Time for Another Sleet, Freezing Rain and Snow Storm?

Hopefully just a good old fashion snow storm without the mix of precipitation. I was just peaking at the national radar and it looks like a storm is brewing. This could be one for the Albany area to pick up a bit of snow if it stays cold enough. The more I look at the radar though the more it seems to be lifting more toward central New York and it's still pulling moisture from down around the Texas area. Another thing I noticed is that precipitation is also firing up in several other states and it looks like it may be drawn into this storm system so it could get really interesting come later tomorrow through Wednesday. REMEMBER THE SOURCE, ME (Clueless) so keep checking the NOAA and your local forecasts for updates on this storm. In other words check with the pros who know what their talking about ;)

Right now the Albany area, Utica and areas in eastern NY are under storm watches but I wouldn't be surprised if a good part of New York comes under the storm watch which will/may change to warnings sometime tomorrow. These are the type of storms that I would rather have pass on by for the fact that the temps will probably start off cold and then warm up with the air coming from the south west. In other words freezing rain, sleet and a mix is most likely going to happen with this storm and hopefully it's not too much and stays cold enough to make it more of a snow event. Even just plain Ole rain would be better than too much of the freezing rain.

Again remembering that I'm normally clueless I'm not counting Buffalo or Rochester out of this yet either. To me it looks like anything that is firing up is being drawn into this system and that's including pretty much a lot of the states to the west of us that has something going on. Of course everything can change with the blink of an eye and it normally does with these storms. Keep an eye on your local forecasts and have a super Tuesday All!

Out Scooped by ZR and the Democrat and Chronicle

Grrr, Boo, Hiss and Shame on me. Nothing worse than running a site based on snow and getting out scooped. OK, really it doesn't bug me and that's what makes this fun is getting the help and feedback from the visitors here and ZR is a regular who is always keeping us updated as to what's going on in the Rock. I did notice when I updated the snow stats yesterday that Buffalo and Rochester set a date record of snowfall for the last day in December which I was going to blog about today. What I didn't catch was that Rochester set a total snowfall record for the month of December piling up 46.2 inches of new snow breaking the old record by a tenth of an inch which went back to 1981. Pretty cool in my opinion and monthly records are hard to break. Way to go Rochester! Way to go ZR and for catching it and the same to the Democrat and Chronicle which has a small post about it at http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990102002

Here are the Month of December stats which I did write down the other day for all the Golden Snowball cities and they are impressive for a few of us. I'm pretty sure Syracuse had a top 10 or better but I'll have to look it up to see where this December rated against other years. Buffalo did good in Dumber but I'm guessing it wasn't even close to some of their best December snow records because they are know to have some snowy Decembers.

Syracuse December Snowfall - 57.0
Buffalo December Snowfall - 49.2
Rochester December Snowfall - 46.2 (New Snow Record)
Albany December Snowfall - 27.5
Binghamton December Snowfall - 20.5 (Dead Last - either I made a mistake or they got spanked by Albany) I'll double check the stats!

Have a great day all and have a Happy New year!

Buffalo Slides into Second Place in the Snow Race

While I was sipping egg nog punch, hosting out of town guests and playing with my Christmas presents Buffalo managed to get enough snow to slide past Rochester for the second place slot. WTG Buffalo and the General. Not only did they get the snow they had some nasty Hurricane wind gusts that knocked out power to thousands of homes. Here in DaCuse it's snowing with more in the forecast along with the gust winds that kept me up most of the night.

Binghamton better get their snow dance going because if they aren't careful they may start flirting with the last place slot which Albany currently holds. One thing I am noticing that seems different from last season is that we got a lot of snow in December but then it quieted down. We're still not out of December and so far there really isn't no signs of the snow letting up other than this past weekend.

Speaking of Binghamton, I had a phone conversation with John Hill who is a reporter/journalist at the Press and Sun Bulletin in the Binghamton area. He did an interview about the contest which I believe is the first one from the Bingo area. It's a good fun article which you all know I like and anytime my name is in print other than the police blotter it can't be half bad ;). Just one thing to mention which was my bad and not John's is that there is a new trophy now that was donated by A1 Trophy here in the Syracuse area. Thanks for the great read John. You can find the article here at PressConnects.com

Talking about my Christmas presents :) OK so we weren't talking about my presents but we will. I won't go through all of them but one was from the secret Santa which turned out to be my niece Jess. All the family come over to our house on Christmas Eve and we celebrate along with exchanging gifts. Well the present that she bought me ended up getting stolen from their condo when the carrier left it in the lobby. So she did her best to get it delivered here in our area in time but it just didn't happen. She even went to UPS right before they closed on Christmas eve but it was too late. Anyways to make one of my super long stories just long she ended up getting me a few things so I would at least have something to open and they would be clues as to what she got me. Of course being you all know me, the clueless guy on the web, didn't have a chance at guessing what she bought. The worse thing is that it was on my list and I totally forgot I had it on Santa's list. I was thinking more in the line of clothes because that was what most of my list consists of. I'll give the 3 clues that Jess gave me to open up and see if any of you can guess what the gift which I received Christmas morning ended up being.

