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Golden Snowball Totals for the 2010 - 2011 Snowfall Season
Updated  5/1/2011

GSB Cities This Season Normal Average
to Date
This Time Last Season Normal
 Seasons Average
All Time Season Snowfall Record
Syracuse 179.0 111.8 106.1 121.1 192.1 inches
( 1992 - 1993 )
Rochester 127.0 99.8 89.8 100.3 161.7 inches
( 1959 - 1960 )
Binghamton 117.5 80.8 81.4 81 134.0 inches
( 1995 - 1996 )
Buffalo 111.8 96.7 74.1 97 199.4 inches
( 1976 - 1977 )
Albany 87.2 62.6 45.4 62.6 112.5 inches
( 1970 - 1971 )

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Lights Out For Earth Hour

I just went to Google at http://www.google.com/ and had to use a flashlight to see around. Anyways today/tonight is the day that the lights and other electric powered products should be turned off for an hour. I believe between 8pm - 9pm is the set time but doing it anytime today or tonight will bring attention to the world wide energy conservation awareness.

Read More About Earth Hour at http://www7.earthhourus.org/

Have a Great Day and an Hour of Darkness All!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Snow Tonight!

I was going to title this blog, "March Goes Out Like A Lion", but with some hints at another storm heading our way on Monday, this month isn't over just quiet yet.

Well this storm didn't come in as big as I noted the models were showing back on Sunday, but it is still looking to pad the numbers for everyone tonight into tomorrow. Heavy, wet, slushy snow what a treat for all!

General idea is 4-8 for Buffalo and Rochester (depending on the water content of the snow, could actually go as high as 10 inches but not very likely). 3-5 for Syracuse and Albany. And 1-3 for Bingo, depening on how much sleet mixes in there.

With that said if Buffalo and Rochester can get the upper end of 8 inches and Syracuse stays light with only 3 or 4 we will be looking at an even closer race heading into the final month. Sure is a fun race this year!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Snow Dance or Spring Dance

Is it time for another snow dance or a Spring dance. It's that time of the year where we normally start getting more and more of what I call teaser days. You know when the sun shines bright and the temperatures go into the 50's and 60's. We have had a few sunny days but so far it's been staying pretty cold still. The normal temps for this time of the season range from around 44 F - 48 F for the Golden Snowball cities.

The question is are you ready for Spring or should Winter drag on? Leave a comment if you have a minute as to what you prefer to see. I think I might know the answer to this one though. Personally I would like to see the season end with one BIG storm of a foot or more and who ever has the most wins. Looking at last year though we had a storm come through around April 15th - 16th http://goldensnowball.com/2007/04/song-stuck-in-my-head.html Of course right after that we had some decent days with temps in or around 70 degrees.

Right now it's sunny in the Syracuse area but it looks like that might not last. Looking to the west there is some precipitation going on. Buffalo and Rochester might have a chance to melt away some of the lead Syracuse has if they can keep it to mostly snow and not just rain. The way I figure if it's going to be cold and cloudy we might as well get snow instead of a cold rain. If the sun is going to be shining then bring on the 50's and 60's. Have a great week all!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Happy Spring - The Contest Goes On

It's time to break out the shorts sandals and T-shirts now that Spring has arrived, I think. Does anyone know what time did (does) Spring begin here in the North East???

Just a heads up before any articles come out about the Golden Snowball contest. The contest DOES NOT END the first day of spring. It ends the last day of April when the threat of any snowfall has pretty much diminished by then. The contest continues and it is still up for grabs and it's still a tight race between Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Last place is still pretty close also between Binghamton and Albany.

Just the sound of Spring sounds pretty good even though there is no sign of spring weather in the air doesn't it? More to come a bit later!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Congrats to the Syracuse Orange Women's Basketball Team

High fives to all of the Syracuse women's basketball team for making the 2008 NCAA tournament this season. OK maybe not high fives because with a couple of the taller ladies if we both jumped to do high fives the chances are I can't even reach their hands. Not to mention I can't jump to high either. Syracuse who drew a number 7 seed in the women's NCAA tournament will be playing the Hartford Hawks I believe at 2:00 pm on Saturday the 22nd. You can get all the information on the ladies team at http://www.syracuse.com/today/index.ssf/2008/03/syracuse_women_rewarded_with_n.html along with printable brackets for the womens NCAA tournament.

