Winter storm heads to NH: How much snow, sleet will Seacoast get?
Drivers will want to drive carefully Friday and into this weekend, meteorologists say, as the Seacoast New Hampshire area and southern Maine get hit with one to two inches of snow.
The storm is projected to begin early Friday morning with rain in southern New Hampshire, slowly transitioning to snow that will hit the Seacoast around daybreak, according to National Weather Service forecaster Stephen Baron in Gray, Maine. The snow will then continue through until 5 or 6 p.m. Saturday in the Seacoast with the rest of the state seeing their portion of the storm end by 1 a.m. Sunday.
The snow is expected to hit areas north of Concord the hardest, with upper sections of the state like Coos County seeing the worst of the storm around early afternoon Friday. The northern Lakes Region, parts of the North Country and an area west of Concord and Manchester are expected to see 6-12 inches of snow.
The Seacoast will experience a more wet, stickier snow than the rest of the state, according to Baron.
The Seacoast will see a high temperature in the low 40s, while more inland Rockingham County and Strafford County will see temperatures in the 30s, according to Baron. While freezing rain is not expected, drivers will still want to be careful, he said.
“For drivers, we’ve been messaging, if you’re in the areas where we have the warnings, delay any or avoid travel, if possible,” Baron said.
Warmer winter expected. That may not mean less snow.
National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center is projecting a relatively warmer winter based on trends in the El Nino Oscillation, or the warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Baron said that should be taken with a grain of salt, though, because the El Nino has a weak correlation to what happens in New England.
“You want to be cautious,” Baron said.
Warmer winters do not always produce less snow, he said. The National Weather Service is currently predicting a normal amount of snow for the coming winter, which was the case last year, he said. The Christmas weekend is still too far away to tell what will definitely be in store for weather, but Baron said models are currently showing that another storm will be heading for the region.
“It’s too early to talk into too much detail,” Baron said. “As of right now, pretty confident there’s going to be some kind of storm system in the area.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Winter storm watch: How much snow, sleet will Seacoast NH, Maine get?
