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All posts for the month March, 2012

Snow Dance Done Ut Oh Could Be Snow

Posted by The Snowman on March 29, 2012
Posted in: Golden Snowball, golden snowball contest. Tagged: .

Last Friday I was just relaxing and started thinking about the contest this season and how good it’s looking for Rochester hosting the Golden Snowball trophy for a year.  For the last several years I’ve been kind of hoping that one of the other cities other than Syracuse would step up and take the trophy from Da’Cuse.  Let’s face it, the contest gets a little bit boring when it’s the same city winning it every season.  Then I started thinking, nahhh, let’s keep it here.

I started thinking that hey, we aren’t going down at least not without a snowball fight to keep the trophy here in Syracuse.  So I did it.  OK, so I confess!  I did a snow dance 🙁  I did one last LITTLE snow dance geared at getting some cold air back into CNY.  OK, not CNY but into Syracuse and I even tried to get it to just hit the airport.  That way if it works I wouldn’t get a lot of hate mail and have the neighbors turn against me and start throwing snowballs at the house 😉  I really do have a neighbor who blames me and the contest every time it snows.

Anyways it looks like there is a chance for some snow come sometime Friday night & Early Saturday.  From reading around right now it doesn’t look like it will be much snow and sounds like it will be to the south.  This may give Binghamton a chance to gain a little ground on the snow hill.  It could get interesting if something changes and this Storm system gets a little stronger.

Hey it is still March folks and it’s not over until the fat man sings and I’m not singing yet 🙂

Have a Super Snowy Weekend All 😉

Happy Spring 2012 – The Snow Contest Lives On

Posted by The Snowman on March 20, 2012
Posted in: golden snowball contest. Tagged: , , .

First off you might see some articles today saying the Golden Snowball contest is over.  The contest doesn’t end the first day of Spring and fortunately/unfortunately depending how you look at it goes on til the end of April when the chances of no more snow falling are pretty good. 

Happy Spring all!!!  Normally I would say something like Hello Spring – Goodbye Winter but it just doesn’t seem right this year does it?  It’s hard to say goodbye to something that never showed up in the first place.  The sound of Spring does sound pretty good though and it will be interesting to see if we can stay on whatever pattern we are on right now.  The one that’s brought us unbelievable weather throughout the winter months and has set records all over the charts.  Not the good kind of records that those who snomobiler’s, ice fishermen or ski resorts like but the kind that those who hate winter love.

Rochester continues to lead the contest but I’m not throwing in the shovel just yet.  It is looking pretty good for The Rock but with a winter like we just had, a snow season that I can not remember ever having who knows what spring wil throw at us.  Right now it’s some nice sunny 70 – 80 degree days which is hard for even us snow lovers not to appreciate.  Stay Tuned!

Here are a couple of good articles.  One about this being the earliest vernal equinox, spring since 1896  and another from Syracuse .com’s John Mariani about the winter that never was.

Have a Great week all and enjoy the sunshine 🙂

Spring Ahead Fall Behind Set the Clocks

Posted by The Snowman on March 10, 2012
Posted in: Golden Snowball, Shopping. Tagged: , , , , .

Wow, It’s hard to believe that it’s that time already to set the clocks ahead again isn’t it?  Yup, come tonight before you go to bed or when you wake up tomorrow don’t forget to set the clocks ahead one hour.  Or if you’re like me it normally takes a couple of days before I get around to it.  My clock on the car radio was never changed in the fall so that one is good to go 😉  Don’t forget that the fire departments recommend that you also change the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors each time you set the clocks.  I still remeber how my Mom use to hate setting the clocks ahead.  She knew she was going to be losing an hour of sleep and for what ever reason she would think about it until the clocks were set back again.

Yesterday was a pretty good snow day and night where I live, just outside of the city.  It cam down pretty good  off and on and last night the winds came through along with the snow and made it look like it was winter.  Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that’s going to last too long with warmer weather in the forecast for the next several days 🙁  This season is going down to the last snowflake that falls and Rochester is still looking pretty good right now.

I have a feeling that it’s going to end up kind of like last nights SU basketball game.  Syracuse was behind pretty much the whole game but started an awesome comeback.  The only problem was they came up just a little short before time ran out.  Well time is running out for Syracuse and the rest of the cities in the Golden Snowball contest and it just may be an upset when the buzzer rings come the last second of April.  Being a big SU fan though, I never give up until the buzzer rings.

Shameless Plug Time – I’ve been getting quite a few sales from my Pets products site the last few weeks since I put it up.  I’m not sure if the prices online are good or not or if it’s because there are a lot of good products like cat and dog food, dog houses, pet products for horses and so on.  Anyways if you have a pet and buy online check it out at Pets Products Online and thanks 🙂

Have a GREAT Weekend All 😉

Point Blank Range Forecasts: Mar. 10, 2012

Posted by Stephen on March 8, 2012
Posted in: forecasts. Tagged: .

