Unfortunately I’m not talking about trying to get prepared for Christmas and the holiday season. The Christmas panic attack is still at least a day or two away. I’m talking about an event that took place today. There was a press conference today at the Syracuse DPW to welcome in winter and to talk about our great snow race, the Golden Snowball contest.

The good news is that I was invited to participate. The bad news was that I was invited to participate. Don’t get me wrong. I was honored that Dennis Brogan thought about including me. The thing is I’m the type who panics and turns into a sissy man when ever I’m in front of a bunch of people. Today was no different and if you watch WIXT Channel 9 news you will see me at my best prime panicky, hyperventilating, sissy man form. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they will cut my part out or if I’m in the camera’s view the through it all, the whole presentation might end up on the cutting floor.

I wrote a short page and a half speech or whatever you want to call it to read. I think I ended up saying like 2 sentences of it and then did my best to make my escape. I’ll post below what I planned on saying and if you catch the news tonight you’ll get to see what I actually ended up mumbling out. I can appreciate Dennis’s job and anyone else who has to be a public speaker. As for me I’ll stick to typing and hiding behind the computer. All in all it was fun though and if your smart you might want to eat dinner before having your appetite ruined seeing the Snowman on the news. Just a suggestion.

The set up was perfect for the news conference. The DPW site with all the hard working men and women standing in the background and a couple of Snow Plows on each side of the podium. As was mentioned at the press conference, Anyone that lives in Syracuse has to admit we have some of the best snow removal road crews in NY if not in the entire US. I think they deserve a raise myself. Ok, I was paid to say that. I’m joking, I wasn’t paid.

The fun part was getting to meet Dennis whom I’ve talk to several times on the phone and Jeff the Commissioner of the DPW. I think that is Jeff’s title.

The biggest part of my panicky, hyperventilating day though was that I finally got to meet Sean Kirst from the Post standard. We’ve probably talked a couple dozen times on the phone and of course you all know he has been the person to keep the Golden Snowball contest going and growing each year with his great articles and research on it. To that I say, Sean it was a privilege to finally meet you today.

What’s going on? Here we all are less than 10 days from winter in cny/upstate NY and the grass is as green as it could be. The temperature is suppose to be in the 50’s again today. Only 11 days until Christmas and the big question is will we have a white Christmas? Steve form Buffalo – aka smadsen in the forum is predicting an 80% chance of a White Christmas which sounds pretty good to me. Enjoy the nice weather while it’s here because a cold front might be moving in the beginning of next week.

I don’t know about the rest of you but Christmas just isn’t the same without snow on the ground. I couldn’t imagine living in Florida and celebrating the winter holiday season in 70 degree weather. A buddy of mine who has lived down south for the last 20 or so years even says Christmas isn’t the same as when he was growing up here on the north east. All we can do is to hope the Snow God shines upon us leaving a nice blanket of snowfall just in time for Santa Claus to make his rounds.

The chase to catch Buffalo continues with some progress being made the last couple of days. Syracuse, Rochester and Binghamton has narrowed the lead a little although Buffalo still holds an unbelievable lead this early in the season. If they continue on the path they have been on with practically nothing since the freak October storm they will find themselves in the company of Albany on the snow chart within a month or so.

Syracuse was able to erase about 1/3 of the lead that buffalo holds on them. Rochester and Binghamton are just getting started. I can definitely see a good 4 way snow race this year if my winter outlook proves to be right. I hope for Buffalo’s sake they don’t fall into the same pattern that they were in last season when all the snowfall stayed just a few miles south of them. Look for a fun season ahead.

I had the privilege to talk to Dennis Brogan from the Mayors office yesterday about the snowball contest. As you all know I’ve mentioned many times here that this site is pretty much unofficial and what I have the call on is the money. The cities decide where and when the trophy goes to the winner. That being said we had a great conversation on getting on the same page and pretty much just keeping the snow race fun. Look for more on that ahead. I also forgot to mention in my winter outlook that another reason that I believe this will be an above average snow season is because of the deer. Dennis mentioned in another conversation that the Deer he bagged I think around Thanksgiving had a lot of fat on it. I talked to my brother in law Buzz and he said the same thing. Not that Buzz got a deer but his sister Deb bagged a couple of them and he said hers were fattier than normal. That’s a whole other contest in itself. Will Buzz get spanked as usual by his sister Deb? Where was I? Oh yea, In other words are the deer putting on the extra weight in foresight of a cold, snowy winter? Hey, enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone.

