Pictures of The Light Pillars Show

I posted last night (see below) about some kind of weather phenomenon going on while I was out and about. Well after reading around and reading some comments left here by visitors it turns out that what I was seeing are called Light Pillars. It really was an awesome site and there are a few pictures on a couple of sites to show you what I mean. I took several pictures and as usual my night time pictures didn't come out. One of these days I will read the manual to my new camera. In the mean time check out the pictures at http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=247dfa80-5266-43ad-b5d7-2d3f5d1c8fdf and you will see how cool it looked. There is also a picture on Syracuse.com at http://blog.syracuse.com/news/2008/02/pillars_of_light_illuminate_sk.html I'll tell you one thing those photographers for the Post Standard have taken some great pictures over the years and being a photo buff I really love checking them out.

According to Sully light pillars are city lights reflecting ice crystals from up above. Usually these are flat crystals that are able to focus the light in pillar shape. They are most common on very cold mornings when there's moisture present trapped under inversions. Usually it's only cold enough for super cooled ice droplets, but when there's ice nuclei present to form a snowflakes, Viola! Thanks Sully ;) Here is another picture I found and is pretty close to what I was seeing when driving home from Fayetteville last night;

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0209/pillars_tape_big.jpg You can read more about Light Pillars at http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/eyes/pillars.htm

TQ who is a forum member here at Golden Snowball has a contest going on right now which he does every time there is some snow in the forecast for the eastern coast cities. I ALWAYS keep intending to post them here when he has them and once again I missed it. For what ever reason I was thinking the deadline was for later tonight. Anyways here is the link to his site for you all to bookmark for any future contests that he has http://www.newx-forecasts.com Once again I'm sorry for missing the deadline TQ and just leave the info in the comments box nest time to be safe ;)

Weather wise it looks like snow is in the forecast for most if not all of the GSB cities but not a whole lot of it from what I have read. I'm not even going to try and predict how much because I along with a few others have been off quite a bit this year. Maybe if I say not much we will get a ton of snow. SO, not much snow coming our way but check with the pros (not us) to see whats coming our way.

I just check out the snow stats for Madison, Wisconsin and it looks like Syracuse is holding on to a narrow lead with Madison picking up another 1.5 inches of snow to stand at 89.3 for the season. Syracuse is at 94.4 so only about 5 inches separating the two cities. Right now Madison is a whopping 50 inches over their normal snowfall for this time of the year. Does anyone know of any other cities in the United States with a population over 100,000 that is close to Syracuse or above them? Have a Super Weekend All!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's, It's

It's most likely the Golden Snowman finally losing his mind. I just got back from grabbing some groceries and on the way home I noticed a bunch of white trails in the sky going vertically and horizontally and NO they weren't clouds but looked bright white. Anyone have any ideas as to what it is? Whatever it is it's still going on and if you look out you might be able to see what I'm talking about. I'm just curious if anything scientific is going on tonight like a comet, shooting stars, a satellite falling down or something? Hopefully it's not that satellite we shot down a week or so ago deciding to make re-entry in CNY. Yeah I know I'm just losing it. I'll try downloading some pictures I took but most likely all that we will see will be black like most of my pictures come out. Update - I just downloaded the pictures and they did come out black as I thought they would. Below are the original pictures along with a Dell image expert quick edit which just brightened them up. Nothing else was altered.

This first set of pictures I was shooting almost straight over head at the sky and the beam was going horizontally and pretty much just stationary. Just click the pictures to enlarge them.

Original Picture



Brightened Up




The next 3 sets of pictures are all shot pretty much in the same direction and this set of pictures really shows the vertical rays or whatever it is.

Original



Brightened




This set of pictures is pretty much the same location as the one below but not taking the picture as high in the sky as the one below.

Original



Brightened Up




This set of pictures you can barely see the rays or what ever coming down with clouds in the background.

Original



Brightened



I just thought it was a pretty cool sight to see and I am really curious as to what they were. They were in all different directions and distances. Any scientists visit here???

OK back to the snow race. The stats are up to date and it looks like the beard stays. Syracuse barely received the 9 inches that I mentioned in a previous post so the beard stays for now and I don't have to hang out in a closet until Spring comes. Syracuse, Rochester and Albany are back over their average snowfall for this time in the snow season and Binghamton is pretty close. Buffalo still has some catching up to do but snow is still in the forecast so lets hope it happens. The contest is still close and up for grabs.

Binghamton can sleep better tonight because NOAA caught their mistake and have the stats back on track just like I knew they would. When you think of all the stats they keep for the thousands of cities I think they do an awesome job. Have a great day and night all.

Snowfall Stats Updated Tonight

I just updated the snow stats for all of the cities in the Golden Snowball contest. Binghamton's stats are unofficial for the time being.


Unfortunately if I go by NOAA's stats for Binghamton they lost some snow since this morning. I think they see that Mike has complained a couple of times and they did it on purpose just to get back at him, ha, ha. I know Mike and the others from Bingo will love that. Right now NOAA is showing 55.6 for Binghamton which is including half an inch from today. My guess is that they just made a mistake and for some reason added the new half an inch to the february 25th totals. No biggy and if they don't catch it I'll drop them an email tomorrow. Most likely it will be corrected by NOAA's next update later tonight. I'm pretty confident that the total I have for Binghamton above is what it should be but it's still unofficial until NOAA shoes it. Enough about that huh?

