KEENE, N.H. (MyKeeneNow) – The City of Keene has issued its first winter weather parking ban since the City Council updated the ordinance this fall.

A Winter Storm Watch will go into effect at 7:00 a.m. on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, and is currently set to expire at 7:00 a.m. on Friday.

Heavy snow is possible with total snow accumulations greater than six inches possible in some areas. Forecasters are expecting Keene be on the lower end.

Keene Public Works Director Don Lussier issued the ban that will go into effect at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday and will include all on-street parking in the city, other than metered parking spaces. The ban will expand at 1:00 a.m. on Friday to include all on-street parking, both free and metered.

While the ban is in effect, the Commercial Street parking lot will be available overnight for public use. You can find a full list of which public parking lots are open on which nights during a ban here.

The ban will be lifted once road maintenance operations are complete. The city will send out a notification when that time comes.

Those interested can sign up for those notifications at KeeneNH.gov/snow.

Previously, Keene’s winter parking ban prohibited all on-street parking from November-April, whether there was snow on the ground or not. The City Council updated the ordinance to say that there will only be a ban when the Public Works Director deems it necessary.

New Hampshire State law requires that drivers remove all snow and ice from their vehicle, including from the roof, before hitting the road. The law went into effect after a Nashua woman was killed on Route 202 in Peterborough in 1999 when a sheet of ice flew off of a tractor trailer truck, hit a box truck, and went through her windshield.