A winter storm brought snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain to northern New England on Friday making for a dangerous and slippery commute.
Interstate 89 North between Concord and Hopkinton, N.H., was closed on Friday morning after four tractor-trailers jackknifed and crashed and three cars were involved in separate crashes. State police also reported a jackknifed tractor-trailer in Milford and other vehicles sliding on Route 101.
In Maine, the storm dumped 1 to 3 inches of snow across most of the state, with some higher accumulations.
The storm brought the December snowfall total in Portland to about 5.5 inches, far lower than the 15.9 inches of snow received in November marked by a white Thanksgiving, said Derek Schroeder of the National Weather Service.
“November and December kind of switched” when it came to snowfall, he said.
Much of southern Maine had bare ground before the latest snowfall. Most of the new snow will likely melt as temperatures continue to boomerang between cold and unseasonably mild.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a critical one for the area’s ski resorts.
In Vermont, Mad River Glen ski area shut down a double and its single chairlifts for the day due to icing.
“How the skiing surfaces will be is any one’s guess,” it said on its website, after getting a dusting of snow, followed by freezing rain.
“Freezing precipitation, strong wind and temperatures rising more slowly than predicated” made for challenging conditions” on the slopes at Killington, the resort said on its website. “Between wind, lift icing and refrozen trails, we have limited terrain open” in certain areas.
Mount Snow in southern Vermont assured visitors on its website that the snowmaking system will be fired up on Saturday, when temperatures are expected to drop below freezing.