Well I was going to hold off on making a second post until later this afternoon, as I have some interesting things to share but figured I would make a quick blurb for the total lunar eclipse tonight.

Hopefully the skies will clear and offer a view to any heading out or even just watching from the window. The eclipse will begin at 843pm tonight (Wednesday) and reach total eclipse at 1001pm. The total eclipse will last for 50 minutes with mid eclipse occuring at 1026pm. Following the end of the total eclipse at 1051pm the fading partial eclipse will still be visibile until 1209am. These times are all EST.

Enjoy!

At last! Something interesting weather-wise to get my hopes up for a little while. Also some hope for Buffalo to make a suprise strike upward in the standings. As I was getting ever closer to throwing the towel in for Buffalo, I will hold back for at least a little while longer. Although Lake Erie is about 85-90% ice covered it now appears that there is a big enough hole in the ice to let some limited lake effect get going with a cold SW wind flow. And I swear I wasn’t out this weekend breaking the ice, even though I had considered it. I’m also glad I held off on doing one last ditch snow dance. If only the lake was ice free… Buffalo would have gotten clobbered, a near perfect setup for Buffalo lake effect today.

However, it’s looking good that a band well get going for a while this evening somewhere near Buffalo. Been seeing quick on/off bursts most of the afternoon, but still nothing more than a dusting to a half inch so far. The NWS is calling for a 4-6 inch snowfall from the band tonight. A lot is going to depend if the band can get going with the limited open water, and on where the winds steer the band. But if Buffalo can sneak out 6 inches tonight from this band we would be in excellent shape once again to compete with the top dogs and inch ever closer to 2nd place.

Taking a look at the little open water left on Erie (the blue hole) it is pretty amazing any snow band could get going. We will have to see if Buffalo can step it up tonight!

Sean Kirst had an article out earlier in the season about how Syracuse may have been the snowiest city with a population of 100,000 or more not only in the United States but in all of North America last year according to Canadian climatologist David Phillips. Read the story here http://www.syracuse.com/articles/kirst/index.ssf?/base/business-11/1197453467227480.xml&coll=1

Well move over Syracuse because Madison, Wisconsin is winning the snowball fight this season so far and the chances are with the snow totals that Syracuse has to date there may be a couple of other big cities kicking our butts also. No need to panic yet though because there is still a lot of snow season ahead whether you want it or not. Average isn’t going to do it though and look at the stats above and you will see that Syracuse is dead on their average for this time into the snow season. Albany and Rochester are just tenths off their normal snowfall.

Right now Madison, Wisconsin has a snow total of 83.7 compared to Syracuse’s snow total of 81.6. From what I have heard this has been the snowiest season on record for Madison and snow is still in the forecast for them. If I were a betting man, which I am, my bet would be on Syracuse remaining the snow champs in the US for big cities. I think the 2 mayors should get together and make a little city bet for the fun of it. Milwaukee isn’t doing to bad either as far as snow totals go. They have over 76 inches so far this snow season.

OK, never-mind Madison the snow race is still pretty tight here in NY and Syracuse better worry about getting by the Golden Snowball cities first. Rochester is still well within striking distance of taking over the lead and Buffalo isn’t out of it yet. Add in the coastal storms and the weather coming from the south and that keeps Binghamton and Albany alive also. All I can do is hope that the weather pattern changes soon so we can get in on some of that snowfall to the west of us instead of this warm wintry mix and rain that has been coming from the south. Enough said and have a great day. Kids, enjoy your winter vacation!!!

Take a look at the 2006 – 2007 snow stats and at the average snowfall stats for this time of the season. I don’t think that this has been a normal season but by the snow totals for most of the Golden Snowball cities it sure has been average. Syracuse, Albany and Rochester are all within an inch of their normal snowfall for this date and Binghamton is just 5 inches off their normals. Buffalo has some catching up to do to get to their normal snow amounts but it’s within reach for them.

The other thing I have noticed is how much snow I have been adding to last years snowfall totals the last few days when updating the stats which means at this time last season all of us were getting some decent snow amounts. In the last 5 days for last years stats at this time of the year I’ve added around 29 inches for Syracuse, 24 inches for Rochester, 10 inches for Buffalo, 19 inches for Binghamton and 17 inches for Albany give or take a bit. So in other words it’s time to start piling up the snow. Bring It On!!! Umm, rain is in the forecast by the way 🙁

The Syracuse Orangemen played a great game yesterday beating Georgetown who I think was ranked #8 in the country and they looked good while doing it. The whole team looked good and Harris continued to step up as he has the last several games. He made a mistake late in the game and got a good chewing out for it by Bobby Knight Sr., oops, strike that, coach Jim Boeheim for going to the basket instead of taking the ball back out to kill some clock. This happened right before a commercial break and looking at Coach B’s eyes before the camera broke away my guess is it lasted into the commercial. For whatever reason that image bothered me and I thought to myself that Harris was playing a great game of pure hustle and the chances are that the reaming that the coach just gave him might take Paul’s head out of the game.