Speaking of the NCAA tournaments Sre and Weatherman from the Golden Snowball forum have set up a NCAA Mens Basketball Bracket Challenge contest which is open to everyone. The normal prize is an electronic pat on the back to the winner. They did the same thing for the bowl games during the football season which was fun. They pitted the Golden Snowball entries against the In The Clutch entries to make it even more fun. I made my picks last night which I am sure they are all copying right now and you can make yours anytime you want to as long as they are made before Noon on Thursday.

It's easy and it only takes a few minutes to pick your teams the way they have it set up. All you need is a user name. It really is that easy. Go to http://www.intheclutch.x10hosting.com/ncaabbracket/entry.htm and enter a user name, just click on the team you like and when your done just click the submit picks button at the bottom and good luck if you enter. If your looking for a good sports forum to just hang out at without a lot of flaming then check out their forum at http://intheclutch.net/ . Once again here is the web page to play in the Men's NCAA Bracket Challenge Contest at InTheClutch http://www.intheclutch.x10hosting.com/ncaabbracket/index.htm

Good luck to the Syracuse men's basketball team which will play Robert Morris tonight at the Dome in the Nit tournament. The SU men's team drew a number 1 seed which means if they keep on winning they will be playing 3 games at home I believe. If your down about them not making the NCAA tourney this season then it's time to get over it. These kids will be coming out to play tonight with all heart and it will be a good game. If you have a chance to make it to the game then go cheer them on. The chances are your going to get a decent seat and get a good look at what this team can do. Have a great day all and GO CUSE!!!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy St Patrick's Day

It's a bright sunny day here in the Syracuse area for St Patrick's Day. There hasn't been a whole lot to talk about snow wise lately but I'm guessing there will be sometime soon. We still seem to be stuck in a cold pattern and the Gulf still seems to be pretty active.

The only change in the stats was a tenth of an inch for Buffalo and 3 tenths for Rochester. I still have the felling that many more inches are just waiting to fall. I'm hoping to check out all the other US cities that we have been watching lately to see which one ends up with the most snow this season outside of New York. At last check Erie had a pretty good lead with about 113 inches of snow on the season. Madison Wisconsin was stuck on 98.5 inches of snowfall. Hopefully I will have some time to check them all out soon. Quebec City who Syracuse beat out last year has gone crazy this season according to Sean Kirst who wrote at http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/ called Snow Rage that they have over 200 inches so far this season so my guess is that they will have bragging rights for the snowiest city with a population of 100,000 or more for ALL of North America this season. He also has a nice touching article there from the past about his daughter Sarah who just turned 18 yesterday along with other articles that are well worth reading. Happy belated Birthday Sarah!!!

I'll see if I can get some pictures from the St Patty's day celebration posted later on in the day. Have a Great Green St Patrick's Day All!!

Friday, March 14, 2008

St Patrick's Day Parade in Syracuse 3/15/08

Tomorrow is the St Patrick's day parade and celebration downtown so I'm just going to repost a blog from the past to let you know how the day goes. Looking at the forecast it looks like maybe a decent day with a hit or miss shower. I'm liking the fact that the winds don't seem to be an issue this season year like they have been in the past. Anyways here is pretty much how our day will go tomorrow and maybe I'll bump into some of you downtown.

Tips and Tales of St Patty's Day in Downtown Syracuse

St Patrick's Day Weekend is here in Syracuse. Unfortunately only one of the few times I get to get out and enjoy Downtown Syracuse. A bunch of us every year, about 20 or more of us which is a mix of men and women normally hit a local soda pop bar early in the day. OK day meaning morning what can I say? Yes in the morning and don't be coming to any conclusions. It's only once a year we do this. Anyways family and friends come to town just for this day downtown. From Virginia, Poughkeepsie, Boston and so on. St Patty's Day downtown is so much fun that people come from all over the country for it.

