The good news for those of you who hate our snow is that most of the winter snow storm warnings are no longer in effect the GSB cities except maybe Albany. The storm system that came through and dropped all the freezing rain and plain old rain on most of us has expired.

The bad news for you snow haters is get out the shovels because lake effect snow warnings have been issued for some of the Golden Snowball cities. It looks like the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and maybe the Binghamton area might be seeing a good dumping of the white gold over the next couple of days. Up to a foot or more in some places between Monday and Tuesday night most likely will be falling and to make things worse the winds are expected to be blowing the snow around pretty good. Keep an eye on the weather and your favorite forecasters and weather channels the next couple of days to keep updated as to what’s going on. It’s gonna get messy, no doubt about it.

What really bugs me, like anyone cares. What really bugs me is that we get 5 – 6 inches of snow that makes everything look beautiful, we end up shoveling it and then it rains wiping it all out. Now I knew rain was suppose to be coming but I figured if it was just freezing rain and I left the snow it would have been a PITA to shovel it afterwords. Anyways the grass was showing this morning after all that rain but come tomorrow morning I don’t expect to see any of the still green earth showing.

It’s time for an SU Basketball rant. Notice how I kept kind of quiet during the football season 🙂 Believe me that wasn’t easy but it’s over with now. Here is my whine about the Syracuse basketball team and it’s not directed at them at all. I watched the game the other night and it was probably their best defensive effort of the season. I seen SU bodies flying all over the place playing halfway decent defense. I start reading around the next day to see what was being said about the game and very little was good. The biggest reason I was reading around was trying to see why Paul Harris took a shot at Tulane’s basket????? The only thing I read that might make sense is that he thought a foul was called????

Anyways I liked the way they played and everything I am reading is about them going 4 for 20 from the outside or whatever the stats were. Get over it people. Su is going to have off outside shooting days. The thing is that they had the shots. This team so far is one of the best offensive teams that I can remember in awhile. Sure the defense needs work. OK, the defense pretty much stinks right now but the other night it wasn’t bad and it probably would have had the same effect on most of the Bg East teams we’ll be playing soon. Most of these guys are freshmen this year and the way they are moving the ball on offense is in my opinion pretty remarkable. I’m loving the running game like we use to have in the past. I also like the leadership That Eric Devendorf is displaying this season. Even coach Boeheim doesn’t give them enough credit when they do something right IMO of course.

And don’t let Eric Devendorf’s style on the court fool you. He has a puppy’s heart in real life. He happened to pop into a fundraiser I attended over the summer which made a lot of people happy including my niece. She wanted an autograph from him and also a hug. She was too shy to ask so I mentioned it too him and with no hesitation gave her one. She still talks about that hug from Eric. Thanks Eric and Good Luck to all the players this season. I’m already enjoying it win or lose! OK, enough said! For now anyways.

Have a great week all and stay safe and take it easy driving!

NIGHT UPDATE!

Just a quick update on the snow stats for today so far. Binghamton has managed to fend off Buffalo so far by just 0.3 of an inch. Rochester finally made some kind of move and so far is winning this storm event. Albany hasn’t updated yet so it will be interesting to see if they got much or not. It’s official that Syracuse has gone over the 1 foot of snow mark standing at 13.1 inches. The totals for this storm for today only are below and remember it isn’t over with. More is expected over night.

Rochester -4.7
Buffalo – 3.8
Binghamton – 3.1
Syracuse – 1.7
Albany – No Report

It looks like all of the Golden Snowball city’s are getting some snow and it looks to continue off and on for the next couple of days. Every kind of precipitation is in the forecast including snow, rain, freezing rain, cats and dogs, the kitchen sink and so on so if you have to go out take it slow because the weather is hit and miss right now and it can go downhill quickly.

Syracuse is unofficially over the 1 foot mark. Unofficially because NOAA hasn’t posted the new stats from overnight but looking out the window it’s more than a safe bet. I remember getting an email from Eric last season, a fellow Syracusan I believe. The email was sent in the middle of February stating how he remembers that in the first week or so in January of last season Syracuse was just over 12 inches of snow. By the end of December 2006 Syracuse had only 12.2 inches of snow and only 12.3 inches up until January 9th according to NOAA stats. Then on Jan 10th we got 10 inches. Here it is the 2nd of December 2007 and they are already over that. All the city’s besides Buffalo of course because of the October storm are above last years totals but below the normal so far. IT’S a RACE and IT’S ON!!!