Well when the game came back on, Harris didn’t look as pumped as he was and he ended up fouling a a Georgetown player taking a 3 point shot which means he gets 3 free throws. Mind you this was with Georgetown making a come back. So two mistakes late in the game by Paul Harris but it didn’t end there. A 10 second violation was called against the Orangemen and poor Harris happen to be the one holding the ball. Sorry folks but blame that one on Flynn who constantly takes his time bringing the ball down court. He passed the ball to Harris who didn’t cross the half court with probably about 2 seconds left if that. Paul Harris came through big though through the whole game and especially at the end of the game when Georgetown started fouling us to stop the clock. Harris was the man being fouled and time after time he went to the line and knocked down the free throws missing I think only one of 6 (or 8) down the stretch.

Overall this was the team that we were getting use to seeing. A team where everyone contributes and everyone did yesterday. Arinze Onuaku stepped up and did what he should be doing every game. Consider this his coming out game because what you saw yesterday is what you are going to see from him the rest of the season.

NIT or NCAA? Way too early to talk about it I suppose but It’s not over until the fat man sings and I haven’t even started to hum yet. The S. Florida game hurt but the Georgetown game should make that a push. 5 more wins including a couple in the Big East tournament with the tough schedule they have ahead of them and they have a good shot at the NCAA tourney because we got robbed last year and they owe us. If not it’s the NIT and ya know what? Who cares because I just enjoy watching them. Thanks for the excitement guys, it’s appreciated here. OK, enough ranting. Have a super Sunday all.

Testing!

4:30 PM Update – Light snow is just starting to come down at my house just outside the Syracuse are. I’ve been watching some of the totals for this storm start to drop a little so I think it’s time to play the Guesstimate Game. Just post a comment as to what you think the snow totals will be lets say by the end of tomorrow 2/13 at around 6 pm when NOAA does an update. Here are my snow guesstimates:

Rochester – 10
Syracuse – 8
Buffalo – 7
Binghamton – 7
Albany – 5

So many times this season I have gotten my hopes up for a decent snowfall or storm only to have it turn out to be a bust. With this coming storm I’m going to play it down at least in my head anyways. That said, BRING IT ON!!!!!! Once again naughty words are starting to be mentioned in the forecast for most of the cities. Those words that I find offensive are CHANGE OVER, MIXTURE, MIX, SLEET, RAIN and the dreaded F word FREEZING RAIN. Do you know how much snow we have lost because of those words this season? Well I don’t either but my guess is we missed out on some good snow totals because of the mixed precipitation and once again the words are starting to pop up for this coming storm. I’m hoping that now that I whined about it, it won’t happen.

I think all of the Golden Snowball cities are under a winter storm warning now and this is the chance for some changes in the line-up that we have all been waiting for. OK, some of us. Who knows, there may even be a new leader by the end of tomorrow. Rochester is still only 4.7 inches away and a hit here and a miss there with the snow bands that will be coming through it’s a possibility. I think Binghamton might have a big enough lead to fend off any snowballs that Albany throws at them but there is a slight chance Bingo could find themselves at the bottom again. Of course Binghamton piled up a lot of snow last year at this time during the Valentines day storm. That’s what’s fun about these storms. Anything can happen.

The main thing I think for the snow lovers is that the warm air has to stay out of this storm. Right now from reading around it’s going to go something like light snow, heavy snow, a mix of sleet and freezing rain, rain and then light snow again. Way too many items on this storms menu if you ask me and I just fired the cook. The new menu is SNOW and lots of it 🙂 I wonder if turning on the air conditioner and opening up the doors and windows will keep the warm air away from my house so that it’s all snow? Kids, I’m kidding! Don’t do it! That goes for you too General Steve. Ummm, let me know if it works though if you do try it 😉 I personally think the cold air will hold it’s ground long enough to keep this a mostly snow event but keep in mind I’m normally clueless so check with your favorite local forecasters to see what’s really going to happen.

DRIVE SAFE!!!!!!!!!!! Looking at the radar the chances are your going to be driving home from work with the possibility of some slippery roads. It looks like some light to moderate snow is getting close to Buffalo and light snow getting close to Rochester as I’m typing. The heavier stuff looks to be still just south of NY in PA but moisture looks to be building up in NY so once again check the forecasts out to see what time things will really start to get going and remember SNOW MEANS SLOW Drive careful all and have a great safe day.

TV 9 WSYR here in Syracuse has a pretty good discussion going on right now about this storm and they normally give some pretty good updates throughout the day. It’s definitely worth checking out at http://community.9wsyr.com/blogs/weather_discussion/archive/2008/02/11/2520151.aspx