MANCHESTER, NH – Here’s the scoop on what to expect with Tuesday’s snow event, direct from meteorologist Andy Pohl of the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
“Our official forecast for Manchester is 4.4 inches of snow, but you can safely say 3-5 inches before it’s over,” Pohl said, based on the most current storm track.
Snow is falling in upstate New York and Vermont as of 1:45 p.m. which means it should hit New Hampshire by 6 p.m., 7 p.m. Tuesday night at the latest.
SNOW EMERGENCY IN EFFECT FOR JAN. 29-30. NO PARKING ON CITY STREETS 10 P.M. TO 6 A.M.
Snow will continue overnight hours and should be done by the morning commute in Manchester, with prolonged snowfall further north into Maine.
One shift has been the expected temperatures, which now are forecast to be colder than initially thought, so that means no changeover to rain in the Manchester area.
Temperatures will warm up over night – not above freezing, but reaching a high of 28 degrees by morning, then a return to frigid temperatures, with zero degrees for Wednesday night into Thursday and high temperature Thursday in the lower teens. Thursday morning should bring single-digit temperatures.
As for seasonal snow totals so far, month to date in Manchester are 8.7 inches, with 22 inches of snow so far for the season. Last year at this time our month-to-date was 16.1 inches, with 31.1 inches for the season. Those, of course, are unofficial totals. Official totals are measured in Concord, where currently there has been 11.6 inches of snow for the month and 28.3 inches for the season. The “normal” totals for Concord are 16.4 for the month and 33.5 for the season.
“So right now we’re about 4.8 inches below ‘normal’ for the month and 5.2 inches below normal for the season,” said Pohl.
But anything can happen between now and ice out.
“We did some climatic research last year and found that some of our biggest snow storms hit between March 10 and 15. All it takes is one good snowstorm to catch us up,” Pohl said.
In other words, beware the Ides of March.