It was a snow hat with ear muffs, sunglasses and an ice scraper. Keep in mind that by the time they drove in from Mass they ended up at the gas station I think to try and put something together for me which wasn't even necessary.

One of the other gifts I got is kind of an easy one to guess. The clues are My whole body is sore, millions of families probably got them this Christmas and one doctor says he sees at least 10 people a week with some kind of sore muscle or injury from this fun gift.

OK, enough for now and if I don't get the chance to get online to post before New Years, here is wishing everyone a SUPER Happy New Year in 2009. To John Hill, thanks for the great article and phone conversation. It was a fun article about the Golden Snowball Award ;)

Syracuse Already Halfway to Season Snowfall Totals

Just one day after winter started Syracuse is already has more than half of their season total snowfall and the other cities aren't doing to shabby either and Rochester is there also. Buffalo, who I thought would take second place after this last round fell just short and Binghamton has quieted down, for now anyways.

No way did I think Syracuse would come close to hitting last years totals for this time in the snow season but with 8 days left they are blowing the numbers away and if the snow continues they may have at least a top 5 December since records were being kept. Close to 30 inches of snow for Syracuse since the 20th and yesterday was a non stop lake effect snow event that truly was awesome. A total of 13.5 inches fell in DaCuse (more at my house but isn't that the way it always is) which broke a date record set back in 1962.

No way did I think Rochester would manage to hold off Buffalo for second place but they did. Watching the radar on Sunday it looked like Buffalo was piling up the inches which they did do pretty good but just not enough reported by NOAA to over take the 2nd place slot. My guess is they may have received more than reported but the General reported pretty high winds so most likely it was tough measuring the snow as it blew around. Same thing most likely happened in the Syracuse area yesterday.

I'm not liking the fact that rain and mix is in the forecast for the next day or so. If I remember correctly we barely had a white Christmas last year if we even did have one because of the same thing. A ton of snow and then rain to wipe it all out. HOPEFULLY THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN THIS YEAR :(

This is still a close race and similar to last season when Syracuse finally got a decent lead on the other cities and they came flying back at the end of the season to make it one of the closest races since the Golden Snowball contest started up again. Don't even think about counting Binghamton out either. I don't think we are close to being done with the Nor Easter's and we all know how well Bingo normally does with those storms.

All of the cities are now over last years totals and the average snowfall totals for this time of the year. I'm liking my winter forecast right now but of course I was liking it last year about this time and all of the sudden everything stopped and the general kicked my butt with the winter outlook. This years official, highly scientific Golden Snowball Forecast.

Have a Super Day All and enjoy the sun as it pops out every now and then!

It's Heeerrreee, HAPPY WINTER ALL

5:00 PM Update - Buffalo moves into 3rd place! The numbers just came out for Buffalo, Rochester Syracuse, Binghamton and Albany and the snowfall totals should be caught up as of 4PM today for this last blast of the white gold. The stats chart above should be up to date.

Buffalo set another record for todays date and it isn't slowing down there yet. They seem to be caught in the perfect band of snow coming off the lake and it's just not moving at all. Watch out Rochester, watch your back Syracuse!

Buffalo so far has 7.4 more inches of snow breaking the date record that went way back to 1914.

Albany set another date record picking up 6.3 inches so far today.

Syracuse just reported 5.3 inches

Rochester shows 3.8 inches and Bingo so far is slagging for this last storm with 3.1 inches of snowfall. WHAT A WAY FOR WINTER TO BEGIN,EH?

12/21 3:00 PM Update - There still isn't much new snow being reported yet from early this morning but once the reports from NOAA get updated we'll do an update. Looking at the radar Buffalo could be making a move for second place right now for the fact that their lake effect machine seems to have been running for awhile now. Who knows, they may even try to slip into the lead if it doesn't stop sometime soon. Nothing in the Syracuse area for now and the sun even peaked out for a few minutes. Stay tuned for a change in the Golden Snowball lineup later this evening when some new stats come out. Just a warning for those of you heading out. The winds are suppose to pick up quite a bit and with all the snow on the ground most likely whether it's snowing or not it will probably get a little bit hairy driving with the wind blown snow.