Syracuse sledded into second place in this years snowfall race dropping Rochester to 3rd place. Buffalo picked up 1.1 inches of snow yesterday, Rochester grabbed an 1 in, Binghamton picked up .7 of an inch, Albany got shutout again and Syracuse picked up just under half a foot, 5.9 inches. If your a Buffalo fan I’d be worried because your kind of at a stand still right now and I’m not talking about the Buffalo Bills I’m talking about the 2 1/2 foot jump you had could start to melt away soon if your not careful.

Snow is still in the forecast for some of the GSB cities for today. The stats above for Syracuse, Bingo and Albany are updated since around 12:00 am. Buffalo and Rock City’s stats were updated at around 5 am this morning. Just to remind you, the stats come from NOAA our National Weather Service. One station is in Buffalo which keeps track of Rochester and Buffalo’s stats. The other station is in Binghamton which reports the snow stats for Albany, Binghamton and Syracuse. Both weather stations update statistics at different times of the day. If I see any significant change in snow totals later in the day I’ll do another update. Hey, Have a Great Weekend All.

I won’t begin to tell you how many times I looked out the window tonight. Or how many different radars I had going on my computer as I impatiently waited for tonights lake effect snow to reach us here in Syracuse as it seemed to sit just above us forever. Forever is a long time when your like a little kid waiting for the snow let me tell you.

Well the snow finally came into town at about 11:00 pm and lasted about an hour. It was worth the wait too, just to see it come down like it did with houses just a corner or so away disappearing into a blanket of heavy snow. Then I did the normal ritual which I do whenever a good band of snow comes through. Went out and took some pictures. And as usual, it was too dark and they didn’t come out because I don’t have a clue how to take pictures at night. Anyways enough about my childish behavior. Look for a good snowfall update sometime tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the night brings to the Golden Snowball cities.

First off keep in mind who the source of this information is coming from. Me, who is normally clueless, didn’t research anything like the Farmers Almanac and I have absolutely nothing scientific to base the Golden Snowball prediction on. Also remember I’m the type who runs and hides when a thunderstorm approaches. In other words this winter outlook is pretty much based on my knowledge or lack of and mainly on my instincts which tend to be pretty good. For what it’s worth, my predictions are below and unless you like snow your probably not going to like what I see ahead.

Above average snowfall for all of the Golden Snowball city’s is my prediction. A couple of things come to mind when making my prediction. #1 It’s been a wet, wet year. Probably one of the rainiest years on record for CNY but don’t quote me on that.

#2 – I’m thinking that we will be seeing several Nor Easterns – Coastal events this season. I’m not sure what the average is but I see 6 – 7 Nor Easterns with at least 2 – 3 of them being significant snow events. The only thing that will prevent that will be if the temperatures are to warm and the events would be rain. I don’t see that happening though.

#3 – Cold will be the norm this winter season. There will be a few spurts of warm weather in between but January and February will be colder than average. That’s something that might actually hurt Buffalo in the contest this year but I see Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse running neck and neck until the end of the snow season. I will pick my prediction for the winner of this years Golden Snowball contest in the next day or so.

#4 – After talking with Dennis Brogan, who is part of the mayors office in Syracuse who mentioned that the deer he bagged this hunting season had a ton of fat on it and my brother in-law Buzz also said the same thing, how can there be any doubt. Hey, it doesn’t get any scientific than this does it?

To sum it up, my prediction is that this snow season will be colder than average and snow totals will be above average for all of the Golden Snowball City’s.

And remember the source of this Winter Outlook, The Snowman who is usually clueless. Enjoy the snow all!