After a week of warmer than average temperatures, New England is heading into the weekend before Christmas with snow showers.

The snow will return the biting wind chills and freezing temperatures typical of a New England December back to the region, including New Hampshire and Maine.

In New Hampshire, today’s snow will mostly impact the Seacoast, with a light coating expected across the state. Here’s what to know about the timing, location and effects of today’s snowfall in New Hampshire.

Where in NH will it snow today?

According to the National Weather Service (NWS) of Gray, Maine, light snow showers will fall this evening into tonight across Maine and New Hampshire. The weather system is classified as a weak clipper, meaning it will bring strong winds and cold temperatures, but little precipitation.

Most areas of New Hampshire and Maine will see a light coating, with up to an inch of snow possible along the Seacoast of southeastern New Hampshire and mid-coast Maine. As of right now, the NWS has issued a hazardous weather outlook for south central Maine, southwest Maine and southern New Hampshire.

Driving conditions in NH today

Today’s snowfall will not cause significant accumulation, but the NWS warns that the timing of the storm will affect the evening commute.

NH weather: Will it be a white Christmas in New Hampshire? Here’s the long-range forecast

NH weather this weekend

While the past week has seen above average temperatures, this weekend will turn much colder. On Saturday and Sunday, the coast will see sub-zero wind chills with temperatures in the low 20s or early 30s during the day and the single digits at night.

Nearly a dozen New Hampshire communities are hosting vigils this week to remember friends and family who passed away because of homelessness this year. Keene hosted a vigil on Monday, Concord is scheduled for Thursday, with others scheduled for Saturday.

Click here for more details on the vigils scheduled around New Hampshire this week.

“It’s the first night of winter, the longest night of the year, the darkest day of the year,” said Maggie Fogarty from the American Friends Service Committee. “It’s a good time for a solemn reflection on the loss of our siblings to homelessness, also coming as it does during a season of celebration and of light.”

Fogarty helps compile the list of people who will be remembered at these vigils. She explained that it includes people who passed away while being unhoused, as well as people who died prematurely because of the toll from being unhoused, even after finding housing.

About 60 people will be remembered this year, either just with their name, or a memory from someone who knew them. While some names are submitted by friends and family, most are from people who provide supportive services to unhoused people.

She added that these vigils are also a chance for community members to reflect and commit to advocacy, especially because 2025 is a budget-writing year for state government.

“That commitment to system change and to ensuring that public policy, not just charity, combine to protect everyone from poverty,” she said. “That’s as important an aspect of this remembrance as the coming together as a community to remember our siblings.”

According to a new report, New Hampshire saw the highest percentage rise in homelessness in the country between 2022 and 2023. The number of people facing homelessness in the Granite State went up by roughly 52%, while other states’ saw an average increase of 12% during the same time period, according to the report.

The report is put out annually by the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness using information from a “point in time” count, which is an effort to count the number of homeless individuals in the state on a single day each year.

That data in the latest report suggests that New Hampshire saw a decline in veterans experiencing homelessness between 2022 and 2023. But the problem worsened for people dealing with chronic homelessness, single adults, families and sheltered individuals.

NHPR’s Olivia Richardson contributed to this report.

Trade group now has 23 members working in a growing state sector

NH Life Sciences, a statewide trade group representing the life sciences industry in the Granite State, capped its inaugural year by adding several new members, bringing its total to 23, the group announced Thursday.

“As a newly formed association, our members have the unique ability to help guide the direction of New Hampshire’s life sciences growth,” said Andrea Hechavarria, president & CEO of NH Life Sciences, in a press release.

New Hampshire’s bioscience industry employed 9,330 individuals in 2023 across 1,048 business establishments, according to a Dec. 2 report by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Council of State Bioscience Associations, of which NH Life Sciences is a member.

The new NH Life Sciences member companies are:

• Resonetics, a Nashua-based medical company that provides medical device advanced engineering, prototyping, product development and micro manufacturing.
• BA Sciences, a Salem-based company that offers a full-service analytical testing laboratory.
• Ovik Health, a Portsmouth-based health-care technology company with products ranging from wound and burn dressings, compression solutions, to tapes and bandages.

NH Life Sciences also added its first group of associate members who support the life sciences industry:

• Decco, a Nashua provider of specialized construction, maintenance, critical equipment handling and fabrication services to biopharmaceutical, technology and industrial clients throughout New England
• Ethikos Tech, an IT professional services firm.
• Middlesex Gases, a third-generation company manufacturing and analyzing specialty gases for biotechnology and life science companies that serves companies in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
• Piquette and Howard Electrical, a Plaistow-based service-disabled veteran-owned small business and regional electrical contractor that has an extensive portfolio of life sciences companies.
• SkyTerra, a Nashua-based provider of customized IT support for life sciences and biotech companies.

New Hampshire Life Sciences launched in January, when Novocure, an oncology company with its North American flagship location in Portsmouth, and Novo Nordisk, a global health care company with operations in West Lebanon, signed on as founding members. It has since added MilliporeSigma and Lonza Portsmouth as founding members, as well as other member and industry partners.