Here is how the whole day plays out or should I say is suppose to play out. It hardly ever goes as planned which makes it even more fun. We normally start out at the Park Hill Tavern in East Syracuse where we get dropped off by our designated driver for the day. Normally one of our kids who BTW get paid well for for driving us but it is well worth it. Don't drink pop and drive. We catch the bus from the Park Hill to the city. So far in the 15 years give or take that we have been doing this I don't think we have ever caught the bus we intended to. Either all of us aren't there yet or we weren't watching for the bus and we miss the one intended. Once we even got on the wrong bus and ended up in NYC. Well not NYC but definitely the wrong bus that had a lot of detours on the way. It would of been faster walking there that year.

Finally we end up downtown for the Parade. Once we were even fortunate enough to see the parade. That was only because when we got off the bus the parade happened to be right there. Don't get me wrong, we do see the parade it's just that we watch it from inside the fine city bars that are heated and by the way are always packed when we arrive there. I just wanted to point out that we are not the only ones that start out early in the morning on St Patty's Day . One thing we do before we start is we each pitch in 20 bucks a person and elect two people to be in charge of buying the drinks all day. The bars are crowded so it would be foolish for 20 + people to go in together and stand at the bar, or should I say attempt to stand at the bar. Another note is that the first 20.00 we pitch in won't be the last and when I say drinks I'm talking soda pops of course . Tip - One thing I have learned about being elected to the Most important job of the day which is by far buying the drinks is that the first round you buy make sure you order the opposite of what the people wanted. You'll be the bad guy for a little while but it is well worth the shame, the boos and dirty looks of not being able to order a round of drinks correctly when they impeach you from that position and you get out of ordering the drinks for the rest of the day. Trust me, someone else will take over As for being the bad guy, sooner or later someone else will do something stupid to earn the title of bad guy so you'll be off the hook in no time.

Most of the day pretty much consists of freezing our tails off but having a Super time in the process. The way we do St Patty's day is pretty much just bar hop all day and test out all some of the different variety's of brews that are on tap at the bars. I suppose you could say that we aren't there so much as to have fun but let's say we are doing research work on the brews. Maybe this year we will even take notes on our research. I do know that most of the men with us prefer the darker soda pops. Another good tip is to elect a leader to lead your group to the different bars. Someone who actually knows their way around the city of Syracuse. Remember, most of the time it is pretty cold out and for some reason almost always without fail the wind is blowing pretty good. The worse thing is to make a wrong turn and walk for a half a mile or so only to find out you have to go back the other way. For that my Brother in-law normally gets elected and does a fine job most of the time but every now and then he makes a wrong turn. That's normally a good thing for who ever is the bad guy at the time enabling him to pass the title over to my brother in-law for getting us lost. Like I said the "bad guy or gal" gets passed along throughout the day and always has a ton of laughs to go along with it. Jeez, now that I am typing and keep seeing the word elected. I'm starting to see that St Patty's Day is actually a fine example of the democracy in progress with all the elections we have going on. Most of the time the person being elected isn't and to be frank doesn't want to be elected

All in all we hit maybe 5 - 7 bars. We'll normally order appetizers, wings or something at one of the bars early and then end up at Clarks sooner or later for one of their great roast beef sandwiches. If you go to Clarks don't let the lines fool you. They rock at moving the customers along and you have your food in no time. The roast beef is well worth standing in line for. It's truly awesome. I wish I could plug all the bars that we hit but to be honest with you I'm just a follower the whole day hoping I don't get lost or left behind and never really check out the names of the bars we hit. I can only guess that any bar you end up in you'll have a great time. One thing that bothered me a bit last year is that during the day a lot of the bars weren't playing Irish songs. I don't know what was up with that. To the bar owners Please at least play Irish music in the daytime.

The biggest tip I can give is to dress warm. When your ready to leave the house and feel that your dressed up warm enough, go back and grab 3 extra coats. Only then will you be prepared for a great St Patty's day downtown. Then again I think it was a couple of years ago when the temps went up to 60 degrees and here was the Golden Snowball dude carrying a coat and 2 sweatshirts around looking like a fool. I did try the "can you hold this for a second while I do whatever" trick but that only worked for so long. I should of trusted the weatherman that time.