I did some of my fuzzy math and here is what I have so far for the Guesstimate game and unless some big time lake effect snow starts cranking out myself and some of the others aren't even close on some of our huesstimates. You would think by the way this season has gone so far we would know better than to go high. Oh well, live and learn I suppose. Problem is most of us will keep going high :) Here's the stats so far.

Rochester - 8.9
Syracuse - 7.4
Buffalo - 5.8
Albany - 5.5
Binghamton - 5.0

I'm off to catch the Duke game in hopes of watching them drop their 3 game out of the lsat 4 games. Of course I'll be yelling at the refs most of the time. Congrats to the SU womens basketball team on last night nailbiting win over Georgetown. Hopefully they will get back into the top 25 where they belong when Mondays new rankings come out. Have a great night all!

Guesstimate the Storm Totals

Late, Late Night Update - I drove around a bit tonight and took a few pictures which most likely won't come out but the scenery is beautiful with the snow sticking on everything. Lets hope that the LES comes into play to top things off ;)

Snow Reported So Far as of about 4:00 pm. I'll be missing in action for awhile tonight but will catch up any comments that come through when I get back. Don't let the totals fool you there is more to come between tonight and tomorrow.

Syracuse - 4.2
Rochester - 3.7
Binghamton - 3.1
Buffalo - 2.6
Albany - 0.4




Updated 2/26 - I'm just going to update this post rather than starting a new one. So far here in the Syracuse area it's been non stop snow since early this morning. Mostly light heavy snow if that makes any sense. In other words the snow has been falling lightly to moderate throughout the day but a few good heavy blasts of snow would come and go every now and then. The heavy part being the weight of the snow. It's wet and it is very heavy and I'm glad I shoveled it twice so far to break it up a little. I measured a couple of times coming up with 3 1/2 inches but looking out the window after a big blast just came through around 4:00 pm most likely at least another inch has fallen. The roads around here in the Syracuse area are slick and from reading some other blogs most of CNY is probably the same so take your time getting home and check with your local forecasts as to what is still on it's way.


Here are the latest storm warnings and watches posted today and tonight by NOAA. Just click the links to read them at NOAA and they are subject to change;

Albany - Winter Weather Advisory
Binghamton - Winter Weather Advisory
Buffalo - Winter Storm Warning
Rochester - Winter Storm Warning
Syracuse - Winter Storm Warning

Well here comes another storm and it's time to play the guesstimate game. There has been So many so called storms this season that most of the GSB cities are below their averages. Normally I would say something like "that will be changing soon" but with all the storm busts this season I'm not going to say that.

OK, yes I am going to say it because I really, really believe in this storm and this should bring all of the Golden Snowball cities over their averages for this time in the season. Ummm, we'll make Buffalo the exception although they may go over their average too.

If Syracuse doesn't get at least 9 inches from this storm by Wednesday night I'm shaving the beard off, heading to the store to buy some new sandals and sunglasses and hiding in a closet until Spring weather comes which is normally sometime in mid summer ;) In other words it's time to BRING ON THE HEAVY SNOW or lets move on to nicer weather. Can you tell I'm totally disappointed with this winter. I do still think we have quite a bit of snow to go though before we get to what some of you call the NICE weather.

Time for the Snow Guesstimate game with the normal prizes of a pat on the back and a nice job thrown your way. Lets set the deadline to get your totals in at noon Tuesday. I know most likely we will already be getting some snow by then but hey, does it really matter ;) If your later than that, that's no problem either just make a comment with your totals for the 5 Golden Snowball Cities. Lets set the time table from right now until the stats come in from NOAA Thursday because lake effect most likely will be firing up also. I'm going high with this storm. Yeah i know again, nothing new for me huh and yes I have Syracuse winning this round too.


Syracuse - 17.0
Rochester - 15.0
Buffalo - 12
Albany - 9.0
Binghamton - 8.0


Take this storm seriously folks and keep an eye on your local forecast. Most importantly SNOW MEANS SLOW, drive carefully and have a great day.

Finally Going to a Syracuse Women's Basketball Game

Afternoon Update - I just got back from a great SU womens basketball game against Cincinnati, The Picture says it all!



Great Game Ladies and Congrats on Your Number 20 Win of the Season. GO CUSE!!!

I've been trying to catch one of the Syracuse women's basketball games for over a month now and today is the day and I'm pretty excited. This is a good team and hopefully they'll get their 20th win of the season while I'm there. To be honest I haven't been to a women's basketball game in a long time and I think that was at Manley. Most likely they are NCAA bound and now it's just a matter of what seed they can win their way into. Good Luck today ladies and GO CUSE!!!

Another bust yesterday as far as the storm went for CNY and western New York. Only an inch here and there being reported as of about midnight last night. Here are the totals for yesterday and they are pitiful to say the least. Albany was the big winner with Binghamton runner up. It will be interesting to see what the final totals were for the coastal cities. I was hoping this storm would have at least put most of us over our average totals for the season but that didn't happen.

Albany - 3.4
Binghamton - 2.6
Syracuse - 1.8
Rochester - 1.6
Buffalo - 1.5

I'm off to yell, scream, stand and cheer on the SU ladies now. Have a super weekend all!

Another Almost Snow Storm

It looks like another storm bites the dust. This season is one that I'll remember mostly as the snow season that could have been. Could have been an awesome snow total season but the storms just never quite made it happen. At least not yet this season for the Golden Snowball award cities. The coast isn't doing to bad, places like New York City, Mass and the rest of the NE coast should be getting some decent snow. Wisconsin is still doing pretty good and still beating Syracuse with the snow score at Madison 86.7 and Syracuse 82.1. Hopefully it will be a GSB city that topples DaCuse if it's to happen. I''m talking national not the GSB contest itself.

