The Halfway Mark is Near!
Pardon my absence as of late I have been busy with work and the usual random daily bull associated with such. Hmm where to begin. Honestly I don't know where to begin. Speaking on behalf of the Buffalo crowd this has so far been a pretty tame year. Looking at the leader board it would be hard to call this a slow year as all the cities are above last season and well above their averages to this date. I would have to say Buffalo's blues are the result of a lack of a major lake effect storm to really pamper our total. Looking at the numbers so far we have only had three storms that dumped over 6 inches and just one "yard stick needed storm". Don't get me wrong, Lake Storm Hognose on 12/21 was probably one of the worst winter storms I have ever been through in terms of driving (2 hours to travel 14 miles of highway), but Lake Erie hasn't been kind to Buffalo this year. Normally the first half of the season sees the most lake storms the benefit Buffalo in the running. This year has been an exception with areas south of Buffalo getting dumped on daily. Many locations 30 miles south of Buffalo are already over 100 inches this season. While I'll complain this hurts Buffalo in the GSB standings I won't complain too much as this has been a great joy to the ski resorts in WNY and directly benefits my work with increased tourism to the area ski resorts.
Anyways I'm getting off topic here. This week looks to be make or break for Buffalo's shot at the GSB. It's gonna be mighty cold and probably the last week of an ice free Lake Erie. If Buffalo is gonna make a run for #1 it's got to be this week. Syracuse has built an almost sure win lead and I;m getting a little scared of another disappointing loss this season. I;m tempted to do the Buffalo snow ritual but it is usually reserved for times of green grass and extended lack of snowfall. While the lake effect has been poor this year the synoptic snowfall is still adding up to an above average season thus far for everyone. Not to mention you all know what happened after my two ritual last season, one wrong step and I asked for 80 mph winds instead of 2 feet of snow. I'm still trying to get the dance down. I have a new two step planned and I've calculated in for this week to try it out. Get ready Buffalo The General is getting ready to snow dance!
Also... Syracuse WILL NOT break Buffalo's seasonal record this year. No city ever will. The 200 inch mark will be a mark none of the GSB cities ever reach for another hundred years!
posted by TheGeneral @ 1:06 AM
11 Comments
11 Comments:
We pulled about 7-8" out of this storm last night here in the ROC
If we can't win a the Golden Snowball Award Contest, at least Buffalo could win the 2008 Sunshine Derby :)
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/545065.html
But winter isn't over, and we can still hope!
Steve, Ut Oh to the snow dance in Buffalo. Can you give the Buffalonians a warning so they have time to bring in the outdoor items when the hurricane winds come :) Ummm, I see you have revised the snow dance. Maybe they should start building an ark? All kidding aside I still think there is still plenty of time left for Buffalo to get back in the race even though Syracuse is sitting pretty right now. Welcome back BTW and hurry up with that snow dance would ya.
ZR, keep it coming. I'm not sure what I have outside right now but a guess would be probably about the same. I'll take a measurement when I head out to shovel. Last season was almost a run away and it eneded up being pretty close. Hopefully it will be the same this season :)
Jill, congrats on the sunshine derby ;) I actually talked with Maki Becker who wrote that article the day before it came out and will blog about it this week. To be honest I was surprised that either of us have that many sunny days and it blew my mind away when she mentioned Orlando having less sunny days. IMO something all of western/central New York should start promoting to draw people here.
pat -
i've got to tell you: i live in the city, near onondaga hill, and there is no way we only got 4 inches of snow last night. i'd say it was more like 8 to 10. usually, i feel as if the airport gets more than we do - but there have been repeated instances this year where we'll get significant snow and the shart will only go up by a few inches. i honestly believe, if the measurements were being done on this side of the city, we might be over 100 inches.
sean
Check out the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle for snowfall totals (link below). They say that Rochester's season total through 1/11/09 (the date stated in your statistics) is 70.7 inches. I think you underestimated the Rochester total. The link to the D&C article is:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090111/NEWS01/90111001&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL
Sean and Anon, isn't it weird how we want every 10th of an inch that we deserve. For me I think it comes down to when I shovel I don't want to think that just 4 or 6 inches of snow just kicked my butt and wiped me out ;) That said you probably did get the 8 - 10 inches Sean. More below on that.
Anyways, the stats were from earlier this morning and were mostly for what fell yesterday excluding all of the snow from after midnight in Syracuse and some of the overnight snow for Buffalo and the Rock. I just did another update on the stats which added a bit more snow to all of the totals.
Sean, I measured 6 inches at my house but it was a late measurement with the sun out so some of it would have settled. Probably about 7 inches at my house. I was looking at the radar last night and a decent band was right over your neck of the woods in the city and just clipping my area which was an awesome downfall BTW. Probably 2 - 3 inches an hour at the time. That may have just missed the airport. I think it all evens out in the long run personally. With the nor Easters some of the time the airport doesn't get as much as we do. Then again if it's LES they may get a little more. From the west it's a matter of a shift to the north or south. As for the 100 inch mark we'll be hitting it soon ;)
Anon, Most likely the Democrat and Chronicle's numbers are right but NOAA hasn't officially posted them yet. I'm sure they are going by NOAA stats also. If not then their numbers don't matter but I know them and if they were speaking with Steve McLaughlin then those are NOAA's stats ;)
As I mentioned the numbers were from earlier today and the latest stats that I just posted for Rochester would be as of 4:00 PM. The stats for Syracuse were as of 10:00 PM. These are Official numbers from NOAA that come out 3 times a day. The next snow update out of Buffalo which will be for Buffalo and Rochester I think will be out between 4 am and 5 am. The next update from Binghamton NOAA will be out some time around 12:30 am - 1:30 am. There are hourly reports that come out for all of the cities but they seem to get revised every now and then. As much as I would like to update every time one comes out it just isn't practical but will often update it a couple times a day when snow is in the air :)
Oh Sean, and Congratulations to Seamus on taking 1st place in the Oratorical. Awesome and I read at your forum about all of the hard work he puts into it ;)
Ya know, I useta live in Syracuse (or is it Snowacuse?!?!?), but finally moved to Myrtle Beach, SC. I have been here 12 years, and received a grand total of 7" in all that time, 4" of it in one massive snowfall (tongue-in-cheek!). These Southerners get into such a panic when snow is in the forecast that all the bread, milk and water disappears from the store shelves in about 6 minutes after the pronouncement is heard, and it never lasts more than a few hours once it falls. So far this year, we have had some at freezing temps, but nothing to sneeze at compared to what you are experi-encing and I guess we are conceding that you will get more snow than we will. Have a great year, and keep the interesting reports coming!!
Bill...
Anon, one thing I've noticed the last several years is that unless the word blizzard is mentioned it seems the bread and milk is still on the shelves. Could be they just keep more in stock though.
The road crews definitely do a great job around here which I know is different in other states to the south just from talking to people. They might not be out during the big storms but normally once the storm starts winding down the roads are clean in no time. A cold spell is on the way so it will be interesting to see how we all handle the most likely below zero temps for a couple/few days. So far everyone seems to be taking this winter in stride and I really haven't heard much complaining. Of course if it drags on thru March I'm sure the attitudes will change. Thanks for the post and enjoy the nice SC weather.
By all means, Buffalo is welcome to their record! I think it's time for the snow machine in Syracuse to shut off!
David Watertown N Y Snowtown
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