Before I dive into the usual stuff with the PBR, one announcement. I have decided to cancel the remainder of the PBR and SITD forecasts. So, instead of 10 PBR and 5 SITD, I’m doing 8 PBR and 4 SITD forecasts. Given the very low snowfall totals this season, I feel that it is quite appropriate to also lower the number of snow forecasts.

That means, this is the final PBR forecast of the 2011-12 season! It’s another “little or no snow” forecast, which is also fitting given the lack of snow all season. Before I get into that, it’s a look at the previous forecast.

The most recent outlook called for 2-6 inches of snow between February 29th and March 1st for Albany, Binghamton and Syracuse. If all three were in range, that’s a Bull’s Eye. 2 out of 3 in range is On Target. Here are the totals:

Albany: 8.8
Binghamton: 2.2
Syracuse: 2.2

Albany was the only one out of range, so it is On Target. By the way, the 4.0 inches for Albany on the 29th was a record for the date.

GSB Forecast Results
Forecasts Bull’s Eye On Target Complete Miss Points
Average: 1.08
SITD 2 0 1 8
PBR 1 4 2 6
Total 3 4 3 14

The On Target forecast keeps me above the 1.00 average. Speaking of that, the target for total points is now 16. So I need this forecast to be a Bull’s Eye, or the SITD forecast to be at least On Target to be at the 1.00 goal for the end of the season.

Now it’s time for the final forecast. This one involves all the cities and, as mentioned earlier, does not have much in the way of snowfall totals.

Bull’s Eye: All five cities have less than 2 inches of snow through Saturday.
On Target: A majority of the cities have less than 2 inches of snow through Saturday.
Complete Miss: Any other result.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Shot In The Dark Forecasts: March 2012

Posted by Stephen on March 6, 2012
Posted in: forecasts. Tagged: .

Three SITD forecasts down, 2 to go. The March edition features a bit of a twist…but we’ll get into that a little bit later. But first, it’s a look back at the February forecast.

The February outlook once again involved below average snowfall. If all five GSB cities had below average snowfall, or at least one of them was below average by 10 or more inches, that would be a Bull’s Eye. A majority with below average snowfall would be On Target.

Here are the snowfall totals for February, with average in parenthesis:

Albany: 4.6 (12.4)
Binghamton: 11.6 (17.1)
Buffalo: 9.6 (17.3)
Rochester: 27.3 (21.5)
Syracuse: 11.5 (25.3)

Rochester was above average, but Syracuse was almost 14 inches below average for February. As a result, this is a Bull’s Eye forecast!

GSB Forecast Results
Forecasts Bull’s Eye On Target Complete Miss Points
Average: 1.08
SITD 2 0 1 8
PBR 1 3 2 5
Total 3 3 3 13

That’s my second straight Bull’s Eye in the SITD forecasts, and it brings me over the 1.00 goal for the first time this season!

Now it’s time for the March outlook. We have warmer weather on tap, and I thought it’d be fun to compare high temperatures with snowfall. So, the March outlook involves days with high temperatures 60 degrees or higher and days with snowfall of an inch or more.

Bull’s Eye: All five cities have more days with 60+ degree temperatures than snowfall of an inch or more in March.
On Target: A majority of the cities have more days with 60+ degree temperatures than snowfall of an inch or more in March.
Complete Miss: Any other result.

Have a great March everyone!

Fun with averages!

Posted by Stephen on March 3, 2012
Posted in: Golden Snowball, new york snowfall, snow totals. Tagged: .

With snowfall totals being well below average this season, and last Winter being well above average, I thought I’d take a look at combining the two years. Here are the “to date” totals for this year and last year, as of 3/2:

Albany: 22.8 (77.5 last year)
Binghamton: 37.0 (87.1)
Buffalo: 34.2 (97.5)
Rochester: 52.4 (111.9)
Syracuse: 44.1 (160.1)

And here are the averages for the 2 years:
Albany: 50.15
Binghamton: 62.05
Buffalo: 65.85
Rochester: 82.15
Syracuse: 102.1

Finally, here are the 30 year averages to date, again as of 3/2:
Albany: 46.9
Binghamton: 62.1
Buffalo: 79.3
Rochester: 79.6
Syracuse: 102.7

All but Buffalo have their two year averages within 4 inches of the 30 year average. In fact, the 2 year average for Binghamton and Syracuse are within an inch of the 30 year average!

So, while last Winter was snow-filled and this one is snow-less, when you combine the two, it’s just been average.

Hey, have a great rest of the weekend everyone!