December began for New Hampshire with a bang, kicking off with a snowstorm that left residents in some towns digging out from more than a foot of snowfall on Monday morning – with more to come.
Anticipating a foot of snow to drop the ConVal, Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative, Mascenic and Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative school canceled school for Monday.
Cheshire County was hit hardest in the state, with some towns getting as many as 13 inches overnight into Monday morning, Mike Ekster, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Gray, Maine station, said Monday.
In the Monadnock Region, Rindge and Greenville were among the towns with the highest accumulations, with central Peterborough getting between 8 to 10 inches, according to National Weather Service reports.
But Monday’s totals were just the start of what Ekster termed a “double-barrel” system bearing down on the region. While accumulations were light over the course of Monday, the National Weather Service was tracking a second low pressure system expected to dump another 3 to 6 inches on the state on Monday night, continuing through dawn on Tuesday.
The region remained under a winter storm warning throughout Monday, which was expected to stay in place until Tuesday morning.
“Southern New Hampshire, around the Monadnock area, have big snowfalls as early as November, occasionally October. Now that it’s December, it’s fair game,” Ekster said.
However, the Weather Service isn’t expecting any more snow until the end of the week, giving residents a few days respite to clean up the aftermath of the season’s first big storm.
Despite – or perhaps because of – the heavy accumulations, local police departments reported few accidents.
Sgt. Brian Lord of the Antrim Police Department said Monday morning that there hadn’t been any accidents reported in his town.
“Everyone’s staying home and off the roads,” he said.
Some municipal services shut down for the day, with the towns of Antrim, Wilton and Lyndeborough announcing the closure of their town offices
Those accidents that were reported took place on Sunday night, as the storm was getting started.
In Peterborough, as usual, Route 101 over Temple Mountain became a trouble spot, with cars and tractor-trailers unable to make the trek over the rising slope, according to Peterborough Police Chief Scott Guinard on Monday.
Police began to receive calls about cars getting stuck on the roadway at about 6:45 p.m. on Sunday, and called the state to ask for the road to receive extra attention, along with Hancock Road and Dublin Road.
Shortly before 9 p.m., police were called to Route 101 for a report of a tractor-trailer which couldn’t make it over the mountain. Police were on scene until nearly 11 p.m. as a large tow truck was called from Milford to assist getting the tractor-trailer on its way, but had only just left the scene when another tractor-trailer had the same issue, also requiring a tow truck.
Problems continued on Route 101 into Wilton on Sunday, with police responding to a crash on Route 101 just as the storm began, when a Ford Ranger pick-up, driven by Deven Demello, 26, of Wilton, went off the road and struck a tree.
Demello was not injured, but his truck sustained front-end damage and had to be towed from the scene.
Wilton police also responded to a rollover crash at about 5 p.m. on Sunday, where a Toyota Tundra had lost control due to the snowy conditions and had rolled onto its side. The driver, Todd Tonnesen, 41, of Antrim, was not injured.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.