The Weekend Weather Whammy: Northern New England Braces for a Treacherous Winter Mix

Well, here we go again, it seems — another one of those 'messy' storms, the kind that just refuses to pick a lane, is making its rather unwelcome way toward Northern New England this weekend. And honestly, it’s a tricky one, promising a veritable hodgepodge of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and plain old rain, making for some truly hazardous conditions from Friday night straight through Saturday. You could say it’s the meteorological equivalent of a teenager’s bedroom: a bit of everything, and nothing quite where it should be.

Forecasters, bless their hearts, are calling this a particularly challenging system to nail down. Why? Because the temperature roulette wheel will be spinning wildly across the region. Those living inland, especially in parts of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, are likely to see the heaviest snow accumulation, possibly enough to warrant breaking out the shovels, perhaps even the snow blower for once. But don’t get too comfortable, because that snow, in truth, is destined to transition into a nasty cocktail of ice and sleet before eventually giving way to rain in many spots. It’s a real shapeshifter of a storm, you see.

Now, if you’re closer to the coast, particularly in southern Maine and coastal New Hampshire, the story changes a bit. While you might start with a brief dusting of snow, the warmer air from the Atlantic will likely mean a quicker shift to rain, and a whole lot of it. Still, let’s not discount the threat of freezing rain, even near the coast, which could create a dangerously slick glaze on roads and walkways before the temperatures climb enough to wash it all away. Imagine, if you will, black ice hiding beneath a thin sheet of water — that’s the kind of scenario we’re trying to avoid.

The big concern, beyond the obvious travel headaches, is the potential for power outages. Ice, as we all know, is a silent destroyer of power lines and tree branches. A quarter-inch of ice accumulation, for instance, can add hundreds of pounds to power lines, bringing them crashing down. And with this kind of mixed bag, honestly, a few hours of freezing rain can cause more havoc than a foot of dry, fluffy snow. So, if you’re in those prime ice zones, it’s probably a good idea to charge those devices and dig out the flashlight.

The storm really kicks into gear late Friday, lingering through Saturday morning, before finally pushing out by Saturday afternoon. The bottom line? If you absolutely have to be on the roads, exercise extreme caution. But for most of us, this weekend might just be a really good time to stay put, curl up with a book, and let this complicated, unpredictable winter mess do its thing outside. Sometimes, the best way to deal with a storm is simply to wait it out, don't you think?