The snow looked a little bit promising earlier this morning but right now it's pretty much stopped. Binghamton and Albany may make out OK with this blast of snow and with more coming if it makes it far enough north. It's not looking real good right now though for Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester as far as getting a lot of snow goes. Not this time anyways. There is still a lot of Winter to go so don't even start thinking nice weather yet. It will just be a big let down. More to come later as we see what happens with the totals for today.

Busy Day Around The Lakes!

Certainly an interesting weather day in the Great Lakes region. Several things to cover. I'll break them apart into four sections with the highlights in case you don't feel like reading everything.

1. Lake Ontario Snows - 50 inches in 24 hours!
2. Lake Erie Snows - Ice? Not a problem for Buffalo!
3. Hurricane Michigan? - What the heck is it?!
4. Lunar Eclipse update!



1. The tug hill got a pretty good plastering of lake effect, upwards of 50 inches reported in Pulaski in about a 24 hour period! That is just crazy! But then again what else would you expect in that area this time of year? Below is a link to the regional radar from the tug hill from 11pm Tuesday through 9am Wednesday. It is just amazing to watch that band dance back and forth across Oswego County like that!

http://www.weathermatrix.net/2008/0220/rp220osw-1.mov

Here is another link to a good closeup loop of the radar from the Pulaski area from 1130pm Tuesday through 930am Wednesday. No wonder they are reporting 50 inches with the looks of that band!

http://www.weathermatrix.net/2008/0220/rp220osw-1z.mov



2. Buffalo finally got into the lake effect game a little bit this season. A bit of a disapointment that the official measurement only hit 4.2 inches, but still it helps out in catching up to Rochester. The lake effect was a bit of a suprise for us and played havoc for the local meteos in trying to forcast the lake effect comming off an 80% frozen lake. Snowfall totals picked up rather sharply just 2-3 miles south of the airport where a swath of 9-12 inches fell, about 6-8 inches of which fell in an intesne overnight burst lasting about 3 hours. Certainly not impressive for lake effect snow, but considering a single small hole in the ice managed to result in this still moderate and fairly well organized activity is interesting to note. Had the lake been ice free this would have been a perfect setup to dump a hefty amount of snow onto the Buffalo area. Things get more interesting now though hopefully I don't throw too much technical stuff I heard in too quickly. Since the lake was ice covered and not open water, the wind flow was actaully re-vectored shifting bands from where they would normally be expected. With the SW wind flow lake effect would normally setup in the city however the ice and wind convergenge actually resulted in bands and single convective cells to setup farther southward (more what you would see with a WSW-W wind flow) and then start to dance almost unpredictabily north and then south again. It also prevents a single band from gaining a prodomitie force comming off the lake and instead results in a multi-pronged feeder band effect which several times throughout the day kept merging into a single band then dying out in favor of more multi-bands. Another factor and something I learned from the NWS forcast discussion is that even if the lake is frozen lake effect, limited in nature of course, can still form if the conditions are right. I won't try and explain this in my own words, a copy and paste from the Buffalo forcast regarding the events off Lake Erie should sufice...

"THIS HAS BEEN A FACINATING EVENT TO WATCH UNFOLD. LAKE ERIE IS ABOUT 80 PERCENT ICE COVERED...HOWEVER IT IS STILL ABLE TO GENERATE SIGNIFICANT LAKE EFFECT SNOW. CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF...ICE COVER DOES NOT SHUT OFF LAKE EFFECT SNOW. THERE ARE TWO CONTRIBUTIONS OF HEAT FROM THE LAKE...SENSIBLE HEAT FLUX AND LATENT HEAT FLUX. ICE COVER SHUTS OFF THE LATENT HEAT FLUX AS WATER CAN NO LONGER EVAPORATE...HOWEVER THERE IS STILL SIGNIFICANT SENSIBLE HEAT FLUX THROUGH THIN ICE COVER VIA CONDUCTION. AN ARCTIC AIRMASS SUCH AS THIS CAN STILL BE MODIFIED SUFFICIENTLY TO PRODUCE A CONDITIONALLY UNSTABLE BOUNDARY LAYER AND BANDS OF LAKE EFFECT SNOW DESPITE THE ICE COVER. THE AMOUNT OF OPEN WATER ON THE LAKE IS NOT NEARLY AS RELAVENT AS THE ICE THICKNESS...WHICH UNFORTUNATELY CANNOT BE MEASURED REMOTELY."

So I guess even with a frozen Lake Erie Buffalo still has a running chance in the contest! As with the Lake Ontario band here is a radar loop from the Buffalo area. It highlights the 2nd band that effected the area later in the evening from around midnight through 9am.

http://www.weathermatrix.net/2008/0220/rp220buf-1.mov



3. Well I thought my learning would have ended finding out decent lake effect could orgainze itself on a frozen lake, then this morning I was check radars around the Great Lakes region and I spotted this on the Grand Rapids, MI radar loop.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d32/smadsen8486/2.gif

The strangest looking band of lake effect I have ever seen, looks like a mini hurricane doesnt it?! So I shoot off some message board questions to explain what I was seeing. It turned out to be a "meso-low" or small scale area of low pressure that can give lake effect band those visible traits on the radar. From what I was told they are not common occurances, yet they are not overally rare either. A local meteo in Buffalo told me that they tend to form with light winds in strong artic air masses. A few people in the Michigan area also commented that these meso-lows can often bring some intense squall conditions. If summerof41 from the forum is on maybe he can tell us how the conditions where this morning as the meso-low squall looks to have came inland right around his neck of the woods. Here is an extended 4 and 1/2 hour radar loop of the band where you can really see the circulation on the leading edge of the band and even circulating convection around the center.