The day downtown or sometimes night downtown (depending on how much research some of us have done) will end with one of us calling our designated drivers to come pick us up. We use to try and catch or call a couple of taxis to get home but that is another story or two in itself. The last time we called for two taxis only one showed up. Being the gentlemen that we are (yes only gentlemen in our group ) we told the ladies to go ahead and we would suffer and wait it out until the next taxi shows up. Well what are the chances of not one of us having a watch on and you all know how time flies. Before we knew it almost a couple of hours went by. Anyways I'm sure you already figured out that the ladies weren't too happy with the men. Something to this day I haven't figured out because we all thought the women would of been impressed with how patient we were waiting for the taxi to arrive. Everyone knows men aren't known to be patient and so what if our patience was being displayed at a hopping bar. That shouldn't even come in to the picture should it That was the end to taxi's being used for the ride back to town.

Summary Finally - Sorry about the rant. I really could of kept going on. To sum it up I always thought St Patrick's day was a great big party downtown. After typing this up I discovered it's actually a democracy process in the works with all the electing we do in our group along with research work. Research on the different brews of beer downtown. The research work by far is the hardest part of the day. Now knowing that it's not the Big Party that I always thought it was I probably won't be able to enjoy it like I have in the past. I'll give it my best shot though

Have a Great Weekend All!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

BUFFALO BREAKS 100!!!

For the first time since the 2004-2005 snow season Buffalo has gone over the 100 inch mark!

Hold off the ballons and party we have a snow contest to win here!

Buffalo was the big winner for the clipper last night with 1.5 inches. Bingo and Cuse picked up an even inch, Rochester picked up 9/10th's and Albany continues to slack with a big old goose egg!

Buffalo is 1.0 inches out of 2nd and 7.9 inches out of 1st.

Rochester is 6.9 inches out of 1st.

Bingo and Albany... just forget about it!

This is turning into one heck of contest now and might come down to the last snow day to get our winner!!!

Looking at the snowfall potential comming forawrd:

1. This weekend remains uncertain! A major difference in model tracks of a storm this weekend leaves a big question mark. One model brings us a small burst of mixed precip while another model brings as much as a foot of snow into all of the competing cities. Gonna have to wait and see how this one pans out way to much uncertaintly right now... What else is new!?!?!?

2. A storm that has been on the models for some time now looks to head into the area Wednesday into Thursday. It's still a back and forth jump between a wind and rain event and a major late season noreaster. I'm leaning towards the rain and wind event, but again... a storm to watch heading into next week.

3. A seasonal pattern with a clipper or two holds on through the end of March but commming towards the start of April some signs are poiting towards the end of winter and us finally entering into a spring trend!

The days are numbered now... LET'S GO BUFFALO!!!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The General -vs- The GSB Oracle

Right now the supposedly Oracle of the Golden Snowball stats is getting his butt kicked by the General for our Winter outlook predictions. I'm not yelling Uncle yet though because I still think we have at least another 4 - 5 weeks of on and off snow left. I look OK on some of my predictions and the General right now looks better on his. Here is our predictions that we posted back in November of 2007:

The Generals Snow Predictions

Albany - 65 (-8.2)
Bingo - 85 (-20)
Buffalo - 105 (-6.3)
Rochester - 95 (+5.3)
Syracuse - 125 (-17.9)

My Predictions

Syracuse -151 inches (-43.9)
Buffalo - 123 inches (-24.3)
Rochester - 121 inches (-20.7)
Binghamton - 106 inches (-41)
Albany - 72 inches (-15.2)

I'm not real worried about Buffalo, Rochester and Albany right now but I do have some concerns with Binghamton and Syracuse. Another good storm like last weekend and I'm looking better. Right now I have to give Kudos to the General though for looking pretty, pretty, pretty good. Can you tell Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of my favorite shows?

Here are my snow season predictions!

Here are the Generals season predictions!

