Normally I leave the comments sections open for the summer and keep an eye on them.  Most of them are spam and come September, October I find myself having to spend a couple hours going through them and getting rid of most of them 🙁

Anyways, right now I’m getting hammered by them so I’m going to cut off comments for awhile.  I’m talking about 2000 a day right now and growing.  Isn’t worth trying to block the IP’s because they are always different.

If you do need to get a hold of me for any reason feel free to by using the contact form.  Sorry about any inconvenience and have a fun, sunny summer all 🙂

Congratulations Syracuse!!!  It seems like just yesterday that most people were dreading winter and the snow season and now here we are wrapping up the Golden Snowball Contest as we always do on May 1st.  Now we have a whole month or two of warm weather ahead of us before we start thinking about the snow again 🙂  OK, let’s hope it’s more like 5 – 7 months ahead of us before the word snow is even mentioned.

Last seasons champs Rochester stayed in reach of Syracuse for most of the season but Syracuse was able to get some late season snowfall including 12 inches in April to pull away at the end.  As for how far off the Golden Snowball cities were from their normal averages I would have to say that this was once again a pretty lame season.  Not as bad as last seasons lack of snowfall but when Albany is the city who came closest to their average snow totals you no it was a below average season.

Below are some stats showing the difference between this seasons snowfall and the normal average for all of the GSB cities.  That is providing it doesn’t snow any more 😉  Buffalo’s snow the last couple of seasons definitely has me scratching my head.  36.7 inches last season and only 58.8 inches this season to date 🙁

Albany – 7.7 inches below normal snow totals.
Syracuse – 8.4 below
Binghamton – 14.3 below
Rochester – 21.4 below
Buffalo – 35.9 below

Last but not least to wrap this season up a quick Thanks to Stephen Ellis who helps out at both goldensnowball.com and the national snow site goldensnowglobe.com.  This season Stephen came up with an idea that he borrowed (Stole, shhh) from the weather channel called Fantasy Snowfall.  We gave it a test run this season and hopefully next season we can bring in some more people to make it more fun.  Stephen kicked my butt most likely, always making a big comeback at the end of each month 😉

Thanks to all of you who visit the site and also to all of you who posted comments through the season to make it an even more fun contest to pass the winter by.  This season the Golden Snowball website had well over 100,000 visits.  As always, visits from both snow lovers and snow haters 😉  A big thanks to those of you who were able to donate to the site to help offset some of the out of pocket expenses running the site.  It really does help out a lot 🙂

A Big Thanks to the journalists from some of the Golden Snowball cities who always have some fun with the contest throughout the season. One that comes to mind is Sean Kirst from the Post standard and Syracuse.com who has always written some informative and fun articles about the GSB snow contest.  The main reason our fun snow contest has grown big enough to get some national media exposure.

I’m sure our great Mayor of Syracuse, Stephanie Miner will be more than happy to hear that Syracuse has won once again 🙂  Hey with the lack of snow this season all of the Mayor’s I’m sure are happy for the money they must have saved on their DPW budgets 😉

Congrats again to Syracuse and don’t forget that the National Snow Contest still lives on for a little longer.  I’m hoping to call the Golden Snow Globe Contest in a couple of weeks if the snow has finally stopped falling in most of the states.

Have a Super Awesome Summer Everyone 🙂

I wish I knew who to credit for this, as it is brilliant. But anyway, here it is…the Thanksgiving Forecast:

Turkeys will thaw in the morning, then warm in the oven to an afternoon high near 190F. The kitchen will turn hot and humid, and if you bother the cook, be ready for a severe squall or cold shoulder.

During the late afternoon and evening, the cold front of a knife will slice through the turkey, causing an accumulation of one to two inches on plates. Mashed potatoes will drift across one side while cranberry sauce creates slippery spots on the other. Please pass the gravy.

A weight watch and indigestion warning have been issued for the entire area, with increased stuffiness around the beltway. During the evening, the turkey will diminish and taper off to leftovers, dropping to a low of 34F in the refrigerator.

Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, high pressure to eat sandwiches will be established. Flurries of leftovers can be expected both days with a 50 percent chance of scattered soup late in the day. We expect a warming trend where soup develops. By early next week, eating pressure will be low as the only wish left will be the bone.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

2011 – 2012 Snow Season – It’s a Wrap

The New Snow Champion Of The Golden Snowball Contest

Congratulations Rochester, New York