The numbers are in and although the storm didn’t drop quite as much snow as we were hoping for daily records were broken. Believe it or not 4 out of the 5 goldensnowball cities broke snowfall records for the date and who would of thought that with 5.9 inches Albany was the only one that didn’t. Here are the numbers for yesterday compliments of NOAA.
Syracuse – 9.3 inches broke record from 1997
Rochester – 7.5 inches broke record all the way back to 1889???
Buffalo – 7.1 inches broke record from 2004
Binghamton – 5.9 inches broke the date snow record from 2004
Albany – 5.9 inches no record and believe it or not the record is over 9 inches for them.
As for Syracuse’s Normal yearly totals (read below) most likely we’ll be going with the 121.1 average which NOAA has at http://www.erh.noaa.gov/bgm/climate/syr/syr_normals.shtml but I’m going to crunch some more numbers to make sure and also check out the other cities averages.
The big question is did Syracuse hit their normal average for the season? Probably not. After doing some research after being contacted by Jim Teske at TV 9 along with the link above to some stats, there is a good chance that the averages that we use from another section of NOAA may not be correct. I also crunched some numbers from another section and came up with 120.1 compared to the 111.9 that NOAA has in the reports that we use here. More to come tomorrow but hopefully we will get some lake effect snow to put us over what may be the new total of 121.1 . Stay tuned! In the mean time Jim Teske has a good post going on with a summary of the winter so far at http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Teskes-Tidbits-1-29-09-The-One-About-The-Mid/MWxe2hAPmkKijIB6zN8-tw.cspx
Crysania, there are at least a few different averages out there from NOAA 🙁 I’ve averaged them all out before and even once changed it but eveytime the end of the season comes NOAA has the 111.9 inches as the average.
The biggest prblem and as far as I know it’s just with Syracuse is that the Normal Average to Date in the Chart will be off all the time but nothing I can do about that plus that really isn’t a biggy anyways.
BTW if you take the all time average for Syracuse and not just the way NOAA does it the totals come out to around 117 inches give or take a few tenths 😉
I’m so glad the average snowfall is being updated for Syracuse. I had always read that it was 120 but whenever I sent people to this site they said “no it’s not, it’s only 110!”
Anon, about the airport location this is an old debate, but an accurate measuring point has to be picked therefor it is the airports. The airports in the other cities misses out on the bigger snows sometimes as well. The airport is pretty close to down town ROC and their numbers are probably pretty close as I drive through downtown to the airport every day. With that said, I live at a higher elevation in Perinton, and know as well that we get a great deal more snow on the east side. You can look at the town specific averages for most counties on the Buffalo NOAA website. My wife said she measure 12″ in Perinton the other day, but I am in TX so can not confirm.
Yea they must have upgraded it to that
Looks like we will get a big storm next week too for someone
Binghamton should get the Golden Iceball this year. I wonder what our season totals would be if it were not for all of the sleet and freezing rain. I have never had to scrape so much ice.
Rochester suffers badly because the stupid airport just doesnt get enough snow as the city and even 5 miles to its north gets.. Its always off by 2 inches every storm..ROC should be around 95 by now. For example Pittsford got 9 inches yesterday.
Charles, they must of upped the totals recently. Rochester is showing 7.5 inches now compared to Buffalo’s 7.1 The Rock by 4 snowflakes 🙂
OK this is freeky both Buffalo and Rochester got 7.1 inches placing us in a dead tie again at 84.1 inches