Tom posted a comment that Syracuse lost an inch of snow overnight and he is right. For some reason Syracuse dropped from 108 inches down to 107 inches. It could be an adjustment fixing a previous mistake at NOAA or it could be a mistake that was made overnight. We'll have to wait and see if the inch gets added back or not. Right now the race just got closer and Syracuse's lead has been cut to less than 7 inches without the other cities getting any snow. Lets hope that doesn't happen down the stretch too many time. Daver, where are you? We all miss your great input!

Have a Great Day All!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Slipping and Sliding Back and Forth

Sean Kirst has an article out today about the Golden Snowball contest and his opening line to the story "As any disciple of Syracuse University basketball knows, this is not a good year to take big leads for granted. "
is dead on I think. Check it out at http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1205139453122290.xml&coll=1

For those of you who were late to work today the chances are you may have forgotten to set you clocks ahead an hour yesterday morning because we do it earlier now. Just remember Winter ahead, Fall behind and you will have no problems. Hmm, Winter ahead just doesn't sound right does it???

Rochester isn't having any part of Buffalo thinking they can just slip past them without a fight. They picked up just enough snow by Sunday evening to slide past them once again and to take the second place slot away from them. Rochester is also the second city now to hit their annual average snowfall for the season after Buffalo hit theirs over the weekend. Syracuse needs another 4 inches to go over their average annual snowfall for the season and Albany has been pretty close to theirs for awhile now. Hopefully both Rochester and Buffalo got a good enough taste of being close to the top to make a real effort now to dethrone Syracuse to bring home the golden snowball trophy to one of their cities.

I think Binghamton has been the biggest disappointment of the snow season so far and to be honest with all of you it really surprises me because of the storms we have had this season. You would think they would have benefited Binghamton but so far that hasn't been the case. With most of these storms coming from the Gulf area the air has been just a little too warm for Bingo to take advantage of them. If the air was just a few degrees colder with these storms the chances are that Binghamton and for that matter all of the GSB cities would be wayyyy over their annual snow totals by now.

I'll try to track down some of the bigger city snow stats for the nation later today when I have some time because the chances are that some of these cities took a good pounding also over the weekend. Have a great Monday all!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

BUFFALO JUMPS INTO 2ND!

Wow, How much one little storm can change the standings.

Buffalo picked up a record snowfall of 8.2 inches on Friday and then beat that best by hitting a second consecutive record snowfall of 13.1 inches on Saturday. The 21.3 storm total ups Buffalo to 98.4 inches for the year, and as of right now ONLY 6 inches behind Syracuse!

Rochester may have fallen to 3rd place but they aren't to far behind they picked up 5.5 inches on Friday and 7.6 inches on Saturday to move up to 97.7 inches on the season, just a few tenths behind Buffalo.

As long as Syracuse doesn't get any run away lake effect going we are going to come down to the wire for this year's winner. Well let's hope we get a chance for another snowfall, spring is almost here!

From the Snowman - I'm just going to tap into the General's post here and say WOW! Who would have thought Buffalo would have been the first to go past their average snowfall for the season? I wouldn't have, at least not a few days ago. Congrats to Buffalo for taking over second place and better yet for being only 5 inches away from taking over the lead in the 2007 - 2008 Golden Snowball contest.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Buffalo and Rochester Rushing the Hill

Buffalo and Rochester are making a charge to be the king of the hill. Snow hill that is and if they are smart they will wait until after around 6:30 or so because most likely there will be 30,000 plus SU fans on the SU hill to defend it with the Orangemen game against Marquette going on today. Just a heads up that the schedule says the game is at 2 pm but it's actually at 4 pm. GO CUSE!!!

Here is a time lapse cam shot from Meddaugh on Wunderground that shows a 24 hour time lapse for the Rochester area for the March 7th and 8th storm.

Today, March 7th - 8th



Here is a time lapse cam from Springville, NY which I believe is just south east of Buffalo not far from Lake Erie. I found this on PMS's wundergrounds site.

