Boston Snow Forecast 2026-2027: The February Blizzard and 90 Years of Data
Boston's February 2026 blizzard dropped 17.1 inches on Logan Airport. Here is what that storm really measured, plus 90 years of station data for winter 2026-2027.
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Boston's winter forecast for 2026-2027 comes right after a season that already broke a state record next door. Last winter's February 2026 blizzard dropped 17.1 inches on Logan Airport in one day and 37.9 inches on Providence, Rhode Island, its heaviest storm ever measured. We pulled 90 years of Logan station data to see what a strong El Nino winter actually does here, and what last winter's real numbers already showed.
What is the winter forecast for Boston in 2026-2027?
A milder, wetter lean nationally, with genuine disagreement on what that means for snow in New England specifically. NOAA's El Nino data points to a historically strong event. The Old Farmer's Almanac and the Farmers' Almanac both cover Boston but split the region differently, and neither gives a number in inches.
What is not in dispute is what actually happened last winter. Logan Airport finished the 2025-26 season at 62.8 inches, 128 percent of normal, driven by two real storms this page covers in detail below.
How much snow did Boston get in last winter's February 2026 blizzard?
17.1 inches in a single day at Logan Airport, the National Weather Service's own measurement for 23 February 2026, during the 2025-26 season right before the 2026-2027 winter this page forecasts. The wider storm window added up to 18.9 inches over five days, and the same nor'easter set Rhode Island's all-time state snowfall record.
Massachusetts towns south of Boston were hit far harder than the city itself. Fall River recorded 41 inches, the highest total in the state, with New Bedford, Somerset, Kingston and Lakeville all near 36 to 37 inches, according to Boston.com's town-by-town NWS and COCORAHS data. Wellfleet, out on Cape Cod, recorded a 98 mph wind gust as the storm's pressure dropped 41 millibars in 24 hours, a rate meteorologists call bombogenesis.
The storm still fell short of Logan's own top-10 single-day snowfalls, landing 4.4 inches behind the record, according to CBS Boston's own follow-up reporting, which cites Rob Macedo, the SKYWARN coordinator for the National Weather Service's Taunton office. More than 600,000 customers lost power at the storm's peak and Logan cancelled 958 flights, per contemporaneous reporting on the storm.
How did the rest of last winter (2025-26) go?
Snowier than normal well beyond that one blizzard. Logan Airport's full 2025-26 season reached 62.8 inches, 128 percent of its own 1991-2020 normal, making it roughly the 13th snowiest winter in the station's 90 years of record, well short of the extremes but a real, above-normal season.
A second major storm hit weeks earlier. NOAA's own daily station data shows the storm of 25-26 January 2026 dropped 16.7 inches on its first day and 6.5 on its second, a 23.2-inch two-day total at Logan, roughly a month before the bigger February storm.
Comparison: what NOAA, the Old Farmer's Almanac and the Farmers' Almanac say
Two real forecasts are live for Boston right now, and neither gives a number in inches. NOAA's own branded Winter Outlook and AccuWeather's seasonal forecast are not out yet, both typically arriving in October, so this page states plainly what exists today.
| Source | Published | Boston-area call |
|---|---|---|
| NOAA (Climate Prediction Center) | 13 Aug 2026 (ENSO discussion, not the full Outlook) | Greater than 90% chance of a very strong El Nino |
| Old Farmer's Almanac | 31 Aug 2026 | Milder, slightly below-normal snow (Atlantic Corridor region) |
| Farmers' Almanac | Updated 3 Sep 2026 | Variable, moderate but not persistent snow risk (Zone 1) |
| AccuWeather | Not yet, due October 2026 | Not available |
| Trip Traveling Guide (this page) | Ongoing, based on real NOAA station history | No number invented; strong El Nino winters here have run 20% to 91% of normal |
What does NOAA say about Boston's winter 2026-2027?
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center gave a greater than 90 percent chance of a very strong El Nino this fall and winter in its 13 August ENSO discussion, with a real chance of a historic event exceeding every El Nino on record back to 1950.
