Archives

All posts for the month January, 2013

I just did a top 25 update and there is a major change once again in the top 10. Who is in the lead, who dropped, who moved up??? All good questions ;) Erie Pa was able to hold on to the lead by less than 1 inch of snow. It was Syracuse once again sliding down the snow mountain and Salt Lake City taking over the number 2 spot.

With the race being this close I’m going to try to get at least a top 10 update in about every day or so. Remember it takes about 3 hours for the full update which I don’t have everyday. This update I did go down 25 spots so we’ll call it a top 25 update. Keep in mind though that because I didn’t update any of the cities snow stats after number 25 which is South Bend, that there may be some cities below the top 25 with higher totals. Does that make sense :( I am confident though about the top 10.

So congrats to Erie, pa on holding on to the top spot by about a snowflake or two :)

Oh, on another note if you like the site just look for that little donate button. It takes you to Pay Pal where you can donate a couple bucks if you would like to help us offset the costs of the site and to maybe buy me a soda pop or two for the time put into the site. If not, that’s OK too because it’s fun keeping the site up.

Have a Great Night Everyone :)

Erie, Pennsylvania has taken the lead in the snowiest city in the US contest (pop-100,000 or more) plowing past Syracuse, New York.  I could be wrong but I think this is the first time since the Golden Snow Globe contest started that Erie, Pa has been on top.

Erie along with Syracuse is one of the snowiest big cities in the country on average and they finally have some bragging right to go with the snow.  Now the question is can they hold on to the top spot on the snow mountain?  It’s still pretty close with some of the cities that are in the top 10 right now.

Syracuse is right behind them on the snow trail along with Salt Lake City, Utah, Spokane and Anchorage.  Going down to around the top 20 or so, all of those cities are just a storm or two away from sledding toward the top of the mountain.  I’m loving that it’s a close contest so far with none of the snowy cities running away with the lead.

Some of the snowiest states this last update were the obvious Pennsylvania along with Michigan and Ohio.  Pittsburgh, Pa seems to have a snow groove going too slowly climbing their way up the snow mountain ;)

As for Syracuse this hasn’t been a good weekend for them and Pennsylvania hasn’t been nice to them.  First Villanova knocking off their #3 ranked basketball team and now Erie knocking them out of first pace in the snow contest.  I could say more but I won’t for the fact that I am from Syracuse and it probably wouldn’t be anything nice ;)

I’m joking of course and congrats to Erie on taking the lead and congrats to Villanova on a well played game.  See ya’s in the Big East Tournament ;)   Have a Great Week Everyone ;)

With the first month almost wrapped up in the Fantasy Snowfall contest, here’s another update. As a reminder, sleepers are in italics.

GSG Fantasy Snowfall 2013 January Update
Pat Steve
59.90 47.00
Starters (Full Credit)
Buffalo, NY 4.4 Anchorage, AK 10.3
Erie, PA 25.7 Madison, WI 2.0
Spokane, WA 12.3 Rochester, NY 10.3
Syracuse, NY 10.5 Salt Lake City, UT 10.5
Pueblo, CO 1.0 South Bend, IN 7.7
Total 53.9 Total 40.8
Bench (Half Credit)
Fort Collins, CO 0.5 Cleveland, OH 4.6
Green Bay, WI 3.3 Denver, CO 1.4
St. Paul, MN 1.4 Des Moines, IA 1.1
Worcester, MA 5.7 Minneapolis, MN 1.6
Newark, NJ 1.1 Boston, MA 3.7
Total 6.00 Total 6.20

The game changing performance right now is Erie, PA with over 2 feet of snow this month. That changed what has been a close race into what appears to be a blow out for Pat. Of course, there still is over 3 months left in the contest, and with each of us needing to start and bench each city at least once, things could get interesting through the season. The one thing going for me? My sleepers are outperforming Pat’s. I might need to activate my “2 sleeper” option in February.

Speaking of February, the next update will be then, showing the final results for the month and the new lineups for both Pat and myself.

Just a Heads Up - this website may be going offline for a little while after today. With costs going up with hosting and other related costs not to mention the time put into it I had to add the Pay Pal donation button on the site this season, sorry about that.  Hopefully the site won’t be down no longer than a day or two. We will try and get it back up ASAP.

