Syracuse Hits Annual Snowfall Total

5pm Update - Just a quick update and heads up for those in the Syracuse area getting ready to head home. Channel 9 is reporting a 25 car pile up on the Onondaga Parkway and they are saying it is closed until at least 6pm so find another way to travel. http://www.9wsyr.com/content/news/breakingnews.aspx?content_id=26042cc7-5de1-45fa-9e97-3285e882c756 With the way the wind and snow is and will continue to be, tonight is a good night to stay home. Temps are expected to fall between 15 - 29 below zero making things even more dangerous out there. It wouldn't surprise me if the kids in some of the CNY school districts have a day off tomorrow because of the unusual temps for March. Stay safe all!

Morning - An inch of snow has fallen in the last half hour in my neck of the woods. That on top of what fell overnight is more than enough to safely say that Syracuse has reached it's annual snowfall for the season on Feb 5th this season. As usual nothing is official until NOAA puts out the stats later in the early evening. That's why the totals up above don't reflect Syracuse being over the 111.9 yet. Looking back at the way the season started I have to admit that I was a little skeptical of my prediction that Syracuse would have an above average snowfall season this year.

Remember that the stats for annual snowfall for all of the city's is based on a 30 year look back period that is on a rolling 10 year system. In other words NOAA's averages are from a 30 year period of 1970-1971 through 2000 if I'm not mistaken and remember I normally am :) 2000 would have been the last update on the yearly averages with a new 10 year average coming out in 2010. Personally I would rather see the averages updated every year on NOAA but that's not the way it is. There are stats out there though that has the average for all the years that were recorded.

That all said it will be interesting to see how we all do the next day or two. Cold air, make that really cold air is expected to move into CNY from Canada. It will be interesting to see if any of the cities set some low temperature records in the next day or two. Hard to believe it is March isn't it?

Here in the Syracuse area it's been blue skies, light snow, heavy snow with a couple of brief white outs and blue Sky's once again. All in a matter of an hour or so. As always, take it easy on the roads and drive slow. The weather will be changing off and on and with the wind and blowing snow it could be a bit treacherous at times. Hey, have a super week all and stay warm!