New Years Eve at Fort Drum

Normally I stick around the neighborhood for New Years Eve but this year I decided to spend it with my cuz Rob Reardon and his wife Connie and 3 adorable kids just outside of Fort Drum where he is stationed. Actually we have spent many a New Years eves together when he isn't overseas serving our great country. Most of the time a few blocks away from me where his mom lives.

They just bought a house off the base and a bunch of us are heading up there, spending the night of course and who knows, maybe I'll even get a tour of the base. Robs served all over the country during his 17 - 18 year career so far with the Army. Places include Colorado, Alabama, Germany and did tours in both the the Gulf war and the Iraq war. Obviously we are all very proud of Rob and all of the troops who serve to keep our freedoms in tact. This isn't a political post, just about how I'm looking forward to spending some time up North with family and Friends, having a few sodi pops and sitting around trying to solve the worlds problems like we normally do. My biggest fear is that once I'm there and after a few sodi pops I'll end up signing something and waking up in Iraq. Nah, my cuz wouldn't let that happen. Hmmm, he does tend to take a practical joke a little too far sometimes. Maybe I should make it a Pepsi kind of night.

Look out Fort Drum, here comes the Snowman and there better be some snow on the ground. If anyone from Fort Drum reads this can you let Rob know I'm coming. I think I lost the RSVP. And don't believe any of the stories he might tell you about when we were younger and me paying him to do yard work with Jamaican money. Or was that monopoly money. All lies I tell you. I would never take advantage of my little cuz. Hey, Have a great weekend all!

Binghamton Wins The Last Snow Round

Here it is late December and all I can talk about is an inch here and there. Binghamton won the latest snow round picking up just over a couple of inches. Syracuse gained about 8/10 of an inch on Buffalo's lead picking up 1.3 inches of snowfall. Buffalo and Rock City both added another half of an inch and of course nothing but a trace showing up so far for Albany.

As boring as the snow race might seem so far there is no doubt in my mind that this season could play out to be one of the most exciting ones since the resurrection of the Golden Snowball contest. Binghamton and Rochester have a small battle going on for third place right now and Syracuse is slowly closing the big snow gap that buffalo had. So far Syracuse is the leader for snowfall amount in December picking up just over a foot of the white gold while Buffalo reports 7.4 inches for the month.

As for my snow season predictions, I'm going to stick with them. I still think Nor' Easterns will come into play this season. How off is Syracuse compared to last seasons totals. Last year on todays date Syracuse had 59.7 inches of snow compared to 12.2 this season. If my fuzzy math is right that's almost 4 feet of a snow difference. Who would of thought after Buffalo's snow blast in October that December would of been this mellow? Have a great day All!

Snowfall for All the Goldren Snowball Cities?

So much for my white Christmas prediction. Get use to it, I'm wrong more than I'm right. I think that's the optimistic side of me that shows up on the GSB website. It's snowing right now as I type however and from looking at the radars it looks like most of the Golden Snowball city's might pick up some new snow. Since the last update only a tenth of an inch to report for Buffalo and Albany. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. Yeah, I know ya didn't ask ; )

Buffalo, for the first time this snow season has fallen behind it's normal to date average which I would of thought almost impossible after the freak snow storm they had in October. The good news for Buffalo is that they continue to hold a substantial lead over the rest of us with Syracuse still needing over 20 inches to catch them. Buffalo most likely will have at least a 3 foot lead over last place Albany by sometime next week. What a lame December it has been snow wise and I feel sorry for the skiers, snowmobilers and all the other snow lovers who have the time off to enjoy it for the holidays. Hopefully we will set in to a good snow pattern sometime soon and the ski resorts, snow plowers and snow businesses can start adding to their bank acts soon.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holiday seasons. Personally Christmas was a fun time for me having most of our family in town to help celebrate. Tiresome but still a blast. Once the holidays are over I'll be posting more often and of course when ever there are new stats to report they will be reported. Have a great day all!

The Golden Snowball Trophy

The A-1 Trophy Shop created the golden snowball trophy in 2003. Being the procrastinator that I am I never got downtown to see it. Finally at the news conference on Thursday, (which by the way I missed on the news stations, any video of it online?) I got to see it. The trophy is nice to say the least and the crystal golden snowball on top is breath taken. The reflection of tints of gold and the crystal that reflects everything in the setting around really left me in awe. A-1 trophy did a fantastic job of coming up with something special.