________________________________________

I was seeing a lot of coverage on the snow that Erie has been getting so I decided to do a top 10 update. Erie, Pa received something like 16.3 inches of snow on january 21st and I was curious if they picked up enough snow to sled past Syracuse. They came close and are less than a couple of inches away from taking over the top spot on the snow mountain.

It’s been snowing a little in the Syracuse area but most of the lake effect snow bands have been hanging just miles to the north of them in places like Oswego, Fulton and other towns to the north. Those cities and town have picked up 2 feet plus of snow lucky them ;) Erie, Pennsylvania still has some decent snow in their forecast for the next few days as does Syracuse so it will be interesting to see if Syracuse can hold on or if Erie slips past them. I’ll try and keep up with it and post it here if someone knocks Da’Cuse down the mountain.

Here are some good stats that has the snowfall records for Erie, Pa broken down by the month. http://www.erh.noaa.gov/cle/climate/eri/records/eritop10snow.html

It seems like every update the snow contest has a few more cities that close in on the leaders this season. This update was no different with Anchorage and Salt Lake City gaining with their recent snowfall. I did have to finally make a call to the the National Weather Service station that does the stats for Spokane and unfortunately those of you from Spokane are probably going to be mad at me :( Be nice, it’s not my call, show a little pity and NO I’m not trying to cook the books or in this case melt your snow away. OK, if you have to vent feel free to and I will try to take it like the sissy man that I am ;)

Here is the controversy to this seasons snow contest so far. The problem I have had with the Spokane, Washington snow stats is I didn’t notice at first that there are two places that report the snow for Spokane. One is at the Airport and the other is at the National Weather Service station. The place I have been reporting the snow totals from was the NWS station thinking they would be the more official stats. Turns out I was wrong and when I saw that there was another place in Spokane that reported their snow stats, the Airport I decided to call them and see which stats I should be using.

I called the Spokane National Weather Service and talked to Steven Van Horn, a really nice guy who was very informative about the locations in Spokane. I asked him which reports I should be using and he advised me that the snow stats from the airport are the official snow stats that they go by. Not the answer I wanted to hear for the fact that I have been giving Spokane the higher totals from the NWS station. Not what I wanted to hear but at least we have the right place to get the snow stats from now. The official snow stats! Thanks for taking the time and for the great information Steven.

With that said, Syracuse was able to stay on top of the snow mountain with less than a couple of inches separating them from second on the list, Salt Lake City, Utah. They managed to pick up enough snow to move up and even with the change for Spokane they managed to take the third place spot on the snow mountain. Last seasons champs, Anchorage moved up a few spots and let’s hope they don’t have a record season like they did last season or we all may be in trouble.

Buffalo received enough snow to get into the top 10 knocking Madison, Wisconsin out of the top 10. All in all this is a pretty close race with quite a few cities just a storm or two away from taking the lead. Let’s hope it stays this close right to the end.

Have a Super Week All and As Always – See Snow Drive Slow!

With the first 2 weeks almost wrapped up in the Fantasy Snowfall contest, I thought I’d give a quick look at the results so far. Totals are through 1/12/12 and sleepers are in italics.

GSG Fantasy Snowfall 2013 January Update
Pat Steve
18.00 16.35
Starters (Full Credit)
Buffalo, NY 1.0 Anchorage, AK 0.7
Erie, PA 1.0 Madison, WI 0.0
Spokane, WA 11.0 Rochester, NY 3.9
Syracuse, NY 4.1 Salt Lake City, UT 10.4
Pueblo, CO 0.0 South Bend, IN 0.1
Total 17.1 Total 15.1
Bench (Half Credit)
Fort Collins, CO 0.5 Cleveland, OH 0.0
Green Bay, WI 0.2 Denver, CO 1.4
St. Paul, MN 0.9 Des Moines, IA 0.1
Worcester, MA 0.2 Minneapolis, MN 1.0
Newark, NJ 0.0 Boston, MA 0.0
Total 0.90 Total 1.25

So far this month, Pat has played this as well as he could: the four regular starters all have more snowfall than his four regular bench. On the other hand, I have two on the bench with more snow than two of my starters. So I am not at the maximum I could have had up to this point. For what’s it’s worth, I’d still be trailing, but not by as much. Also of note, South Bend has the most of the four sleepers with 0.1.