http://www.weathermatrix.net/2008/0220/rp220grr1.mov

While I thought this was something rare to see it didn't take me long to hear from that another meso-low formed over Lake Huron not to long after the first one on Lake Michigan. Here is a close up of a much more defeined "eye" if you can call it that on what was dupped Hurricane Huron.

http://icons-pe.wunderground.com/data/wximagenew/m/MrSea/132.jpg?r=1203532488

Lastly here is a loop of the satellite images that shows both of these meso-lows together, you do have to look really close to spot them! The one on Lake Michigan formed first and then a frame or two after you can spot the one on Huron briefly before it comes inland in Ontario.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d32/smadsen8486/sat_ir_mw_loop-12.gif?t=1203573791




4. The Lunar Eclipse had a perfct skies here in the Buffalo area this evening. Certainly a fun sight to watch the moon being darkened and then turning red for about an hour and then just as quick going back to a white disc in the night sky. If anyone got any good pictures be sure to comment with a link or drop by the forum and share them with us! I was out snapping for a while but my camera probably didnt get anything good, I'll have to check them out tomorrow.

Well if you've made it all the way to the bottom of this post, thanks for being a die-hard reader! No snow dance and 4 big weather related happenings all in one day, go figure!

Total Lunar Eclipse TONIGHT!

Well I was going to hold off on making a second post until later this afternoon, as I have some interesting things to share but figured I would make a quick blurb for the total lunar eclipse tonight.

Hopefully the skies will clear and offer a view to any heading out or even just watching from the window. The eclipse will begin at 843pm tonight (Wednesday) and reach total eclipse at 1001pm. The total eclipse will last for 50 minutes with mid eclipse occuring at 1026pm. Following the end of the total eclipse at 1051pm the fading partial eclipse will still be visibile until 1209am. These times are all EST.

Enjoy!

Frozen Suprise?

At last! Something interesting weather-wise to get my hopes up for a little while. Also some hope for Buffalo to make a suprise strike upward in the standings. As I was getting ever closer to throwing the towel in for Buffalo, I will hold back for at least a little while longer. Although Lake Erie is about 85-90% ice covered it now appears that there is a big enough hole in the ice to let some limited lake effect get going with a cold SW wind flow. And I swear I wasn't out this weekend breaking the ice, even though I had considered it. I'm also glad I held off on doing one last ditch snow dance. If only the lake was ice free... Buffalo would have gotten clobbered, a near perfect setup for Buffalo lake effect today.

However, it's looking good that a band well get going for a while this evening somewhere near Buffalo. Been seeing quick on/off bursts most of the afternoon, but still nothing more than a dusting to a half inch so far. The NWS is calling for a 4-6 inch snowfall from the band tonight. A lot is going to depend if the band can get going with the limited open water, and on where the winds steer the band. But if Buffalo can sneak out 6 inches tonight from this band we would be in excellent shape once again to compete with the top dogs and inch ever closer to 2nd place.

Taking a look at the little open water left on Erie (the blue hole) it is pretty amazing any snow band could get going. We will have to see if Buffalo can step it up tonight!

Madison, Wisconsin - vs - Syracuse, New York

Sean Kirst had an article out earlier in the season about how Syracuse may have been the snowiest city with a population of 100,000 or more not only in the United States but in all of North America last year according to Canadian climatologist David Phillips. Read the story here http://www.syracuse.com/articles/kirst/index.ssf?/base/business-11/1197453467227480.xml&coll=1

Well move over Syracuse because Madison, Wisconsin is winning the snowball fight this season so far and the chances are with the snow totals that Syracuse has to date there may be a couple of other big cities kicking our butts also. No need to panic yet though because there is still a lot of snow season ahead whether you want it or not. Average isn't going to do it though and look at the stats above and you will see that Syracuse is dead on their average for this time into the snow season. Albany and Rochester are just tenths off their normal snowfall.

Right now Madison, Wisconsin has a snow total of 83.7 compared to Syracuse's snow total of 81.6. From what I have heard this has been the snowiest season on record for Madison and snow is still in the forecast for them. If I were a betting man, which I am, my bet would be on Syracuse remaining the snow champs in the US for big cities. I think the 2 mayors should get together and make a little city bet for the fun of it. Milwaukee isn't doing to bad either as far as snow totals go. They have over 76 inches so far this snow season.

OK, never-mind Madison the snow race is still pretty tight here in NY and Syracuse better worry about getting by the Golden Snowball cities first. Rochester is still well within striking distance of taking over the lead and Buffalo isn't out of it yet. Add in the coastal storms and the weather coming from the south and that keeps Binghamton and Albany alive also. All I can do is hope that the weather pattern changes soon so we can get in on some of that snowfall to the west of us instead of this warm wintry mix and rain that has been coming from the south. Enough said and have a great day. Kids, enjoy your winter vacation!!!

An Average Snow Season So Far

Take a look at the 2006 - 2007 snow stats and at the average snowfall stats for this time of the season. I don't think that this has been a normal season but by the snow totals for most of the Golden Snowball cities it sure has been average. Syracuse, Albany and Rochester are all within an inch of their normal snowfall for this date and Binghamton is just 5 inches off their normals. Buffalo has some catching up to do to get to their normal snow amounts but it's within reach for them.

