New England snowfall so far topping last winter in some locations

Last month, Boston broke a streak stretching well over 1,000 days in which the city hadn’t seen more than 4 inches of snowfall in a single day. On Dec. 20, the city saw 5.2 inches. In addition, nearly 2 inches of snow fell this past Saturday with a couple more days of small but measurable amounts. This sets the season total so far at 7.5 inches while only 4 inches had fallen by this time last winter.

Boston managed to avoid the heaviest snow from a major storm that hit Jan. 6-7, 2024, when the worst of the system stayed west of I-95.

Overall, Boston got only 9.8 inches last winter, the city’s fourth-lowest snow total on record, dating back to 1890.

Worcester, on the other hand, got walloped by that January 2024 storm, which dumped more than 14 inches of snow over the city. A few other storms brought last winter’s snow total to 16.8 inches. So far this year? The city of hills has tallied 12.4 inches.

The same storm on Jan. 6 and 7 last winter brought 5.6 inches to the Providence area after a snowless December 2023, but that was essentially it for the first half of the 2023-24 winter. This season, the city has so far seen just 3 inches of snow.

The first half of the 2023-24 season produced 12.4 inches of snow and so far this time around, the Concord area has seen 7.5 inches, pacing well behind last year.

That one-off storm last January propelled Manchester’s snow totals to 10 inches at this point last season. So far this winter, Manchester has seen a little more than half that amount, at 5.8 inches of snow.

After a quiet December 2023, Portland saw the bulk of the January 2024 storm, propelling the first half of last winter’s snow totals to 13.4 inches. So far this season, the city has reached just over half of that, tallying 7 inches for the port district.

The storm track this winter has brought more consistent snow to northern Vermont, with Burlington racking up an impressive 27 inches of snow so far — nearly double last winter’s snowfall at this point. Last year’s first half of winter only totaled 14.1 inches, the bulk falling from that early January storm.

• Milton: 13.9 inches last winter versus 14.3 inches this year at this point.

• Beverly: 7.4 inches last winter versus 4.1 inches this year at this point.

• Amherst: 11.5 inches last winter versus 5.7 inches this year at this point.

It’s been a marginally colder-than-average winter thus far across New England, which has helped keep snowfall on the ground longer, and the weather looks to continue this trend with two more weeks left in the month.

A blast of Arctic air is set to move in on Tuesday that will make it feel bitter cold with temperatures struggling to climb out of the teens. Many areas are going to experience single digits and even near-zero temps by Wednesday morning.

With colder air present, that usually means the chances for significant precipitation remains low with dry air typically accompanying colder-than-average air. Of course, you need cold air in place to produce snow versus rain, so it just takes one system with enough energy to produce a hefty snowmaker.

A frontal system will bring rain on Saturday, but forecasters are more keenly interested in a storm system approaching Sunday night that could bring snow to New England into the Monday holiday. We’ll be closely monitoring the weather models today and Friday to see how much of an impact this storm will have on us.

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Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.