned additional outages were possible in this latest storm.

"With the support of crews from neighboring states and Canada, our dedicated employees continue to make significant progress repairing the electric system — restoring power to more than 232,000 customers in the Granite State since Sunday," said Eversource New Hampshire President of Electric Operations Doug Foley in a statement. "As the next wave of winter weather approaches the region, we continue to focus on restoring all current outages while also closely monitoring the forecast to shift resources around the state as necessary."

According to the latest forecast, snow is expected to transition to a period of mixed precipitation with freezing rain overnight before changing to rain by Thursday morning. Total snow accumulations are expected to range from 2 to 7 inches, with the highest in the Concord area.

While the snow will be drier at the start of the storm, the consistency is expected to become wetter as the changeover occurs, raising the potential for more scattered outages as heavy, wet snow collects on trees and powerlines — some of which are still snow covered from Monday's storm.

Winds are also forecast to increase overnight Wednesday, with gusts of 25-35 mph and isolated peak gusts up to 40 mph.

"Our crews have been working tirelessly to get the lights back on for all of our customers since Monday, but unfortunately we've got another storm on our doorstep," Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O'Meara said in a statement. "While warmer temperatures and some sunshine (Tuesday) helped melt some snow from trees in parts of the region, the combination of more heavy snow and gusty winds has the potential to damage trees and powerlines, which could result in additional outages."