The other thing I have noticed is how much snow I have been adding to last years snowfall totals the last few days when updating the stats which means at this time last season all of us were getting some decent snow amounts. In the last 5 days for last years stats at this time of the year I've added around 29 inches for Syracuse, 24 inches for Rochester, 10 inches for Buffalo, 19 inches for Binghamton and 17 inches for Albany give or take a bit. So in other words it's time to start piling up the snow. Bring It On!!! Umm, rain is in the forecast by the way :(

The Syracuse Orangemen played a great game yesterday beating Georgetown who I think was ranked #8 in the country and they looked good while doing it. The whole team looked good and Harris continued to step up as he has the last several games. He made a mistake late in the game and got a good chewing out for it by Bobby Knight Sr., oops, strike that, coach Jim Boeheim for going to the basket instead of taking the ball back out to kill some clock. This happened right before a commercial break and looking at Coach B's eyes before the camera broke away my guess is it lasted into the commercial. For whatever reason that image bothered me and I thought to myself that Harris was playing a great game of pure hustle and the chances are that the reaming that the coach just gave him might take Paul's head out of the game.

Well when the game came back on, Harris didn't look as pumped as he was and he ended up fouling a a Georgetown player taking a 3 point shot which means he gets 3 free throws. Mind you this was with Georgetown making a come back. So two mistakes late in the game by Paul Harris but it didn't end there. A 10 second violation was called against the Orangemen and poor Harris happen to be the one holding the ball. Sorry folks but blame that one on Flynn who constantly takes his time bringing the ball down court. He passed the ball to Harris who didn't cross the half court with probably about 2 seconds left if that. Paul Harris came through big though through the whole game and especially at the end of the game when Georgetown started fouling us to stop the clock. Harris was the man being fouled and time after time he went to the line and knocked down the free throws missing I think only one of 6 (or 8) down the stretch.

Overall this was the team that we were getting use to seeing. A team where everyone contributes and everyone did yesterday. Arinze Onuaku stepped up and did what he should be doing every game. Consider this his coming out game because what you saw yesterday is what you are going to see from him the rest of the season.

NIT or NCAA? Way too early to talk about it I suppose but It's not over until the fat man sings and I haven't even started to hum yet. The S. Florida game hurt but the Georgetown game should make that a push. 5 more wins including a couple in the Big East tournament with the tough schedule they have ahead of them and they have a good shot at the NCAA tourney because we got robbed last year and they owe us. If not it's the NIT and ya know what? Who cares because I just enjoy watching them. Thanks for the excitement guys, it's appreciated here. OK, enough ranting. Have a super Sunday all.

Syracuse Widens the Lead Bingo Wins Last Round

Well whatever happened yesterday to keep me from posting has been fixed. The snowfall totals should be up to date. Binghamton was the champ for that last round of snow picking up a total of 6.1 the last couple of days. Here is how it ended up storm totals and then some if I did my math right.

Binghamton - 6.1
Syracuse - 5.0
Albany - 3.5
Rochester - 2.2
Buffalo - 1.1

It's still close although Syracuse did put a little cushion between Rochester. I just took a look at the radar and it looks like there is some snow developing around Rochester so maybe they can get some of it back. Now to politics!

Is it me or is anyone else electioned out already and this is just the primary's. Wait until the general election gets in full force. I'm not going to get into political views and never have here. This is just a fun site about snow. I'm just curious if it's just me who is a national political junkie normally or are other people feeling that this election has been going on for like a decade already? Don't get me wrong either. It is exciting I suppose but coverage 24/7 on most of the news stations is nuts and with it starting so early it's even nuttier. How many times can people say the same thing. Better yet how many times can all the Guru's be so wrong about how the primary's will turn out and keep blah, blah, blah-ing about it. Enough already! Just show me the primary nights and keep it at that. Ut-oh, I'm doing what they are doing. Going on about politics. End of my ranting and enough said. Have a great weekend all.

Happy Valentines Night All

First off I hope everyone is having a great Valentines Day and Night.

For whatever reason I haven’t been able to post to the blog all day long. I’m trying to write to the blog right now by using email. I suppose if your reading this then it worked J I haven’t figured out the problem yet but it could either have something to do with Google or my server. Either way I’m hoping this email goes to the website and posts on there. General Steve, if you get a chance can you try posting something to see if it goes through on your end? Whatever the problem is it’s also affecting me from updating the stats above so I’ll post the updates here for now.

Syracuse – 76.0

Rochester – 68.5

Buffalo – 59.8

Binghamton – 50.2

Albany – 44.8

The storm the other day was more or less a bust just like they all have been so far for the Golden Snowball cities. One thing that is nice though is that there is once again snow on the ground and what a difference it makes. Everything looks clean and bright again. It sure beats the brown and green that grass that we have been seeing way too much of the last month and a half. OK enough said for now because if this doesn’t work then I’m just wasting my time. Have a Great night all.

Is The Snow Storm a Go or a Bust

Testing!

4:30 PM Update - Light snow is just starting to come down at my house just outside the Syracuse are. I've been watching some of the totals for this storm start to drop a little so I think it's time to play the Guesstimate Game. Just post a comment as to what you think the snow totals will be lets say by the end of tomorrow 2/13 at around 6 pm when NOAA does an update. Here are my snow guesstimates:

Rochester - 10
Syracuse - 8
Buffalo - 7
Binghamton - 7
Albany - 5

So many times this season I have gotten my hopes up for a decent snowfall or storm only to have it turn out to be a bust. With this coming storm I'm going to play it down at least in my head anyways. That said, BRING IT ON!!!!!! Once again naughty words are starting to be mentioned in the forecast for most of the cities. Those words that I find offensive are CHANGE OVER, MIXTURE, MIX, SLEET, RAIN and the dreaded F word FREEZING RAIN. Do you know how much snow we have lost because of those words this season? Well I don't either but my guess is we missed out on some good snow totals because of the mixed precipitation and once again the words are starting to pop up for this coming storm. I'm hoping that now that I whined about it, it won't happen.

