Snow storm expected to hit Seacoast NH, Maine: Here's look at how much is in forecast

Ian Lenahan, Portsmouth Herald
Updated ·2 min read

A minimum of 4 inches of snow is likely to fall in greater Seacoast New Hampshire and southern Maine this weekend in the region's first snowstorm of 2024, according to the National Weather Service.

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The agency’s Weather Prediction Center predicted Thursday much of the Seacoast and southern Maine has a 50% to 70% chance of receiving 4 inches of snow this weekend. Inland, parts of Strafford County have been given a 70% to 90% likelihood of at least 4 inches of snow.

The National Weather Service is tracking a storm that could bring snow to much of the East Coast this weekend. Communities in the Seacoast, Strafford County and southern Maine have a high probability of receiving at least four inches of snow from the system, which will last late Saturday throughout Sunday.
The National Weather Service is tracking a storm that could bring snow to much of the East Coast this weekend. Communities in the Seacoast, Strafford County and southern Maine have a high probability of receiving at least four inches of snow from the system, which will last late Saturday throughout Sunday.

If the high probability of precipitation comes to fruition, it would mark the first significant snowfall of the 2023-24 winter season.

“There is increasing confidence that the first significant winter storm of 2024 will bring ice and snow from the Southern Appalachians through New England,” the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center stated on social media Thursday. “Hazardous travel is likely into the weekend.”

Meteorologist Greg Cornwell with the National Weather Service’s Gray, Maine, office said snow will begin falling Saturday evening just before midnight and last through much of Sunday.

The system is expected to impact all of New England, as well as Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. But it appears that communities in southern New Hampshire, central and western Massachusetts, interior Connecticut and southern New York will receive higher snowfall totals than other areas in the 12 states, Cornwell said.

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“Overall our confidence has been increasing that in portions of southeast New Hampshire, there will see at least 4 inches of snow,” he shared Thursday.

The snow storm at Hampton Beach Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.
The snow storm at Hampton Beach Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.

Forecasters in Gray are expected to finalize predictions for snowfall totals by Friday.

The East Coast storm looks like it will bring “significant accumulations of heavy and wet snow” throughout the mid-Atlantic and New England, the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center advised.

Wind gusts in the Seacoast could hit upwards of 20 to 30 mph from the Northeast, Cornwell said. The system should exit the region Sunday evening.

The meteorologist suggested Maine and New Hampshire residents in the storm’s projected path to review their home snow removal process and ready their shovels and car brushes.

Meteorologists are also tracking a warmer storm system that could make landfall in the region next week with possible rain and snow.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Snow storm expected to hit Seacoast NH, Maine