Home, Land & Garden · email alerts for New England, New York and Pennsylvania

Know when your house needs a look.

Deep cold at the camp. Heavy snow on the roof. Hail near the house. Frost in the garden. One plain email, with what to check.

$49 a year · cancel anytime

Get the alerts: $49 a year

We email only when something changes at your place: at most 3 alert emails a day, alerts that come together share one email, and nothing from 9 pm to 6 am. Routine alerts wait for one 6 am morning email. Turn off any alert you don't want. 30-day money-back guarantee.

What's in Home, Land & Garden

At the house

  • House watch for your home, a cabin, camp or a parent’s house: winter storm, blizzard, ice storm, high wind, flood and extreme cold warnings, plus deep-cold nights with a reminder to keep the heat at 55°F or higher and open the cabinet doors under the sinks (one pack watches one place; Everything watches two)
  • Roof snow load: the weight of the snow on the ground at your address passing 15, 20 or 30 lb per square foot, from NOAA’s daily snow analysis (November to April)
  • Ice-dam weather: snow on the roof and a run of days below freezing, or thaw days and hard-freeze nights, at your address, with what to check from the ground (December to March)
  • Hail: severe thunderstorm warnings with hail, and hail reported near your address
  • Burn days: high fire danger days on the U.S. Forest Service rating, red flag warnings and fire weather watches; in Maine and Vermont, the state’s own fire danger rating when it changes
  • Private well and drought: the nearest USGS test well within 25 miles (where there is one) running low for the time of year, and Drought Monitor changes in your county (in your Sunday email)

In the yard and garden

  • Frost and freeze nights for your garden, spring and fall
  • Lawn timing: crabgrass preventer, crabgrass sprouting, Japanese beetles, seeding and fall feeding
  • Backyard apple trees: bud stages, apple scab weather, freezes that can kill buds, and the end of the plum curculio window
  • Tree pests: new federal quarantines in your county, Massachusetts towns where spotted lanternfly or emerald ash borer turn up, and when lanternflies hatch and ash borers emerge
  • U-pick season: when strawberry, peach and apple picking should start near you, estimated from the season’s warmth

Switch off any you don't want. Every alert comes by email.

In winter: the house watch, roof snow and ice-dam weather. Spring and fall: frost, lawn, apple trees and burn days. Summer: hail, pests and U-pick.

Everything$79 a year

Watch two places, like your home and the camp or a parent’s house, and send a copy of each alert to a second email, for a spouse or caretaker. Includes all six packs.

Choose Everything

Where the alerts come from

  • National Weather Service forecasts and warnings
  • National Weather Service storm reports of hail (from Iowa State’s Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive)
  • NOAA’s daily snow analysis (SNODAS, a 1-kilometer grid)
  • USGS groundwater wells and the U.S. Drought Monitor
  • U.S. Forest Service fire danger ratings, and Maine and Vermont state fire danger
  • Daily temperatures from NOAA’s Regional Climate Centers, timed against UMass, Cornell, Penn State and other extension guides
  • USDA APHIS federal quarantines and the Massachusetts invasive pest town map

Public data, checked around the clock, matched to your place. When a source changes, you get one plain email that says what changed and what it means for you.

30-day money-back guarantee

If it isn't worth it to you, reply to any of our emails within 30 days for a full refund. No questions asked.

Sample alerts from real days

Backroad AlmanacThu, Dec 4, 2025 · 6:05 am
Below-zero night: low -7°F

If nobody is at the house, check that the heat is on (55°F or higher) and that cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls are open.

Per National Weather Service Burlington, VT forecast.

Sample alert: a real December night near Montpelier, VT, rebuilt from the airport’s weather records.

Four more sample alerts from this pack

Backroad AlmanacTue, Feb 24, 2026 · 7:40 am
Heavy snow load: about 22 lb per square foot (22 in deep)

That’s about 2,200 lb on every 10-by-10-foot patch of ground near the house, from NOAA’s daily snow analysis. Drifts, valleys and lower roofs below taller ones can carry more. Worth a look at flat, low and porch roofs and outbuildings; doors that start to stick can be a sign of strain. Rake the eaves from the ground.

Per NOAA’s daily snow analysis (SNODAS), as of Tue Feb 24, 1 am.

Sample alert: a real day in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, from NOAA’s daily snow analysis.