Well maybe not all but happy winter to some of you anyways. The sledders, skiers, etc! If I'm right and remember normally I'm not, Winter will start December 21st 2008 at 7:04 am EST this morning. Normally I try to make it a point to look out the window at the change of seasons just to say goodbye to one and welcome the new season but come on, 7:04 am on a Sunday morning is pushing it a little. If it was at 7:04 in the evening I may have done my normal goodbye - hello thing but I'll pass on this one most likely unless by some kind of fluke I'm up that early I'll say goodbye to autumn before I go to bed tonight and hello to winter when I wake up in the morning.

This Seasons Golden Snowball Winter Outlook Prediction

It's always kind of hard to except that with the snow we normally receive before winter like this season that winter is just starting isn't it? Well it is and for those of you who aren't too crazy abut the cold and snow just keep telling yourself that spring is just around the corner. Ummm, then another corner and another and.... You get the point I'm sure. For the snow lovers we have probably a good 3 months or so of the fun white fluffy stuff to play around in so enjoy it while it lasts. Spring is just around the...Yeah, I already went there huh.

Anyways keep an eye out on your local weather forecast for today because another storm will be dropping snow on most if not all of the Golden Snowball cities and a bunch of other towns starting early Sunday morning. Right now there are a few warnings out and a whole lot of snow advisories posted. The chances are it will be snowy and windy so as always take it easy driving. More to come later in the day.

HAVE A GREAT WINTER EVERYONE!!! (Wow it's been a whole year since that was said)

Snowfall Records Set for 4 Out of 5 Cities

Well the numbers are in and I have to admit that it was a pretty good storm that swung by yesterday. For those of you snow haters I suppose you can at least be thankful that it was a fast storm and blasted through all the areas pretty quickly otherwise the totals would have been a lot higher. Four out of five broke snowfall records for the date and all 5 broke some kind of records. Here is what NOAA is reporting for yesterday for the golden snowball cities:

Buffalo - 10.1 Record Broken from 1985
Syracuse - 9.5 Record Broken from 1981
Rochester - 8.9 - Record Broken from 1981
Albany - 7.8 - Record Broken from 1986
Binghamton - 6.3 (Did Break a Precipitation record from 1979 of 0.44)

Of course Binghamton came in last place because I picked them to come in first but in fairness if it wasn't for them not getting all snow I think they may have taken 1st. OK, I blew it with Bingo! Albany finally put up something worth talking about but Nah, at least they are close to their normal totals now.

4 out of 5 are now over our average snowfall for the season and most of us closed the gap as far as how much snow we had this time last year in the snow season. Binghamton is actually ahead of their totals from last season. Good news for you snow lovers, skiers, sledders and all other Winter lovers is more snow is on the way and most likely Winter will be coming in like us men shoppers shopping on Christmas Eve! Have a great weekend all and stay tuned to your local forecasts for tomorrows weather.

Should Schools Close for Snow or Early Release

First with a storm like todays storm I don't think I would want to be a Superintendent of any district in New York, having to make a choice whether to open up for a couple of hours and get school aid or to close. Nice run on sentence huh ;)

Our district (East Syracuse Minoa, ESM) decided to close which IMO was the right decision. I think it was just last week that most schools had a 2 hour delay and we only had an hour delay. Bad mistake because the roads were still covers and I watched out the window as a school bus had to slow down quickly as a car went off the road. In other words a 2 hour delay was the right decision and don't get me wrong. I think we have an AWESOME leader in our school district who is doing some great things and has in the past made the right moves like she did today.

I'm looking at the radar right now and the snow is knocking at our door in the Syracuse area which makes me wonder will all of the kids be home safe before the roads start to deteriorate? Some of the districts will have kids on the bus probably still at noon because they opened up only to let the kids go back home at 11:00 - 11:30. Most likely everything will go just fine with the early dismissals but I still think of the other day and what a difference just an hour can make when it comes to snow and snow storms. So I guess the question is should the schools take a chance and open for a couple of hours or should they just shut down and take a snow day? OK, enough rambling about that I suppose!

It's 10:30 and the light snow has just started here in DaCuse!

Another good question for the day is which city will make out with this storm? I don't see anyone taking the lead away from Syracuse with this snow storm but I can definitely see a change up in the line-up by the end of it. Buffalo, Rochester and Binghamton should all be having second place on their mind right now. I'll go with Binghamton winning this storm followed by Buffalo, Albany, Rochester and Syracuse in dead last this time. Any thoughts? Have a Super weekend All!