I think all of the Golden Snowball cities are under a winter storm warning now and this is the chance for some changes in the line-up that we have all been waiting for. OK, some of us. Who knows, there may even be a new leader by the end of tomorrow. Rochester is still only 4.7 inches away and a hit here and a miss there with the snow bands that will be coming through it's a possibility. I think Binghamton might have a big enough lead to fend off any snowballs that Albany throws at them but there is a slight chance Bingo could find themselves at the bottom again. Of course Binghamton piled up a lot of snow last year at this time during the Valentines day storm. That's what's fun about these storms. Anything can happen.

The main thing I think for the snow lovers is that the warm air has to stay out of this storm. Right now from reading around it's going to go something like light snow, heavy snow, a mix of sleet and freezing rain, rain and then light snow again. Way too many items on this storms menu if you ask me and I just fired the cook. The new menu is SNOW and lots of it :) I wonder if turning on the air conditioner and opening up the doors and windows will keep the warm air away from my house so that it's all snow? Kids, I'm kidding! Don't do it! That goes for you too General Steve. Ummm, let me know if it works though if you do try it ;) I personally think the cold air will hold it's ground long enough to keep this a mostly snow event but keep in mind I'm normally clueless so check with your favorite local forecasters to see what's really going to happen.

DRIVE SAFE!!!!!!!!!!! Looking at the radar the chances are your going to be driving home from work with the possibility of some slippery roads. It looks like some light to moderate snow is getting close to Buffalo and light snow getting close to Rochester as I'm typing. The heavier stuff looks to be still just south of NY in PA but moisture looks to be building up in NY so once again check the forecasts out to see what time things will really start to get going and remember SNOW MEANS SLOW Drive careful all and have a great safe day.

TV 9 WSYR here in Syracuse has a pretty good discussion going on right now about this storm and they normally give some pretty good updates throughout the day. It's definitely worth checking out at http://community.9wsyr.com/blogs/weather_discussion/archive/2008/02/11/2520151.aspx

2007 - 2008 Snowfall Prediction and More

Just a quick night time post - My daughter Danielle just sent me a few Oswego snow pictures from Suny Oswego this evening. It looks like the snow band is starting to shift a little to the south and is now in Fulton. Wouldn't it be nice if it could come farther south to the Syracuse area so I can take some pictures???







Yup, and more!!! It doesn't get anymore exciting than this does it? First off We moved the forum a couple of weeks ago in hopes of stopping the spammers and I just wanted to let everyone know that you are more than welcome to join the new one. The forum is a good place to check out what weather is coming our way and also some good updates as to what the weather is doing in all the cities as it's actually happening. It's been a little slow lately due to the snow or should I say lack of snow but it always picks up when the weather gets pumping. All of the members that visit and post are fantastic people and fun. We have a couple of meteorologists that keep us updated along with several students and the group is of all ages. In other words your not going to find a better group of people than at the GSB forum. You can join the forum at http://www.222goldensnowball.com/yabb/ Note REMOVE THE 222 from the website address.

Our 2007 - 2008 Snowfall Predictions

I was just looking at the Generals and my own 2007 - 2008 winter predictions and the General who is really Steve Madsen from Buffalo is looking pretty good right now compared to me. I still think we have a lot of snow coming our way but the way this season has been going lately with too many warm ups and freezing rain events I have to admit I'm a little concerned about hitting my snow totals for some of the Golden Snowball cities. Here are both the Generals and my own forecast for this seasons snowfall.

The Generals 07-08 GBS Predictions:
Syracuse - 125
Buffalo - 105
Rochester - 95
Bingo - 85
Albany - 65

Pats Golden Snowball 2007 - 2008 Predictions

Syracuse -151 inches
Buffalo - 123 inches
Rochester - 121 inches
Binghamton - 106 inches
Albany - 72 inches

Will there be another Valentines Day storm? Lets hope not for the fact that a lot of plans had to be canceled and the kids had a snow day last year and didn't get to have their Valentines day fun. It's looking like this year it might come a couple of days before Valentines day. I'm hearing and reading about a storm coming sometime tomorrow. Remember last year all of the cities got some snow and Binghamton had close to 17 inches and a couple of other cities picked up over a foot of snow. So far they aren't calling for that much, only 3 - 6, 4 - 8 inches is a good possibility for most of us which is just a dusting compared to what Oswego and the north country had been getting. Anyways, keep an eye on the weather for tomorrow because it could be getting a little nasty and I'm sure all of the local meteorologists will be keeping us all up to date as it comes closer.

I've been checking out the Suny Oswego webcam at http://www.oswego.edu/webcam/index.html quite a bit the last couple of days and no doubt it's messy there to say the least. I'm not sure what their totals are up to from the lake effect snow that they are getting hammered with but it has to be pretty high. It's a pretty big and intense band that has been just hanging over the north. Here is a picture I just got off the Suny Oswego cam at about 3:00 pm. On a normal day (whatever that is) that picture would be crystal clear.



