Heavy Snow — Western and Central Hillsborough, New Hampshire

2019-12-01 to 2019-12-03 · Western and Central Hillsborough, New Hampshire

Event narrative

On the evening of December 1st a band of heavy snowfall lifted out of Massachusetts into southwest New Hampshire. Snowfall rates were observed to be in excess of 1 inch per hour in the late evening before snow began to taper. Snow came in waves through the day on December 2nd, adding additional snowfall that was aided by upsloping easterly flow. Finally as surface low pressure retrograded into the Gulf of Maine one final band of heavy snow developed overhead before weakening. Snowfall totals ranged from 6 to 12 inches by the morning of the 2nd, with storm total snowfall on the afternoon of the 3rd ranging from 20 inches in central Hillsborough County to in excess of 30 inches in the Monadnock Region.

Wider weather episode

A closed upper low progressed across the northern half of the U.S. with multi-center surface lows pinwheeling around it. One surface low approached New England on the evening of December 1st. A band of heavy snow moved into southern New Hampshire before stalling and weakening early on the 2nd. Snow continued off and on through the 2nd across the southern half of New Hampshire with surface low pressure stalled near the 40N/70W benchmark. On the 3rd a strong shortwave trough approached from the northwest and surface low pressure once again deepened and retrograded into the Gulf of Maine. This led to the development of several bands of heavy snow on the 3rd that eventually weakened and moved east, bringing snow to an end.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 860547. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.