Below are a few more pictures that my daughter and I took. Unfortunately neither one of us did too good of a job so the pictures don't do the trophy justice but will have to do until I get some more. Channel 9 also gets a free plug. As for Binghamton and Albany not being listed on the trophy, don't worry Dennis has assured me they will be added and thanks again Dennis for including me in the event. It was fun! Click on the pictures for full views.

Dennis Brogan Speaking

The Snowman Trying to Mumble His Way Through It

Some of Syracuse's Finest DPW Workers

Another View of Our Great Trophy from A-1 Trophy

Hopefully there will be some better pictures coming soon. Have a great weekend all!

One Quick Question

When does winter begin? I'm reading articles and hearing news reports that tonight, a little after 7PM it's good bye fall and hello winter. But other resources, including calendars are stating that winter begins on the 22nd. My head is spinning right now trying to figure it out. Of course my head spinning when I try to think isn't anything unusual. I was under the impression that winter this year starts tomorrow??? Thoughts, feedback, facts???

Panic, Hyperventilating, Tis the Season

Unfortunately I'm not talking about trying to get prepared for Christmas and the holiday season. The Christmas panic attack is still at least a day or two away. I'm talking about an event that took place today. There was a press conference today at the Syracuse DPW to welcome in winter and to talk about our great snow race, the Golden Snowball contest.

The good news is that I was invited to participate. The bad news was that I was invited to participate. Don't get me wrong. I was honored that Dennis Brogan thought about including me. The thing is I'm the type who panics and turns into a sissy man when ever I'm in front of a bunch of people. Today was no different and if you watch WIXT Channel 9 news you will see me at my best prime panicky, hyperventilating, sissy man form. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will cut my part out or if I'm in the camera's view the through it all, the whole presentation might end up on the cutting floor.

I wrote a short page and a half speech or whatever you want to call it to read. I think I ended up saying like 2 sentences of it and then did my best to make my escape. I'll post below what I planned on saying and if you catch the news tonight you'll get to see what I actually ended up mumbling out. I can appreciate Dennis's job and anyone else who has to be a public speaker. As for me I'll stick to typing and hiding behind the computer. All in all it was fun though and if your smart you might want to eat dinner before having your appetite ruined seeing the Snowman on the news. Just a suggestion.

The set up was perfect for the news conference. The DPW site with all the hard working men and women standing in the background and a couple of Snow Plows on each side of the podium. As was mentioned at the press conference, Anyone that lives in Syracuse has to admit we have some of the best snow removal road crews in NY if not in the entire US. I think they deserve a raise myself. Ok, I was paid to say that. I'm joking, I wasn't paid.

The fun part was getting to meet Dennis whom I've talk to several times on the phone and Jeff the Commissioner of the DPW. I think that is Jeff's title.

The biggest part of my panicky, hyperventilating day though was that I finally got to meet Sean Kirst from the Post standard. We've probably talked a couple dozen times on the phone and of course you all know he has been the person to keep the Golden Snowball contest going and growing each year with his great articles and research on it. To that I say, Sean it was a privilege to finally meet you today.

Odds of a White Christmas

What's going on? Here we all are less than 10 days from winter in cny/upstate NY and the grass is as green as it could be. The temperature is suppose to be in the 50's again today. Only 11 days until Christmas and the big question is will we have a white Christmas? Steve form Buffalo - aka smadsen in the forum is predicting an 80% chance of a White Christmas which sounds pretty good to me. Enjoy the nice weather while it's here because a cold front might be moving in the beginning of next week.

I don't know about the rest of you but Christmas just isn't the same without snow on the ground. I couldn't imagine living in Florida and celebrating the winter holiday season in 70 degree weather. A buddy of mine who has lived down south for the last 20 or so years even says Christmas isn't the same as when he was growing up here on the north east. All we can do is to hope the Snow God shines upon us leaving a nice blanket of snowfall just in time for Santa Claus to make his rounds.

Watch Your Back Buffalo

The chase to catch Buffalo continues with some progress being made the last couple of days. Syracuse, Rochester and Binghamton has narrowed the lead a little although Buffalo still holds an unbelievable lead this early in the season. If they continue on the path they have been on with practically nothing since the freak October storm they will find themselves in the company of Albany on the snow chart within a month or so.

Syracuse was able to erase about 1/3 of the lead that buffalo holds on them. Rochester and Binghamton are just getting started. I can definitely see a good 4 way snow race this year if my winter outlook proves to be right. I hope for Buffalo's sake they don't fall into the same pattern that they were in last season when all the snowfall stayed just a few miles south of them. Look for a fun season ahead.