March 7th - 8th 2008



More New York weather cams at http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/index.html?state=NY

Buffalo broke a record for the day yesterday picking up 8.2 inches and there is more on the way. Both Rochester and Buffalo are making a late season charge to be the King of the snow mountain in hopes of winning the convented golden snowball trophy and Syracuse better be on the offense to fend them off and probably will be come later this evening. Rochester has closed the gap to almost within a foot of snow and all 3 cities WILL be getting snow today, tonight or both. Buffalo is also closing in on second place right now with less than 5 inches of the white gold separating them and Rochester who picked up 5.5 inches of snow and hit the 90 inch mark. It should be interesting as to how the cities rank come the end of Sunday.

Buffalo for the first time in a long, long time has finally gone over their average snowfall for the date but now Binghamton has fallen below theirs. Then again all of the Golden Snowball cities are over their last seasons totals now except for Syracuse.

From reading around and always check with your local meteorologists it looks like Syracuse may be getting only 3 - 7 inches of snow along with some winds to blow it around come later in the day or evening. Buffalo and Rochester could be getting another 9 - 17 inches by tomorrow morning along with some wind which is why I think the stats should be pretty interesting come tomorrow morning. Is there a new leader in the works???? Enjoy the weekend all and "See Snow, Drive Sow". Take it slow out there on the roads today and tonight.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Buffalo and Rochester Can Melt Away the Lead?

This late in the season you have to take what you can to win the Golden Snowball Award. My advice to Buffalo and Rochester is don't blow it with this new storm coming our way.

I've been reading around and it looks like Buffalo and perhaps Rochester has a real shot at melting away some of the lead that Syracuse has on them. Once again this is one of those storms that can hit or miss some of us, rain or snow or like most of the other storms drop every type of precipitation you can think of on one or all of us. I'm hoping that Buffalo and Rochester can take a big dent out of the Cuse's lead and it's looking like west and north of Syracuse could be the winners this time with Syracuse most likely being right on the edge. Winter storm warnings are posted for all 3 right now up until I believe Sunday morning.

Most likely your thinking the same as I am, HERE WE GO AGAIN! A winter storm in the forecast and most likely much to do about nothing. If it's going to be in the form of freezing rain and rain then lets hope it's a miss. Right now things are so saturated from the mid week storm that I'm sure a lot of areas, rivers and streams can't handle much more rain without causing problems especially down in the Binghamton area.

If it's going to be a decent amount of snow then bring it on. I'm sure the way this winter has gone that those who snowmobile and ski would like to get in as much of it as they can before the warm weather settles in. Most likely it will be a heavy wet snow for a good part of it. You know, the kind that makes shoveling soooo much fun. Hopefully the storm will find some cold air some where to give us that nice fluffy snow that makes shoveling bearable and easier on the back.

From what I have read things should start going downhill sometime later this afternoon and probably sooner for Buffalo and the Rock and they probably have the best chances of picking up some snow along with the north by tomorrow morning. It's pretty warm out right now in Syracuse, 42 degrees so if it does snow before rush hour hopefully it won't be sticking to the roads. As always check with your local forecasters for what's really going to happen and Good Luck to Buffalo and Rochester on keeping this race close. Hopefully the General and perhaps someone from the Rock will keep us updated as to what's going on there. Have a Great weekend all and GO CUSE! Basketball that is ;)

Thursday, March 6, 2008

A Beautiful Sunny Day

Wow, another sunny day in New York. I lost count but it has to be about 3 sunny days now in the last couple of weeks. The headline above should be "Another Winter Storm Coming" but that's getting old right now the way they have been turning out. We'll let you know how bad this storm will be when it's over with ;) Right now the storm watches are starting to get posted and as always you can check out the latest weather watches and warnings for you city at http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=ny&prodtype=warnings I just saw that it was snowing pretty good in Dallas, Texas area. I believe Texas is where the storm coming our way come Friday - Sunday is starting out. Of course I could be wrong like I have been for most of this season. From reading around a bit this next storm looks like advantage Buffalo. Of course that could change over the next 24 hours or so.

On a personal note congratulations goes out to my niece and nephew Amy and Greg on their new baby girl that was born this morning. I'm finally a great Uncle no matter what my other nieces and nephews have to say about that title. I suppose the only sad part is that they live out of town in Mass right now so it may be awhile before we get to see the little one. My mother is of course excited because it is her first Great Grand Child. OK, enough about us.

