new york snow contest

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 😉

Lack of Snow Updates Due to Storm

Posted by The Snowman on January 25, 2016
Posted in: new york snow contest.

Just a super heads up that I am down in North Carolina without internet service, tv and so on due to the storm. Freezing rain knocked out a lot of things down here but all is good. I managed to tap into a connection tonight but it’s only for a few minutes. Hopefully we will be back up and running tomorrow. Stay Tuned 😉

Syracuse and Buffalo Break Away in NY Snow Contest

Posted by The Snowman on January 14, 2016
Posted in: new york snow contest. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

First off a Big Thank You to Richard U. for taking the time to donate to the snow site. They help me out a lot and I appreciate it a lot. Thanks Richard 🙂
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Syracuse and Buffalo, New York both were lucky/unlucky enough to tap into some decent lake effect snow the last couple of days to pull away from the other cities. We all know there is a long ways to go in the snow season, so the Golden Snowball bragging rights are up for grabs for most of the cities still.

At one point yesterday Syracuse had a commanding lead over Buffalo, almost a 14 inch snow lead. Buffalo wasn’t having any of that and turned on the Lake Erie lake effect machine in the early evening and added over a half a foot of snow to their snow totals. Both Syracuse and Buffalo broke date records for the day.

Buffalo broke the old date record for Jan. 13th receiving 7.4 inches of snow breaking the old record of 6.4 set in 2012.

Syracuse received 13.7 inches of new snowfall yesterday breaking the old date record of 8 inches set in 2012.

Rochester, Binghamton and Albany received an inch or less give or take a little. It looks like the Northeast is finally getting started and with the Great Lakes still warmer than normal it should be fun playing in the snow for the next 2-3 months 🙂

Have an Awesome Day Everyone!

Buffalo Sleds Into 1st In NY Golden Snowball Contest

Posted by The Snowman on January 12, 2016
Posted in: Golden Snowball, new york snow contest. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Updated 1/12 7:00 PM – As expected from the earlier post, Buffalo has broken the tie between they had with Syracuse as of this last update. Buffalo has passed Syracuse to sit alone at the top of the Golden Snowball Hill. WTG Buffalo!

Below are the snow totals so far for today as of 4:00 to 5:00 PM from the National Weather Service:

Buffalo – 1.3 inches
Binghamton – 0.7
Syracuse – 0.2 inches
Rochester – 0.2
Albany – Not Reporting as Normal 🙁

No doubt there is a lot of snow left to come down in the next 24 hours. It’s going to be interesting to see which city come out on top so stay tuned and take it slow on the roads folks 😉
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1/12 1:00 PM – OK, I think the word the phrase “sleds into first” is overdoing it a bit but Buffalo is now in a tie with Syracuse in the snow contest. Buffalo added 2.2 inches of new snow yesterday to share the top spot with Syracuse on the Golden Snowball snow mountain. WTG Buffalo 🙂

I think the tie between Buffalo and Syracuse will be short lived though. I’ve been looking around and seeing some pictures of some whiteouts in Buffalo just a little while ago. I’m guessing come the early evening update a little bit later Buffalo will probably own the top of the snow hill. It will be interesting to see if Rochester or Syracuse can keep up but I don’t think they will this round anyways.

Come the end of tomorrow from what I have been reading, I think it’s anyone’s guess as to which city will be in 1st place. Most likely it will be either Buffalo, Rochester or Syracuse. Below are some links to the NWS site that has the latest weather for you city. Remember, I am clueless and just pretend to know what I am talking about. Always check with the Pros for your latest weather forecasts 😉

Syracuse is going to be under a Lake Effect Snow Warning from 7 PM tonight(Tuesday) until 7 PM Wednesday night so they should be adding hopefully quite a bit to their snow totals. More Info Here National Weather Service Syracuse Snow

Buffalo is under a Lake Effect Snow Warning right now which goes until 10 PM tonight. You can check that warning out here to keep up to date Lake Effect Snow Warning for Buffalo

Rochester at last check is getting some decent snow squalls but so far no warnings have been issued. You can check out the latest weather watches and warnings for Rochester at The National Weather Service

So far there hasn’t been a lot going on other than light snow in Binghamton and you can stay up to date on Binghamton at the Binghamton Weather Statements and Warnings For Albany check out The National Weather Service for Albany here.

I know I haven’t been blogging much this season but lets face it, this snow season has been pretty boring and there really hasn’t been much to talk about until this week. I suppose I could blog about my personal life but Trust Me, that’s more boring than the snow season has been.

The National snow contest has been going pretty strong and it will be interesting to see if any of the NY cities can break into the top 25 this week. You can check out the Golden Snow Globe National Snow Contest Here!

