Meteorological winter has come to a close. Many will look back on three months of colder and snowier-than-normal conditions across Greater Boston and much of New England.
Providence saw the snowiest winter on record, with 68.5 inches falling between Dec. 1 and Feb 28. Boston finished with the ninth snowiest winter on record, racking up 60.9 inches.
Sure, astronomical spring doesn’t arrive until the spring equinox, set to occur on Friday, March 20. And there could very well be another snowstorm in March, or as we’ve seen on April 1, 1997, when there was the “April Fool’s Storm” that dumped two feet of snow in Boston.
Still, in the world of meteorology, our seasons are shaped by full months — so let’s break down December through February across the region.
More snow than normal, except for Maine
To no surprise, snowfall occurred frequently across most of New England this winter. An active weather pattern kept the jet stream over New England for much of the season, almost locked there. This brought two things. More storms and more shots of cold, but more on the cold below.
Two major storms across Southern New England launched seasonal snow totals into a podium finish for some cities. We already know about Providence and Boston, but Worcester, Bridgeport, Conn., and Hartford also saw top-15 finishes for the snowiest winter on record.
On the flip side, there was a sharp northern cutoff in snowfall this meteorological winter. Northern Maine saw over a foot less snow than normal, with areas like Caribou finishing with approximately 17 inches of snow normal.
This signals a storm track that was a bit more offshore than over the interior portions of New England this winter.
Colder than normal across all six states
We saw cold snap after cold snap blanket New England this winter, mainly from a variable jet stream that was weakly influenced by La Niña, the cooling of waters over the equatorial Pacific ocean off the west coast of South America.
Quick refresher, our La Niña event drove the jet stream north over the Pacific and delivered record-setting warm temperatures this winter over the western United States. Where the jet stream bows north, typically cold air sinks south downstream. And that’s what happened, with the entire Northeast experiencing colder-than-average temperatures.
Boston saw an average winter temperature of 29.3 degrees, over 3 degrees colder than normal. Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Pittsfield, Hartford, Concord, N.H., and Portland, Maine all saw an average winter temp range of 3 to 4 degrees below normal.
For many, this was the coldest winter in 11 years, dating back to the historic winter of 2014-2015 in terms of cold and snow.
Take a look at the rankings of warmest (red and orange) winters and coldest (blue and purple) across all of the reporting sites across the country. That’s a pretty impressive image depicting how steeply divided the country was with the type of winter temperatures we experienced.
What a divided winter across the country! 12-1 to 2-28.
— Ken Mahan (@WeathermanMahan) March 3, 2026
Rankings: Out west, the warmest winter on record for many, but once you cross the Mississippi River, cold, cold, and more cold.
Classic western ridge & eastern trough setup this winter. #winter #mawx #riwx @BostonGlobe pic.twitter.com/8ekxeC5tnd
Despite more snow, precipitation was lacking this winter
Just a quick note to bring to light here. Even though most of the region saw more snowfall than normal, we hardly had any rainfall events this winter. Precipitation is all elements combined — rain, snow, sleet, and ice. And the entire New England region saw below normal precipitation this winter.
Now, having virtually no rain this winter is a really good short-term benefit. We avoided massive runoff flooding events with how cold it’s been. The ground was, and still is, frozen solid and there’s plenty of snowpack, so we would have been in trouble if a slog of rain came over the region in between cold spells.
With the lack of precipitation, our snowmelt along may not fully replenish our ground water supply heading into astronomical spring and drought may continue to be a problem heading into the depths of the spring season if we don’t pick up some good rain in March and April.
Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.