Syracuse is starting to slip away from the others so they better start getting serious about the season. I don't think it's anywhere near over as far as snow goes but I think we passed the hump and are now starting the home stretch which will be another 6 weeks or so. Buffalo is playing smart right now hanging out in the middle of the stats. They can make a move to the top of the snow hill or a move towards the bottom of it. They are still in striking distance of wither or in my opinion. Binghamton still has to be nervous about dropping to that bottom spot. No city wants to be beaten by Albany what we consider the winter vacation city of NY because of their usual lack of snowfall. This year I have to admit they are doing pretty good and are the closest right now to the average annual snowfall for the season. It's been a bit boring lately but I still think this is a snow race and it's not over til the fat man sings and I still haven't sung yet. Have a great day all!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Winter Storm Warnings for Golden Snowball Cities

7:30 pm Update - It looks like freezing rain has started her in the Syracuse area. Either that or it's freezing after it sits for awhile. Either way the car is just starting to get a light coat of ice on it. I'm out for awhile and will try to get an update in later tonight. Take it slow if your driving tonight.

Most if not all of the golden snowball cities are now under a winter storm warning for today and tonight. It's another one of those hard to call storms because of the track of the storm and because of how most of the storms this season have been so far, the temperatures. It comes down to if it stays cold enough at the ground level then is will be snow. If it doesn't stay cold enough then it will be a mix of #$&%&^$. It's that simple!

OK, it's really not that simple and after reading around a bit I am surprised to see how much the weather forecasters get slammed on their blogs for the way they forecast these storms. They take the weather tools they have and they do their best to predict what they think will happen. With storms like these it's often hard to predict until it's pretty much right on us. Eeeeks, I'm defending the forecasters? That should get me slammed a bit here. Hopefully not because like I said these types of storms can be hard for them to forecast.

As for the Storm warnings I was reading around and as of the wee hours of the morning freezing rain and a mix of everything else excluding the kitchen sink thank God, seems to be thrown in the forecast for today for most of the cities. Right now I'm a little concerned for Albany with the freezing rain amounts they mentioned and hopefully it doesn't happen. At last check they were saying a possibility of 1/2 to 1 inch of freezing rain which could definitely cause some problems with trees and power lines. Binghamton could be in the same situation and right now as I type there has been some heavy precipitation right around them. I'm not sure whether it's snow, rain or a mix though. Maybe Mike or one of the others from Binghamton will let us know what's going on their way. I suppose in reality the freezing rain could cause some problems for all of us.

Summing it up look for things to deteriorate as the day goes on if it's not already happening where you live. The warnings at first were going into tomorrow morning for most of the GSB cities but it looks like they brought them back for a few of us until later tonight but that could change as the day goes on. Click here for updated storm watches and warnings throughout the day and night.

Channel 9 online here in Syracuse always has a forum discussion going on about the weather which is worth checking out at http://community.9wsyr.com/blogs/weather_discussion/default.aspx A little bit of flaming goes on but they handle it good and when time permits they try to answer your questions there. They haven't been answering mine lately but that's most likely because I finally bored them to death with my lame questions :)

Because there are so many visitors from all over the the New York area I'm curious as to what your favorite sites are to get your local weather info from? I'm from the Syracuse are so I list a couple of mine every now and then and I just thought it would be fair to list some of the other cities weather sites on here.

Have a great day everyone and I'll try to post a few updates as the weather changes. Remember, See Snow - Drive Slow!!!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Other US Cities Snowfall for the 2007 - 2008 Season

Winter Storm Watch for Tuesday - Wednesday! It looks like it is due more to freezing rain than snow. Click here for your current storm watches and warnings.

Syracuse finally hit the 100 inch mark over the weekend with some persistent snowfall on Saturday. Saturday was also the first time this season I tested out to see how well I bounce these days. Not once but twice :) Yup two times I slipped and went down for the count and fortunately both times no one was around to see me jump up really fast to see if anyone noticed. No bruises but the bum and back are feeling it more today than they were yesterday.

