syracuse wins golden snowball contest

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It’s a Wrap, Syracuse Wins 2015-2016 Golden Snowball Award

Posted by The Snowman on May 1, 2016
Posted in: Golden Snowball, new york snow contest. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Defending snow champs Syracuse, NY has once again won the New York State Golden Snowball contest for the 2015-2016 snow season. Congrats to Syracuse. That’s all I have to say, really. Pretty much like the snow season was for most of New York, boring, that’s my post. I’M JOKING 😉

I’m looking back to when this snow season started up and the first post or snow update I did was on 10/19/2015. I’m guessing that was the first measurable snowfall this season but don’t hold me to it. It could have been the first time I looked. That update I showed Syracuse receiving 0.4 inches of snow and Binghamton receiving 0.3 inches.

The first lead change I’m showing was around 11/15 when Binghamton took the lead ousting Syracuse with just a tenth of an inch of snow at 0.5 inches. The next lead change was around 11/23/2015 when Binghamton, NY took the lead with an inch of snow. Rochester took the lead when the next report came out from the National Weather Service the next day with 1.2 inches.

The next lead change was around 12/20/2015 if my stats are right and it was Binghamton taking the lead with just 2.0 inches of snow on the season. I had to do a double look as I’m typing this to make sure I didn’t leave out a zero somewhere. That just goes to show you how boring this season was 🙁

Rochester took over the lead again on or around 12/28 with 3.2 inches of snow. I’m not making this stuff up folks, talk about a wimpy snow season. No wonder none of the New York cities won the National snow contest at the Golden Snow Globe website 🙁 Syracuse finally took back the lead on or around New Years Day with 4.4 inches only to give it up to Buffalo around 1/12 which had 7.9 inches. So as of January 12th, 2016 Buffalo had a whopping 7.9 inches of snow. Really! Lead changes so far are at 7 I believe 😉

OK, on or around 1/13 things started getting real, lol. Syracuse retook the lead picking up over a foot of snow and their totals jumped all the way up to 22.0 inches. Obviously the best snowfall for any of the cities to date. Buffalo also piled up some decent snow and their snow totals were at 15.3. The next 10 to 15 days pretty much made the season. Between January 13th and January 25th Syracuse was able to pile up around a 15 inch lead over Buffalo. Rochester was also adding to their snow totals but was in 3rd place as of 1/25.

Right around 2/15 – 2/16 Rochester was able to cash in on some really decent snow to slip past Buffalo to grab the number 2 spot on the snow hill. I’m thinking about 18 inches of snow. Buffalo was able to melt away an inch at a time off of Rochester’s 2nd place spot but just couldn’t get enough. I think the race for 2nd place this season was more exciting that the race for the trophy. Syracuse never looked back after taking the lead on or around the 13th of January.

April turned out to be a little surprising and actually being more exciting than November or December was. Go figure that one out. OK, I’m sure it has a lot to do with El’Nino. Speaking of El’Nino there is one thing I did learn this season. My snow dances don’t stand a chance against El’Nino 🙁 Not going to happen 😉

Food for thought – This is the 2nd lowest snow total that a winning city has had since I started keeping snow stats for the Golden Snowball contest which was back in the 2002-2003 snow season. The only other time that the snow totals were lower was in the 2011-2012 snow season. Rochester, New York won that season with 58.9 inches of snow beating out Syracuse’s 50.6 inches of snowfall on the season.

I believe the 2002-203 season was the first season that the Golden Snowball contest was resurrected since the late 1990’s. The snow contest started sometime back in the 1970’s and then had a pause when the National Weather Service in Rochester shut down. Looking back this season has to be one of the lowest snow totals that a winning city has had. You all can figure that out by checking out the snow stats that date back to the 1940-1941 snow season at http://goldensnowball.com/past-snow-seasons-champs/ . Notice that Syracuse wasn’t even listed until the 1951-51 season.

Congrats again Syracuse and have an AWESOME, SAFE Summer everyone 😉

It’s a Wrap, Syracuse The 2013-2014 Golden Snowball Champs

Posted by The Snowman on May 1, 2014
Posted in: Golden Snowball, golden snowball contest. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

According to section 13, rule #6 – the snow contest will end on the last day of April it’s time to yell out those famous words, IT’S A WRAP.  Congratulations Syracuse on winning the 2013 – 2014 Golden Snowball Contest.  WTG Syracuse! 🙂

I have to give Kudos to Buffalo who came up just a little over a couple of inches short this season.  This seasons snow contest was the closest it’s been since the resurrection of the Golden Snowball contest.  The next closest snow race was back in the 2007 – 2008 when Syracuse bested Rochester by just 3.1 inches of snow.

This seasons victory gives Syracuse it’s second consecutive win since being topped by Rochester in the 2011 – 2012 snow season.  I was thinking that Buffalo was going to slip ahead a few times at the end but they just couldn’t pull a couple of more inches from Father Winter.  Buffalo’s last couple of seasons have been pretty wimpy as far as snow goes but this season was their highest snow total since the 2001 – 2002 season.

OK, as for section 13, rule #6, Nah, doesn’t exist although I kind of wish it did.  Several years back we agreed that the contest would be called on May 1st no matter how close the race is.  You can read my thoughts on that in a post below.  I did call two of the stations with the National Weather Service to get a little bit of input last night.  Both agreed that the chances are pretty slim that Buffalo will get more than a couple of inches this late in the year.  Buffalo has only had 4 seasons out of something like the past 130 years where they received over 2 inches in May.  One of the guys said it was probably less that a 5% chance of it happening and the last time was in 1989.  Of course now that I said that we all know it will happen.  Let’s hope not and let’s hope we all move into the nice warm, sunny weather pattern for the summer.

Thanks to all of you who visited the GSB site this season and a Big Thanks to those of you who took the time to drop some of your hard earned money by leaving a donation to the site.  I truly appreciate it 😉  A big Thanks also to the media, Sean and the others who cover the snow contest each season to make it grow every year.

You may want to check out the National Snow Contest at www.goldensnowglobe.com

A Big Congrats to Syracuse, Winner of the 2013 – 2014 Golden Snowball Trophy!  Have an awesome spring and summer everyone.