I had the privilege to talk to Dennis Brogan from the Mayors office yesterday about the snowball contest. As you all know I've mentioned many times here that this site is pretty much unofficial and what I have the call on is the money. The cities decide where and when the trophy goes to the winner. That being said we had a great conversation on getting on the same page and pretty much just keeping the snow race fun. Look for more on that ahead. I also forgot to mention in my winter outlook that another reason that I believe this will be an above average snow season is because of the deer. Dennis mentioned in another conversation that the Deer he bagged I think around Thanksgiving had a lot of fat on it. I talked to my brother in law Buzz and he said the same thing. Not that Buzz got a deer but his sister Deb bagged a couple of them and he said hers were fattier than normal. That's a whole other contest in itself. Will Buzz get spanked as usual by his sister Deb? Where was I? Oh yea, In other words are the deer putting on the extra weight in foresight of a cold, snowy winter? Hey, enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone.

Syracuse Moves into Second

Syracuse sledded into second place in this years snowfall race dropping Rochester to 3rd place. Buffalo picked up 1.1 inches of snow yesterday, Rochester grabbed an 1 in, Binghamton picked up .7 of an inch, Albany got shutout again and Syracuse picked up just under half a foot, 5.9 inches. If your a Buffalo fan I'd be worried because your kind of at a stand still right now and I'm not talking about the Buffalo Bills I'm talking about the 2 1/2 foot jump you had could start to melt away soon if your not careful.

Snow is still in the forecast for some of the GSB cities for today. The stats above for Syracuse, Bingo and Albany are updated since around 12:00 am. Buffalo and Rock City's stats were updated at around 5 am this morning. Just to remind you, the stats come from NOAA our National Weather Service. One station is in Buffalo which keeps track of Rochester and Buffalo's stats. The other station is in Binghamton which reports the snow stats for Albany, Binghamton and Syracuse. Both weather stations update statistics at different times of the day. If I see any significant change in snow totals later in the day I'll do another update. Hey, Have a Great Weekend All.

I'm Worse Than a Little Kid

I won't begin to tell you how many times I looked out the window tonight. Or how many different radars I had going on my computer as I impatiently waited for tonights lake effect snow to reach us here in Syracuse as it seemed to sit just above us forever. Forever is a long time when your like a little kid waiting for the snow let me tell you.

Well the snow finally came into town at about 11:00 pm and lasted about an hour. It was worth the wait too, just to see it come down like it did with houses just a corner or so away disappearing into a blanket of heavy snow. Then I did the normal ritual which I do whenever a good band of snow comes through. Went out and took some pictures. And as usual, it was too dark and they didn't come out because I don't have a clue how to take pictures at night. Anyways enough about my childish behavior. Look for a good snowfall update sometime tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the night brings to the Golden Snowball cities.

The Golden Snowball 2006 - 2007 Winter Outlook and Predictions

First off keep in mind who the source of this information is coming from. Me, who is normally clueless, didn't research anything like the Farmers Almanac and I have absolutely nothing scientific to base the Golden Snowball prediction on. Also remember I'm the type who runs and hides when a thunderstorm approaches. In other words this winter outlook is pretty much based on my knowledge or lack of and mainly on my instincts which tend to be pretty good. For what it's worth, my predictions are below and unless you like snow your probably not going to like what I see ahead.

Above average snowfall for all of the Golden Snowball city's is my prediction. A couple of things come to mind when making my prediction. #1 It's been a wet, wet year. Probably one of the rainiest years on record for CNY but don't quote me on that.

#2 - I'm thinking that we will be seeing several Nor Easterns - Coastal events this season. I'm not sure what the average is but I see 6 - 7 Nor Easterns with at least 2 - 3 of them being significant snow events. The only thing that will prevent that will be if the temperatures are to warm and the events would be rain. I don't see that happening though.

#3 - Cold will be the norm this winter season. There will be a few spurts of warm weather in between but January and February will be colder than average. That's something that might actually hurt Buffalo in the contest this year but I see Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse running neck and neck until the end of the snow season. I will pick my prediction for the winner of this years Golden Snowball contest in the next day or so.

#4 - After talking with Dennis Brogan, who is part of the mayors office in Syracuse who mentioned that the deer he bagged this hunting season had a ton of fat on it and my brother in-law Buzz also said the same thing, how can there be any doubt. Hey, it doesn't get any scientific than this does it?

To sum it up, my prediction is that this snow season will be colder than average and snow totals will be above average for all of the Golden Snowball City's.

And remember the source of this Winter Outlook, The Snowman who is usually clueless. Enjoy the snow all!