Have a Great Day Eveyone and drive safe. See Snow – Drive Slow 😉

Still a Close Snow Race Between Syracuse and Buffalo

Posted by The Snowman on March 16, 2015
Posted in: Golden Snowball, new york snow contest. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

First off, I want to give a Big Thanks to Valerie A. and Deborah B. for your kind donations to the snow site. I really appreciate both of you taking the time and they do help out. Thank You Deborah and Valerie 🙂

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OK, It’s still a close snow contest between Syracuse and Buffalo as we come down the home stretch. At least let’s hope that we are coming down the home stretch. It’s starting to look like it’s turning into a two city snow contest now with Rochester now behind about 20 inches of snowfall.

Syracuse has a smaller lead over Buffalo right now than they did last season at this time and last season was super close. Syracuse only beat Buffalo by 2.1 inches. Buffalo melted away Syracuse’s lead last season right through until the end of the 2013-2014 snow contest. All it will take right now is some decent lake effect or a small snowstorm to swing things around for Buffalo and slide them into the lead.

I think Rochester will have to pull off a magic trick and find a way for the snow to hit just Rochester and miss both Syracuse and Buffalo. Then again keep in mind that Rochester is the only city to beat Syracuse since the Golden Snowball contest has been started up again. If the cold air sticks around Rochester can also chip away at the lead that Syracuse has over them right now. Do we really want the cold air to stick around. I’m guessing that the folks in Rochester won’t mind losing this season if it means not having to get another 20+ more inches of snow to win 🙂

Syracuse just took the lead in the National snow contest for the first time this season and Buffalo is also hanging tough in that contest. Right now, Buffalo is in 4th place in the snowiest Big city contest in the United States. You can click here for the national snow contest.

Stay Tuned because I’m pretty sure that more snow will be falling and with the contest this close the Golden Snowball trophy is still up for grabs. Have a Great day everyone!

More Than Halfway Thru Snow Season Buffalo Leads

Posted by The Snowman on January 25, 2015
Posted in: Golden Snowball, new york snow contest. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

A Big Thanks to Margaret S. for your donation to the website. As always they help big time and the timing was perfect. Thanks Margaret, I truly do appreciate you taking the time 🙂
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A SNOW DANCE HAS BEEN PERFORMED 🙂 Time for Syracuse to make their move in the snow contest… To all of the meteorologists, your equipment is fine and don’t mind the weird pattern changes on the radars in the near future. Just a little snow dance, that’s all 😉

I have to say that I am impressed with Buffalo so far this season holding on to the snow lead as long as they have. I would guess looking at the snow stats that sometime last week we hit the halfway mark for the 2014 – 2015 snow season. Of course none of us have a clue as to what Mother Nature and Father Winter have in store for us in the second half. If the last several days are any indication it could be a stormy second half to the snow season. There is another storm moving into some of our areas so keep an eye on it. This storm should help Albany out and maybe Binghamton. Click Here to Keep Updated on The Snow Storm!

Check out the current snow stats and you will notice that the normal snowfall averages to date for this time of the year are more than half of what each of the cities average for the snow season. In other words Buffalo has 56.4 inches of snow for what their normal snowfall should be to date which is more than half of what their Entire season on average totals are which is 94.7. It’s the same with the rest of the cities in the GSB snow contest.

Syracuse to date on average has 68.9 which is more than half of the total snowfall for an average season. Binghamton shows the normal snow to date at 42.0 inches which is just over their normal total season snowfall of 83.4. Rochester’s normal is 51.2, again just more than half of what the totals are for the entire season which are 99.5. Wrapping it up with Albany who by the way we may want to keep an eye on the next couple of days normals are at 30.4 and are just over half of the normal seasonal snowfall of 59.1 inches of snow… As always keep in mind that my fuzzy math shows up every now and then 😉

So I would think it is safe to say that we have all made it through the first half of the Snow Bowl and it was pretty lame for most of us. I don’t think the second half is going to be as easy though if the past several days are an indicator. Another clipper that turns into a coastal or Nor’easter has already shaped up and some blizzard warnings are being post for some of the cities on the Northeast coast. Right now it is looking good for Albany and maybe Binghamton will be able to sneak some of it into their city to climb up the snow hill a little.

Rochester and Syracuse both have some kind of snow bubble over the cities. As of the last update both Binghamton and Rochester are tied for 3rd place or is that tied for 4th place? The scary part or embarrassing part is that one of those cities may be in last place by the end of Tuesday or even sooner depending on how this storm tracks and when. I think it would be funny to see Albany at the top of the snow hill after this storm is done with them. I think they trail Buffalo by too much right now but I do think they have a chance at taking the number 2 slot on the snow hill. Stay tuned and I’ll be posting the snow updates as they come into me.

Have an Awesome Weekend Alll!