Backroad AlmanacMon, Jan 26, 2026 · 7:40 am
Ice-dam weather at the house: 13 in of snow on the ground and highs below freezing Mon–Fri

Snow on the roof and days below freezing are when ice dams build: heat from the house melts the bottom of the snow, and the water freezes again at the roof’s cold edge (University of Minnesota Extension; the U.S. Army’s cold-regions lab).

From the ground, a plastic roof rake can pull snow off the lowest few feet of the roof; leave a couple of inches on the shingles (FEMA). Keep gutters and downspouts clear, and look for heavy icicles at the eaves and water stains on ceilings and outside walls. Don’t climb onto a snowy roof or chip at ice; for clearing, hire someone insured.

Per NOAA’s daily snow analysis (SNODAS) and the National Weather Service forecast, as of Mon Jan 26, 1 am.

Sample alert: a real week in Concord, NH, rebuilt from NOAA’s snow records and the weather that followed.

Backroad AlmanacSat, Jul 4, 2026 · 8:15 pm
1.75 in hail reported Bristol, CT

Once it passes, look at the roof edges, gutters, siding and car, and take photos of any damage.

About 2 miles from Home.

“Bristol (Hartford County, CT): 1.75 in hail. In Bristol, golf ball sized hail fell.”

Per National Weather Service preliminary storm reports (Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive), as of Sat Jul 4, 8:05 pm.

Sample alert: a real Fourth of July storm in Bristol, CT, from National Weather Service storm reports.

Backroad AlmanacTue, Oct 6, 2026 · 9:25 am
Freeze warning: down to 26°F, until 9 am Wed

Cover tender plants or bring pots in before dark.

“Sub-freezing temperatures of 26 to 31 degrees expected.”

Per National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA, as of Tue Oct 6, 9:17 am.

Sample alert: a real freeze warning for Amherst and Northampton, MA, from the National Weather Service in Norton, MA.

How many emails? A real year

A Home, Land & Garden reader at a second home in Stowe, VT would have gotten 80 emails from January through October 2026, about 2 a week: 64 from Home, Land & Garden (mostly orchard spray windows, empty house watch and frost & freeze) and 16 with only free alerts (waterfalls running and meteor showers & clear skies).

January 2026: 12 emails12JanFebruary 2026: 2 emails2FebMarch 2026: 5 emails (2 Home, Land & Garden, 3 free alerts only)5MarApril 2026: 10 emails (7 Home, Land & Garden, 3 free alerts only)10AprMay 2026: 16 emails (13 Home, Land & Garden, 3 free alerts only)16MayJune 2026: 15 emails (13 Home, Land & Garden, 2 free alerts only)15JunJuly 2026: 4 emails (3 Home, Land & Garden, 1 free alerts only)4JulAugust 2026: 4 emails (3 Home, Land & Garden, 1 free alerts only)4AugSeptember 2026: 5 emails5SepOctober 2026: 7 emails (4 Home, Land & Garden, 3 free alerts only)7Oct
Home, Land & Garden alertsFree alerts only
Emails each month, 2026
MonthEmailsFree alerts only
January120
February20
March53
April103
May163
June152
July41
August41
September50
October73

We ran that year's real weather and agency records through the same rules that send our alerts. Where an alert reads a forecast, the weather that actually came stood in for it. The busiest month was May, with 16. You can turn off any alert you don't want.

Common questions

How much snow can a roof hold?

It’s the weight that matters, not the depth. Every inch of water in the snow weighs about 5.2 pounds per square foot. We read NOAA’s daily snow analysis for your address and email when the load passes 15, 20 and 30 pounds per square foot. Your town’s building department can tell you what your roof was built for.

What should I watch for at a house I’m away from in winter?

Cold nights. We email when tonight’s forecast low at the house reaches 28, 20, 10 or 0°F and is colder than any of the last five nights, with a reminder to keep the heat at 55°F or higher and the cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls open.

When does ice-dam weather start?

When there are at least 3 inches of snow at the house and either three days at or below freezing with a night of 22°F or colder, or thaw days of 36°F or more followed by nights of 22°F or colder. We send one email per stretch, December to March, with what to check from the ground.

How do I find out if hail hit near my house?

We email when the National Weather Service gets a report of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of the house (you can pick ¾ or 1¾ inch instead), or when a severe thunderstorm warning with hail covers your address.

Updated November 2026.

Not ready? Get the free Sunday email and a few free alerts

The Weekly Almanac every Sunday morning: what's coming up near you that week. Plus free alerts for waterfalls running after rain, meteor showers with clear skies, and fishing and hunting license renewals. No card needed.

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Questions?

Write to support@backroadalmanac.com and a person answers.