OK, enough about me. How are a couple of the other US cities doing so far this snow season? I checked out a couple of cities that were brought up to me to see if Syracuse will have bragging rights by the end of the season for the snowiest city with a population over 100,000 in the US. Canada will be next when I have some time for the North America bragging rights.

A visitor Brian mentioned that Grand Rapids, Michigan gets a decent amt of snow and I looked into it and he was right. I also knew that Madison Wisconsin was having an unusual snow season and their snowfall is up there pretty good although they are kind of at a stand still right now which probably won't last. Here is what I came up with for numbers so far and if you know of any other cities w/pop over 100,00 with a lot of snow let us know and thanks for those who have already.

Syracuse, New York = 101.9
Grand Rapids, Michigan = 98.2 (Thanks Brian)
Madison Wisconsin = 89.8
Erie, Pa = 85.8 (Thanks Adam)
Rochester, New York - 83.1
Milwaukee, Wis = 80.2

The locations of the airports have also been coming up lately which they normally do every year. It comes down to a lot of good points have been made but it is what it is. I would try making some phone calls to see if they could be moved to better locations but I have a feeling it won't work. Here is a thread from I think last season that covered it a little bit https://www2.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1269336486158113204&postID=2239302106864800266

UPDATE - THE BELOW CONTEST HAS BEEN CANCELED??? - Most likely due to a more of a rain and mix event but maybe TQ will clue us in as to why?

TQ has another storm contest going on at http://www.newx-forecasts.com/ until 10:30 PM EST MON tonight. How his contests work is you try and guess how much snow several of the cities on the east coast will receive from passing storms. Two of the GSB cities Albany and Binghamton are in the contest. This will be contest #9 which goes to show how active this season has been so far and every now and then they will be called off because the storms sometimes turn into a bust. Anyways it's always fun to see how you do compared with all the others that enter each time. Rookies and pros are all welcome to play along.

More Info - The NE.Wx Snowfall Forecast Contest (NEWxSFC) is a multi-month event that continues into late March or early April. In general…contests are held whenever a decent…synoptic-scale storm rears its head and threatens at least a half-dozen forecast stations with more than nuisance snowfall amounts. Forecasters are called to post their 'storm total' snowfall predictions…on deadline…for 27 NWS / FAA observing stations scattered about New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions. The Contest Administrator determines the deadlines for entries…verifies all forecasts…and publishes the final results to the Contest/s web site.

It's easy to enter Enter your forecast via the Contest/s web site @ http://www.newx-forecasts.com/ Follow the link to 'Enter Storm Forecast.' Registration is simple… requiring only a username and password. If you provide a valid e-mail address…a copy of your forecast will be sent to you. TQ has never sent out any spam and the only emails I receive are related to the contests so give it a try and have a little fun with the snow.

We mentioned the possibility of another storm this week. I'm sure the General and others will keep us updated as to what's going on. Remember we are not meteorologists and just throw out possibilities all in fun. Always check with your local pros and NOAA for updated info. Have a Great week all!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

MAJOR Storm This Week???

Well per usual the models are again hinting at a potentially MAJOR storm system heading up our way. A few things concern me about this potential storm.

1. It has not been getting much hype from the media/NWS or other internet weather blogs as was seen leading up to previous dud storms.

2. This is by far the most impressive looking setup of any storm yet this season and it continues to look even more impressive as we get closer to zero hour.

3. The models have bombed almost every storm this season (well not every one, but a higher than usual percent). So we are more than due for one to finally come through or better yet be worse then the models called for.

A lot is still up in the air (no pun intended) about this storm. It is certain to start as some rain during the inital start of the storm, but it's get tricky as to how quick it could change over to snow or even change to a heavy freezing rain/sleet mix. The two major models each have a different hold on the storm right now. One plays out a rather major late season snowstorm for mainly the Western New York and far upstate Northern areas of New York. The other cities look to miss out on the heavy snow but will still see a good shot of it as the storm moves east and departs. The second models lays the stage for a potential ice storm to effect western and northern new york. A third idea pulls the storm a different direction and gives us all just plain old rain.

Should have a better idea of what the storm will bring us later tonight and into tomorrow morning. I'll have a better update tonight!