I was hoping it would have dropped south enough last night and come down to Syracuse. Well it didn't happen so Rochester remains within a tiny storm away from taking the lead and in reality all of the cities still have a shot at the Golden Snowball trophy. Have a great day everyone!

It's Backkkk - Winter that is!

It was a pretty crazy day around CNY with the winds and a little bit of snow for all of the Golden Snowball cities. Rochester just isn't gonna give up and once again they move closer to taking over the lead. They melted away just over an inch of the lead that Syracuse has on them and are now only 4.7 inches away from DaCuse. I'm starting to get the feeling that an upset is in the makes this season.

The snow totals will be interesting come the end of tomorrow. There is plenty of lake effect snow falling up north and if or should we say when that band drops down someone is going to pick up some quick snow. If it stalls out once it drops down there is a good chance that Syracuse may be able to fend off Rochester but of course The Rock might pick up some of the LES also. My guess is that Binghamton is hoping that the snow band heads far enough south to distant them self from last place Albany. Of course the way things have been going the snow will probably disappear before it reaches any of us :(

How windy was it today? I have a bird bath outside that weighs a ton and I have had it for at least 5 years I guess. I ran over to Best Buy to get something for my laptop and when I got back it was blown over. That hasn't happened since I have had it and I would love to know how strong the wind gust was that blew it over.

I just updated the stats from NOAA and they are as of about 4 - 5 pm. I'll try to get an early day update tomorrow and hopefully there will be plenty of snowflakes to add if that snow band drops south. Have a great night all!

Rochester Within 6 Inches of Syracuse

Rochester continues to move up the snow hill attempting to dethrone Syracuse as snow king. Right now they are only 6 inches behind DaCuse and it seems that every little snowfall that Syracuse gets they get just a little more. This winter has been one of the most boring ones I can remember and hopefully things will start changing.

Looking at the snow stats a couple of things stick out. All of the cities with the exception of Buffalo are still ahead of last seasons snowfall stats for this time in the season and Buffalo is right around last years snow totals. Last season started out pretty much snow less other than Buffalo's October storm then things started picking up pretty good. For all the snow lovers lets hope that things start picking up again and don't for a second think this season is over yet. Below are how the snow totals ended for the 2006 - 2007 season. You can see there is still a lot more to come.

Syracuse - 140.2
Rochester - 107.2
Buffalo - 88.9
Binghamton - 78.6
Albany - 45.9

Below is the amount of snow we have left if this season follows last seasons snowfall pattern. Keep one thing in mind though, this season hasn't followed last season too often so far.

Syracuse - 70.4 inches
Rochester - 43.4
Buffalo - 32.5
Binghamton - 37.1
Albany - 5.5

My monitor never did wake up and it will be laid out to pasture when the ground unfreezes. Is the ground even frozen with this mild winter we have had??? Anyways I'm on monitor #3 right now since Monday when NIMO shut the power off for a few hours around here. I did the right thing too and that's what ticks me off. I unplugged the computers and laptop so that the power surge when they turned the power back on wouldn't blow anything. So much for that. I then brought down the kids monitor from upstairs and hooked it up, plugged it in and it worked. One problem, everything was blurry. So I find some glasses which I use every now and then, increase the font size because the monitor seems like it is about an 8 inch monitor after using a 19 inch one and everything is still blurry. I play with the setting to try to clear the picture up with no success and finally say a few cuss words, grab my jacket and head over to Walmart to see if they have the monitor I saw online in the store.

What is it with my area and monitors? Do they sell out that fast> I go to War mart's computer section which is probably smaller than my living room and always seems to have 90 percent of the people that are in the store in that section. I look around the area (like 3 times) and only see 3 monitors. Only 3 %&**%& monitors in the whole store and all of them are above my price range. After searching for about 5 minutes for someone in the dept I ask the kid if there are any out back and No is the answer. Off to staples I head which is just around the corner.

One good thing about staples is there is normally someone more than willing to help out if it's not too busy. All in all 3 people offered help including the manager at one point and I declined and told them I was already being helped. So I look around at all the monitors most of which had NOT IN STOCK signs on them. I think 3 of the monitors on display didn't have the sign on them and of those only one was in my price range so the kind women offered to print me out the specs like I asked and I looked them over. After looking them over I told her I would take one. She said she would go see if they had it in stock. Of course I'm thinking well there is no OUT OF STOCK sign so most likely they will have one. Nah, my luck doesn't work like that. She mentions that she could order it from another store and have it shipped and they do ship fast from Staples and it's normally free shipping on orders over $50 bucks. I thought about it for a minute or two and decided I didn't review the monitor so I would hold off. Of course I had a back-up plan in mind. Call my Aunt who lives right down the street and see if I could use her monitor for a week or so until I find one I like. I actually ordered the computer for her and for whatever reason was thinking that I had her get a bigger monitor but now such luck. It's a 15 inch like the kids is. So that's the one I'm using right now because the picture at least comes in clear and isn't blurry with or without me wearing glasses. I'm hoping to find a monitor in the next couple of days but man what is it with 2 fairly big stores having only 5 monitors between them.

PS: If you see a lot of mispelled words it's most likely because I can't see what I am typing so bear with me. Kind of like a "my dog ate my homework excuse" to get away with bad grammer Huh :)

Ok, end of my ranting and have a Great weekend everyone.

The Monitor That Wouldn't Wake Up

Sorry about the lack of updates but my computer monitor is taking an extra long nap. For what ever reason it has been slower than normal coming out of sleep mode lately and as of yesterday morning it's been snoring away :( So far I have been unable to wake the monitor from sleep mode by unplugging it, dis-connecting it and a couple of other things I've tried but I'll keep trying today. Right now I'm stuck working off of my laptop and it takes forever getting any work done plus most of the stuff I need is on the regualr computer so bear with me as far as updates are concerned.

