First flakes usually show in late October or November. The first snow that stays tends to arrive in mid-to-late November, and from January into February the valley is reliably white. Around Lincoln the valley floor collects roughly 70 to 100 inches over a winter — the nearest long-term stations record 68 inches a year at Plymouth, 84 at North Conway and 101 at Bethlehem — while the summits take several times that. Mount Washington averages 282 inches.
Snowfall and snow cover are different questions, though, and the second one is usually what people are really asking. Here is the season the way it runs.
The season, month by month
November is the shoulder: flurries, the odd plowable storm, brown ground between. Loon opens on snowmaking as soon as the cold holds — November 21 in 2025 — so ski season regularly starts before the landscape looks like winter. December is the wildcard month: some years deliver a white Christmas card by the 10th, others stay patchy into the new year, and the ski trails run white either way because the snow guns do not wait.
January and February are the real thing — deep cover, single-digit cold snaps, the months to book if snow itself is the point of the trip. March softens into the best skiing weather of the year, corn snow and sunglasses. April melts out fast down low; the high trails hold ice and snow into May, which surprises hikers every single year.
How much snow
The valley numbers around Lincoln land in the 70-to-100-inch range over a season. For calibration from the nearest long-term NOAA stations: Plymouth, south of us in the valley, averages 68 inches; North Conway, over the Kancamagus, 84; Bethlehem, just north at slightly higher elevation, 101. Lincoln sits in that band.
Elevation multiplies everything. The 4,000-footers hold real winter for five months, and Mount Washington's 282-inch average is a different climate outright. It is entirely normal to leave a bare brown Main Street and be standing in knee-deep snow 40 min of driving and a thousand feet of climbing later.
What it means for driving
I-93 and the main roads are plowed and salted aggressively — this region runs on winter tourism and keeps its arteries open. A storm day still slows everything: give the plows the duration of the storm, and drive to conditions, not to the speed limit.
The Kancamagus stays open as a plowed through-road all winter, though many overlook lots do not get cleared. All-season tires on a careful driver handle the valley roads fine; snow tires turn winter here from a thing you manage into a thing you stop thinking about. Our winter driving notes on this site go deeper.
When to come, by what you want
Guaranteed deep-winter snow: mid-January through February, no hedging needed. First-tracks skiing with thin crowds: early December midweek, on snowmaking terrain. The full white-mountain postcard with the best odds of blue sky: February. Ice Castles in North Woodstock, when the winter is cold enough for them to build at all, typically run January into February — check their dates before you promise anyone.
The season to avoid promising anyone snow: Thanksgiving through mid-December, when the ground flips white and brown weekly. Come then for the quiet and the fireplaces, and treat any snow as a bonus.
Snow on the trails
Hikers should carry traction — microspikes at minimum — from November through April, and expect full winter conditions above 3,000 feet regardless of what the valley looks like. The trailhead being bare means nothing about the summit.
Snowshoeing and cross-country skiing around Lincoln run reliably January through mid-March. The stillness of the notch under snow, midweek, with nobody else on the trail, is the best-kept secret of this valley's year — we say that as people who could be selling you foliage instead.
From the lodge
Winter is this house's quiet best season: steam heat, fireplaces, the notch 10 min away under snow, and Loon's lifts 6 min from the door. Midweek winter dates are the easiest of the year to book, which we mention because it is the opposite of a secret worth keeping.
Sources & official info: currentresults.com · mountwashington.org · loonmtn.com
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