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The Boston Globe's own 5 September comparison of NOAA's outlook against both almanacs found NOAA calling for warmer-than-average temperatures and more precipitation than normal, with no snowfall figure given, matching NOAA's standard practice of leaving snow out of its seasonal outlooks entirely.
What does the Old Farmer's Almanac predict for Boston?
A milder winter with slightly below-normal snowfall. Boston falls in the almanac's Atlantic Corridor region, and its 2026-2027 forecast, updated 31 August, calls for above-normal temperatures with the snowiest windows in late November, early and mid-January, and early and late February.
What does the Farmers' Almanac predict for Boston?
Changeable rather than clearly mild or clearly harsh. Boston sits in the almanac's Zone 1 with the rest of the Northeast and New England, and its 2026-2027 forecast, updated 3 September, describes cold snaps followed by mild stretches with rain more likely than extended snow periods.
Will it snow in Boston this winter?
Almost certainly yes, and probably a real amount, but likely less than last year's unusually snowy season. Every strong El Nino winter in Boston's 90-year record has produced measurable snow, with the driest still reaching 9.8 inches. Whether 2026-27 lands closer to that or to last year's 62.8 inches is genuinely unknown this far out.
How much snow does Boston get in a strong El Nino winter?
Around 45 percent of normal in the median year, though the range is wide enough that the average hides more than it reveals. Across seven strong El Nino winters since 1957, Logan Airport has landed anywhere from 20 to 91 percent of its own normal snowfall.
| Winter | ONI (DJF) | Logan Airport | % of normal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957-58 | +1.69 | 44.7" | 91% |
| 1972-73 | +1.55 | 10.3" | 21% |
| 1982-83 | +2.14 | 32.7" | 67% |
| 1991-92 | +1.54 | 22.0" | 45% |
| 1997-98 | +2.22 | 25.6" | 52% |
| 2015-16 | +2.50 | 36.1" | 73% |
| 2023-24 | +1.84 | 9.8" | 20% |
| Median | 25.6" | 45% |
Boston's 1991-2020 normal is 49.2 inches. All seven winters above have complete daily records at Logan, so none needed to be excluded for missing data, unlike some of the stations this site has checked in other states.
Does a very strong El Nino change the numbers?
Somewhat, though not toward a clean above-normal signal the way some Rockies stations show. Isolating the three winters that reached very strong strength, ONI at or above plus 2.0, Logan's average climbs to 64 percent of normal, better than the seven-winter median but still a real below-normal lean.
Those three winters are 1982-83, 1997-98 and 2015-16, and NOAA's own data puts this coming El Nino in that same very-strong bracket. Three winters remains a small sample, worth stating as a real signal rather than a promise.
How do the last five winters compare?
Unevenly, with last year the clear outlier of the group. 2023-24 managed only 9.8 inches, a fifth of normal, while 2025-26 more than tripled that total in the very next season, closing at 62.8 inches thanks to the two real storms covered above.
| Winter | Logan Airport | % of normal |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | 38.6" | 78% |
| 2021-22 | 54.0" | 110% |
| 2022-23 | 12.4" | 25% |
| 2023-24 | 9.8" | 20% |
| 2025-26 | 62.8" | 128% |
What is Boston's biggest snowstorm on record?
The storm of 17-18 February 2003, the Presidents Day II blizzard, which dropped 27.6 inches at Logan Airport over two days. The National Weather Service's own Boston office describes this total as the record that still stands today, ahead of the Blizzard of 1978's 27.1 inches over 6-7 February that year.
What is Boston's snowiest single calendar day on record?
A tie: 23.6 inches, set twice, once on 17 February 2003 and again on 29 January 2022. Both figures come from the same 90-year Logan daily record, and both are independently confirmed in reporting on each storm at the time.
February 2026's 17.1-inch day does not challenge either record, landing well behind both, even though the wider storm made state history in Rhode Island the same week.
