PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — The wintertime in Portsmouth offers an array of iconic landscapes and postcard scenery, including the salt piles stacked up against the icy harbor. 

Just how much salt is brought to the Port City in the winter months? A snowier 2024-25 season compared to the recent past resulted in 317 million pounds of salt shipped between January and March to the New Hampshire Port Authority’s Market Street terminal beside the Piscataqua River.

“A bag of salt you would get at, say, Home Depot is 50 pounds,” said Tom Maciel, interim director of Ports and Harbors for New Hampshire. “So you would have 6 million bags of 50 pounds of salt, as a little mental math.”

Maciel’s report was given to members of the Pease Development Authority board of directors on Tuesday.

“It’s been a very busy couple of months over at the port,” he told the board.

The first two months of the year, over 6,100 trucks came to take salt from the New Hampshire Port Authority to distribute locally and throughout the region during snowfall and other wintry conditions, according to Maciel.

Multiple massive ships have been assisted by tugboats to the port this year, a list that includes the “Pacific Wealth” bulk carrier from Hong Kong. Ships from across the globe trek to Portsmouth along the Piscataqua River to offload salt at the Port Authority every winter, and crews lay tarps out on the salt piles every year to protect them from the elements.

Another salt vessel was due in Portsmouth last week, according to Maciel.

Baltimore bridge collapse brings more ships to Portsmouth

Portsmouth City Manager Karen Conard, a PDA board member, asked if the Baltimore bridge collapse in March 2024 has led to increased vessel traffic and cargo coming into New Hampshire over the past year.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge incident last year has led to increased boat traffic in Portsmouth Harbor, Maciel said Tuesday. Due to different navigational regulations, and a smaller channel compared to Baltimore, Maciel noted the local harbor and terminal can’t take on some of the vessels that had been using Baltimore.

“It’s fairly restricted, but we are seeing a lot more vessel traffic right now than we have in the past few years. We’re starting out 2025 on a very positive note,” Maciel said.

Snowfall totals exceed last winter

The need for salt on local roads and sidewalks has been greater this winter than recent memory. National Weather Service meteorologist Jerry Combs reported Portsmouth International Airport at Pease has seen a total of 35.1 inches of snow since Nov. 1, compared to between 22 and 25 inches along the state coastline during the same period in 2023-24.

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