Lets just hope that the other cities can come in with some decent numbers and what’s up with Rochester this season? They really need to get it going or they might be finding themselves at the bottom of the list and there is nothing more embarrassing than being below Albany. It’s a real possibility depending on what Albany has gotten so far and gets the rest of today. Most of Syracuse’s snow update was from the wee hours of Saturday morning and ended up with a total of 4.8 inches for yesterday. Buffalo picked up 1.5 inches of new snow, Rochester just under an inch reported so far, Bingo and Albany are both reporting .03 but most likely those totals will go up.

It’s gonna be a good snow season I believe for the skiers and the sledders but the start seems pretty weird. In a matter of less than 48 hours I have cut the grass and shoveled the driveway. Something seems wrong, very wrong with that picture. Just give me my 50 degree day to get up the Christmas decorations and I’ll be happy. Have a Super Sunday everyone and drive careful.

Syracuse has sledded into first once again but by less than an inch but after reading around it looks like about 5 inches of snow fell in the Syracuse area so the totals will be going up. Remeber we go by NOAA stats which are official and so far only 1.8 is being reported which was just after midnight. Once NOAA updates them later we’ll post some new stats. A winter storm watch is in effect for most of NY from Sunday through Monday and you can read the Generals post about it at http://goldensnowball.com/2007/12/storm-early-next-week.html and here is a good picture of what Steve is talking about at http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/index_loop.php

I think this season will be remembered as one that had the most lead changes throughout the snow season by the time everything is done and over with and that’s no time soon. So far we have had 4 leaders in the Golden Snowball contest with Buffalo kicking off the new season just like they did last year.

Syracuse is reporting 1.8 inches of new snow for yesterday and more fell over night. A few tenths of an inch for Bingo and Albany and thats about it for now. I woke up to the sound of the plows dropping to the road and as always had to get up and see what the Snow God had dropped on us while I was sleeping. I was a little surprised to see everything covered in white even though I saw a band coming our way last night right before I fell asleep. I wasn’t surprised to see that my Neighbor Frank across the street already had his driveway shoveled. He normally is the first followed by Julie and then myself a week later when I decide it’s not going to melt anytime soon. I’m kidding of course, I do shovel sooner. Frank is kind of the leader of the neighborhood in a sense that we all kind of keep an eye on what he is doing. If he puts his trash out we know it’s trash pickup the next day. Every now and then though Frank goofs up and of course us being the followers that we are end up doing the same thing. Trash night here is on Tuesdays but but one time Frank mistakenly put his out on a Monday night and of course a couple of us followed 🙂 Ok, enough rambling and back to snow.

Don’t be surpised if Syracuse’s lead doesn’t last too long. Looking at the radars it looks like Buffalo and maybe Binghamton is getting some snow as I type. Plus read The Generals post below about a storm system moving in to all of the GSB cities. So far there have been 4 different leaders as mentioned and I’ll try to keep track of that in the posts. Leaders and changes so far to date for the 2007 – 2008 snow season:

Buffalo
Syracuse
Binghamton
Syracuse

Have a great day all and get outside and play in the snow.

Finally something somewhat interesting to talk about after a short disappearance from the main page blog. The forecast models are still having trouble with predicting the storm heading our way Sunday, but it looks likely all of us will see at least some snow from this storm. A lot depends on the track of this storm, where the snow/mix/rain line forms, how large of a snow shield pushes ahead of the low, and so on.

Bingo – looks to largely miss out on this storm, maybe a few flakes, but could see the most in the way of mixed precip.

Syracuse – close call as to how much snow can fall before the changeover. may not be the winners of the general system, but could pack on a few inches Monday-Wednesday when the lake effect gets fired up again.

Rochester – should see a good 2-3 inches of snow before the changeover takes places. might also be looking at some additional lake effect much like Syracuse.

Buffalo – seeing the snow first, if the timing is just right could be looking at 3-5 inches and maybe a heavy period of sleet before the changeover to rain takes place. really needs to add on some inches as the lake effect just isn’t cutting it so far this year.

Albany – my upset winner of this storm. much depends on how quickly the cold air can filter in behind this storm, but i’ll give them a storm total of 4-8 inches as they may seem additional snow from a smaller secondary storm following the main storm out to sea.

While any shift in the track could mean the difference between a foot of snow and 3 inches of plain old rain, this is the first major impact storm of the season for us. Hopefully everyone remembers how to drive in this stuff, and please… please… don’t go out panic shopping for this dinky storm tomorrow. I hate it when the weather men call for a small storm and the stores get packed with paniced people out buying 5 gallons of milk, 10 loafs of bread, and a case of peanut butter to be ready.

Have a great weekend everyone, maybe we will continute to have an interesting race going on, and hopefully I’ll be back soon with something more interesting to talk about!