Squalls come across the open water and hit the Laconia hills without much warning, dropping four inches on a road that was bare an hour before. Blue Ribbon Tree Service runs snow removal through nights like that, plowing driveways and turnarounds, shoveling steps and walks, laying salt and sand on the grades where tires spin. Hill driveways get cleared to the pavement and widened at the top, because a car needs somewhere to swing around before it can climb back out. There is a deep quiet in finishing a route as the squall trails off toward the mountains. Laconia and its neighboring towns stay on the winter list.