All the stats should be up to date now with no changes at all in the snow totals for all of the cities. That could change soon though! Snow is in the forecast for the next few days and it will be interesting to see what happens and if any of the other cities will make a move on Syracuse. More to come when I get a new monitor :)

Happy Super Bowl Sunday

Today is the big day for the football fans. I'm more into college football other than the Eagles but I did watch a lot of the playoffs this year and I'm into it. Who am I rooting for this superbowl?

Excuse the repost from last year! First I am rooting for myself once again this year to win. The last 2 years I asked everyone to think of 2 numbers and it worked one of the years and almost last year. It actually worked last year but I didn't have right numbers for the right teams. So this year I will once again ask for everyone who doesn't have their own office pool numbers of course to think of 2 numbers again. We have a friendly little family super bowl board. Ya know, we just play for match sticks. Anyways, this years numbers to think about and concentrate on especially at the end of each quarter, half time and the end of the game are 3 - 3. DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE. What numbers do the rest of you need this year???

OK, after I win then I have no choice but to hope the Giants pull off the big upset. The patriots will be tough but I really like the Giants pass rush and I think if they can keep putting pressure on Brady he'll be making some mistakes and we'll have a chance at an upset. Good Luck to all of you in your office pools and GO GIANTS!!!! Now I have to call my niece in Mass and start up the trash talking ;) Have a Super Super Bowl Sunday all!

Happy Groundhog's Day

For all you snow haters Groundhog hunting is not in season so don't even think about it. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today and I'm sure you know what that means. Yup, another 6 more weeks of winter. For all of us snow lovers. GO PHIL! GO PHIL!

Read the full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22963448?GT1=10856


In reality does this really mean anything for us in the north east? Think about it. Since winter started the snow has pretty much stopped. Sooooo, today I did something different. I said if I see my shadow when I go down to the basement with one light on and see my shadow then we will get 6 more weeks of Fall. You guessed it right. I did indeed see my shadow which means 6 more weeks of Fall like weather. Most of the snow that we received this season came before winter even started. For the month of December most of the snow fell before the 21st. So snow lovers can rejoice and my apologies to those of you looking for an early Spring. Just make sure you blame the groundhog and not me and remember Punxsutawney Phil is not in season right now.


For you SU fans that didn't catch the game against Villanova today SU won and they looked good while doing it. I think that road win on Wednesday night was a big one giving the guys some confidence on the road now which they need because they have a tough road schedule ahead of them. Way to go SU!!!

As for the Golden Snowball contest it remains close and the GSB trophy is up for grabs. With this last storm Binghamton managed to dig themselves out of the basement barely slipping past Albany for total snowfall this season. It comes down to what city will step up and bring it home. Your guess is as good as mine but I'm loving the fact that it is still close and pretty much all of the cities are still in the hunt for the trophy. Rochester and Albany are the only two cities left that are still above their average snowfall for this time of the year. What a difference a month makes and the month of January really slowed things down. Enough said and have a great weekend all!

The Snow Dance and an Ice Storm

3:30 update - Thing are starting to ice up a bit now in the Syracuse area. There isn't a whole lot of ice on the trees or power lines but it is definitely starting to stick now. The temps are holding right around freezing right now so hopefully they will go up a few more degrees to turn this stuff into rain. I'm kind of giving these updates just so people to the North know what's coming their way. Rochester looks to be in a temporary dry spot right now and I'm not sure what's going on in Buffalo and the other cities. Bingo hopefully is warm enough to be getting just rain and most likely Albany is getting rain.

1:30 update - It's coming down pretty good here in the Fremont - East Syracuse area. Beats me though as to what it is that is coming down. I just shoveled and the 2 inches give or take is really heavy right now. It seems like freezing rain coming down but it's not sticking to the trees or wires and hopefully it will stay that way. The plows have been hitting the main roads around here pretty good but I just walked on them and they are getting slick so take it easy. How is everyone else making out?

The GSB Snow Dance took place on 1/31 at 12:42 am and has absolutely nothing to do with todays weather ;) This storm has been setting up for awhile now and WeatherT (Tony) from the forum called this about a week back. We were hoping for more of a snow event though than an ice storm. After reading reports that the storm would be a winter mix of precipitation I decided to try and change that with the annual snow dance. I don't think it is going to work though but lets see if it can get winter back on track and give us a February that resembles the December we all had.

If you happen to stop by here today and have a few minutes please leave a comment to this post and let us know what the weather is doing in your area and how the roads are.

Pretty much all of the schools in the CNY area are closed today so enjoy your long Superbowl weekend kids. The snow has been coming down in the East Syracuse area off and on but just a quick blast here and there. That is expected to change over to sleet and then freezing rain with the possibility of some of the areas picking up between 1/4 - 1/2 an inch of ice. As I'm typing this I can here that sound that, well , I just don't like hearing. The sound of sleet blowing against the house so it looks like the change over is already starting to happen. That said, One of the prettiest weather events in my opinion is the glaze of ice covered everything. Unfortunately it's also one of the most dangerous weather events for our area because of the driving conditions it creates and because of the weight impact the ice has when it accumulates on the trees and power lines. A beautiful weather event that we can all do without.

If you don't have to travel then don't. Stay off the roads and let the salters and plows do their thing. More to come in a little while.