Decreasing Snow Cover and Increasing Temperatures Are Accelerating in New England, USA, with Long-Term Implications

As the planet warms, not all regions are heating at the same rate. While North America is not one of the fastest warming continents, New England in Northeastern United States is warming faster than most other regions. This research evaluates how fast temperatures are rising and snow cover declining in New England. Three monthly mean air temperature data sets (minimum, average, maximum) from the United States Historical Climatological Network (USHCN) from 1900 to 2025 were used along with two MODIS/Terra satellite data sets: Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Monthly L3 Global 0.05 Degree (MOD13C3) data and Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 0.05 Degree (MOD10C2) data (2000 to 2025). Univariate Differencing and the Mann–Kendall test were used on all three data sets to evaluate change over time at the seasonal and annual levels for New England and each of the six states. A time series regression analysis was undertaken to determine the relationship between snow cover and land surface temperature. Results show six major trends: (1) the existence of three distinct periods of temperature change, with most of the warming occurring since the late-1980s; (2) strong seasonal variations where winter is warming almost twice as fast as any other season; (3) minimum and nighttime temperatures are rising faster than maximum and daytime temperatures, especially since the 1980s; (4) snow cover is decreasing throughout New England, and rapidly in southern New England which has lost over 30–40% of snow cover days between 2000 and 2025; (5) there is a strong inverse relationship between snow cover change and land surface temperature change indicating that snow cover loss is a factor warming New England; and (6) most striking is the acceleration of temperature and snow cover decline in the past 5-year period. This research also discusses six major implications for these temperature and snow cover changes for New England.