Albany Blinded by Snow

Our great capital of New York has finally gotten on the snow board reporting in with 1/10 of an inch. GO ALBANY! I wonder if the schools were closed there seeing how they are not use to getting that much snow all at once. Joking aside it's nice to see all of the cities showing something now. Most of us added a dusting to our totals but come Thursday the totals should go up quite a bit.

Thursday could get interesting with a clipper like storm showing up in some of the forecasts. If the forecasts are right some of the GSB cities could be getting a decent amount of snowfall. It will be interesting to see if any of us can pick up some snow totals on Buffalo or if Buffalo will extend it's lead. By the end of Friday Buffalo should have over 3 feet of snow so far for the 2006 - 2007 season.

Below is a video that Summer_of_41, one of our forum members from Indiana found at youtube.com showing an awesome view of lake effect moving into buffalo this weekend.

Snow All Around - Almost

Well Albany ruined what could of been snow for all the Golden Snowball cities. They are still snowless for the season and looking at last years numbers of 30 inches for the season it's no surprise. The other 4 of us all got something and Binghamton is finally on the snow chart with .6 inches. One thing I have learned is never count Binghamton out. They tend to sneak up on everyone throughout the year.

Buffalo continues to snow pile up on the rest of us, shoveling another 5.4 inches and setting a date record dating back to 1940 that stood with 4.9 inches for yesterdays date. Rochester picked up just .3 inches and Syracuse had it's first snow cover picking up 1.9 inches of the fun white fluffy stuff.

Buffalo's total snow for the season is an impressive 30.2 inches. I think by the end of the week I might list how I think the order of the cities will come in this year. Obviously it would be a no-brainer not to pick Buffalo but I am thinking they need between a 3 - 4 foot jump in order to fend off the snowfall champion Syracuse. Have a great day all.

Finally a Hint of Winter in Central New York

Finally the grass is almost covered with snow here in Syracuse. The only report of measurable snow over night for the GSB city's was 1/10 of an inch in Buffalo. This morning though brought some lake effect from the north far enough south to reach Syracuse. My guess is around 2 inches fell in my neck of the woods and the chances are more will be falling in the next 24 hours. Binghamton might finally get on the board but I'm not sure if the band of snow fell far enough south to reach them. I'm sure someone in the golden snowball forum will let us know. Hopefully Rochester will pick up some of the white gold also to move a little closer to Buffalo in the contest.

I just went back and looked at a few of my posts from last season. It looks like the last snowfall for all of us last year but Binghamton was in March. Just think that's 8 months Syracuse went without any snow. Pretty impressive considering they are the favorite to win every year. If it wasn't for the freak snow storm of 2006, It would of been the same for Buffalo and Rochester. I looked at the poll for this year (which is towards the bottom right) and I am surprised to see that a lot of you are still picking Syracuse over the rest of the cities. Especially with Buffalo holding onto a 2 foot lead still. Look for the stats to change come morning and it will be interesting to see if any of us closed the big gap on Buffalo. Look out Buffalo here we all come!

Is it Time to Make Offerings to The Snow God

As some of you might remember I do my stupid but very efficient snow dance when things get a little slow as far as it not snowing enough. Some of you might have seen the video on Youtube. I'm kidding so don't waste your time looking. Like I would ever put myself on video out in the back yard doing a snow dance. Hmmm, maybe this year though. Anyways it's way too early for the snow dance, plus it can only be performed twice a season to otherwise it won't work. Which it does by the way.

No need for the snow dance anyways because we have the Snow God. Some of you might not be aware of the Snow God. You can check it out at NYCO's blog. According to NYCO the Snow God has been shining upon us this season for over a month now. For you skiers and sledders I would suggest perhaps a little snow prayer or offering while in the presence of the snow god and just maybe if the Snow God feels it was sincere will reward you with a nice cold blanket of snowfall. NYCO runs the silent-edge.org/wp/ website which covers almost everything there is to cover in CNY so check it out.

Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse Break Records

Unfortunately the wrong records are being broken as we start off December. Yesterday Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse broke the rainiest day record for the 1st of December. Buffalo received 1.21 inches, Rock City received 1.29 inches breaking the daily record dating all the way back to 1910 and according to NOAA Syracuse received 1.26 inches of rain. Just imagine if all that precipitation was snow, we all would be shoveling right now.

Congrats to Binghamton for breaking their No Snow record which I mentioned the other day. So far no measurable snow for Bingo this year making it the latest they have ever gone in the season with no snowfall. Snow showers are in the forecast so we will have to wait and see how it all pans out this weekend and early next week. Most likely the Tugg Hill area and farther north will see some good totals. Maybe enough to at least get some trails open for the snowmobiles.