The first quarter warps up at the end of the month. By which time Pat and I will have our starting line ups for February all set.

It can’t get any closer than this other than a tie in the national snow contest.  Right now it’s Syracuse, New York by a snowflake over Spokane, Washington.  Just 0.1 separates the two cities this last update and there is still a lot of cities within reach of both of them.

Rochester, NY is climbing the snow mountain moving up to the number 5 spot on the mountain.  There really wasn’t a lot of shuffling this last update.  Some of the cities from Michigan added to their snow totals but they are still down the mountain quite a ways.

One thing I do have to do is find out which snow stats I should be using for Spokane, Washington.  They have 2 different reporting stations with the National Weather Service and the totals are pretty far apart.  One is at the National Weather Service and the other is at their airport.  I’ll get a hold of them this week and see what they say.

Have and Awesome Night All ;)

First off a Happy New Year to All of Our Visitors ;)

Syracuse has taken over the top spot on the snow mountain this last update. Just a week or so ago they were at 3 inches on the season but added another 33 inches to move into first place and be the first city to hit the yard of snow mark. After the 3 days of shoveling this guys back decided to slip out so I’m kind of hoping for a little bit of a break from shoveling. Yeah, I’m a sissy man and you would think living in the snowiest big city (pop 100,000 or more) I would have a snow blower after all of these years. Maybe next season ;)

A lot of the cities added some new snow to their totals. I think all but about 3 – 4 cites had some new snowfall to add up. Ohio, Rhode Island and Connecticut seemed to be the states on the move upward on the Golden Snow Globe mountain. Colorado is still pretty quiet and so was last years snow champ Anchorage, Alaska.

Looking across the country there is still some cold air spread out all around the US. That could make for another interesting update come the next update. What I’m still liking is the fact that it’s really early in the 2012 – 2013 snow season and there are quite a few cities still within striking distance of the top spot. Good Luck and Way to Go Syracuse! Hay, way to go Syracuse football and basketball and it will be interesting to see if Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim can pass Bobby Knight’s record tonight with win over Rutgers for win number 903. Good Luck coach B and thanks for the 50 years at SU.

Have a Great Week All and Drive Careful :)

Happy New Year everyone!

To celebrate the start of 2013, Pat and I thought it would be fun to do a fantasy snowfall competition (with inspiration from weather.com). For this year, it will be between the two of us, but we hope that in the future we can expand. We have a few ideas for that in mind, but for now welcome to Golden Snow Globe’s Fantasy Snowfall 2013!

Here’s how it works for this year. A few days ago Pat and I drafted 10 cities. Before the start of each month, we have to decide which 5 we want to be our starters, and which 5 to be on the bench. Starters get full credit, while bench are half. The team with the most snowfall at the end of April wins!

But of course, there is a catch. We must start all 10 cities at least once, and each city must be on the bench at least once. In addition, we each have 2 sleepers. These are cities that as of the 12/28 update were outside the top 25. The sleepers must each be used twice. We each can have both sleepers as starters in one month (but not necessarily the same month), in which case, 6 starters would be allowed.

So, without further ado, here are the teams for 2013! Note: This month’s starters are in bold.

GSG Fantasy Snowfall 2013 Teams
Pat Steve
Sleepers
Newark, NJ Boston, MA
Pueblo, CO South Bend, IN
Buffalo, NY Anchorage, AK
Erie, PA Cleveland, OH
Fort Collins, CO Denver, CO
Green Bay, WI Des Moines, IA
Spokane, WA Madison, WI
St. Paul, MN Minneapolis, MN
Syracuse, NY Rochester, NY
Worcester, MA Salt Lake City, UT

Again, we’re just basically playing around with this for 2013. Whether we keep all these rules (or add new ones) in the future is to be determined. Though, the more people/teams we have in the future the less cities will be on a team.

I’ll try to do updates twice a month. We hope you enjoy following along!

By the way, what does your calendar say? If it’s 2012, it’s time to get a new one! So why not check some out at buywallcalendars.com? You’ll get a good deal and help support the site. Thanks! :)