What was Boston's snowiest winter on record?
2014-15, when Logan Airport recorded 110.6 inches for the season, more than double the station's own normal. The runner-up, 1995-96 at 107.6 inches, is close behind, and both figures are confirmed by multiple independent outlets and match our own sum of the full 90-year daily record.
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What does Trip Traveling Guide's own data say?
We do not publish our own snowfall number, because no method, ours included, can predict one this far out. What the record shows: strong El Nino winters here run below normal more often than not, a 45 percent median, but last winter's 128 percent shows how far one real season can sit outside that pattern.
Should you book Boston travel based on this forecast?
Not on the seasonal outlook alone. A strong El Nino signal shifts the odds across a whole season, not a forecast for any single week, and last year's own numbers, a below-normal El Nino median followed by a 128-percent season, are the clearest evidence here that outlook and outcome do not always match.
What should you check closer to your travel date?
The National Weather Service's Boston/Norton forecast office for anything inside a seven-day window, the range NOAA itself says is reliable for actual snowfall. A seasonal outlook is built for planning a whole season, not one specific weekend in Boston or the towns around it.
The limits of this analysis
Seven strong El Nino winters, three of them very strong, is a small sample, enough to see a tilt, not enough to promise an outcome for 2026-27. Neither almanac discloses a checkable method, so their Boston-area calls carry less weight here than NOAA's published, model-based data.
Logan Airport is one station for a metro area that includes very different microclimates from the South Coast towns that saw 40 inches in February 2026 to the Cape, which often sees less. This page describes what the record shows for the airport itself, not a promise for any single neighborhood or storm.
Quick answers about Boston's winter 2026-2027
Short, direct answers to the questions readers ask us most often about this coming season, each one traceable back to a real, dated source described in more detail elsewhere on this page, rather than a guess offered without anything solid behind it.
How much snow did Boston get in 2026?
62.8 inches for the full 2025-26 season at Logan Airport, 128 percent of normal, driven mainly by the January and February storms covered above. The single biggest day was 23 February 2026, at 17.1 inches, the National Weather Service's own official measurement.
Is Boston getting a blizzard in 2026-2027?
Nobody can say that this far out, including us. NOAA's data shows a historically strong El Nino developing, but no source on this page, official or otherwise, can name a specific storm or date for a winter that has not started yet.
What was the worst snowstorm in Boston history?
By multi-day total, the Presidents Day II blizzard of 17-18 February 2003, at 27.6 inches, still the National Weather Service's own official record. By single calendar day instead, it is a tie at 23.6 inches between 17 February 2003 and 29 January 2022, two different storms entirely.
Will Boston have a snowy winter in 2026-2027?
Likely less snowy than last year's above-normal season, based on how strong El Nino winters have historically played out at Logan Airport, though the range across those seven winters has run from 20 to 91 percent of normal with no reliable way to pick where 2026-27 lands.
How accurate is the Farmers' Almanac for Boston?
Unverifiable in advance, since it does not publish a checkable snowfall number for the city, only a qualitative regional call for the wider Northeast zone it groups Boston into. NOAA's ENSO-based outlook is the only source here built from a published, auditable model rather than an undisclosed formula.
Sources
- CBS Boston, snow totals for the 23 February 2026 storm.
- Boston.com, town-by-town NWS and COCORAHS snowfall totals, 23 February 2026.
- WBUR, Blizzard of 2026 snow totals and winds, 24 February 2026.
- NOAA Climate Prediction Center, ENSO Diagnostic Discussion, 13 August 2026.
- The Old Farmer's Almanac, 2026-2027 winter forecast, updated 31 August 2026.
- Farmers' Almanac, 2026-2027 winter weather forecast, updated 3 September 2026.
- National Weather Service, Boston/Norton, MA forecast office.
For how this same El Nino pattern is shaping up elsewhere, see our national forecast comparison, our New York winter guide for the neighboring coastal station that saw the same February storm, and the full 36-city USA winter dataset.
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