The 2023-2024 Top 25 Snowiest Cities in The United States With Most Snow
Top 25 Snowiest US Cities Were Updated 4/16/2024 7:00 PM
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The Top 25 snowiest US cities over 100,000 and we will add them as we find them and as the new 2020 census becomes available..
The first number is the current spot the city is on the snow mountain last updated. The second number is where the city was at the end of the last season. We will be switching it to how the city started this season and then the current updated place as the cities receive snowfall totals.
This is where the Top Twenty Five Snowiest US Cities leading so far in the Golden Snow Globe Contest will be updated. Does your city have what it takes to stay in the top 25? All of the cities will be on a rolling system with only the top 25 snowiest cities here on the main page. That means that if your city is number 25 and another city passes yours, poof, your city is gone from this section. Can your city stay in the top twenty-five is the question? Our guess is that there will be some bouncing around especially at the beginning.
| Standings on 4/16 & the Update on 3/1 |
and Cities |
2010 City |
2023 – 2024 |
Average Snow |
| 1-1 | Anchorage, Alaska **** |
291,826 |
132.6 |
76.3 |
| 2-3 | Boulder, Colorado ** |
108,250 |
84.0 |
83.9 |
| 3-2 2022-2023 Champs |
Buffalo, New York |
261,310 |
71.3 |
94.9 |
| 4-28 |
Lakewood, Colorado ** |
142,980 |
67.5 |
52.3 |
| 5-4 | Syracuse, New York |
145,170 |
60.8 |
127.1 |
| 6-5 | Rochester, New York |
210,565 |
52.5 |
101.4 |
| 7-8 | Colorado Springs, Colorado ** |
416,427 |
50.0 |
29.4 |
| 8-6 | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
188,040 |
47.5 |
77.1 |
| 9-10 | Green Bay, Wisconsin * |
104,057 |
47.1 |
54.1 |
| 10-11 | Madison, Wisconsin * |
233,209 |
43.3 |
50.8 |
| 11-7 | Worcester, Mass |
181,045 |
42.5 |
72.5 |
| 12-14 | Denver, Colorado ** |
600,158 |
38.3 |
??? |
| 13-19 | Manchester, New Hampshire |
109,565 |
37.8 |
??? |
| 14-12 | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
113,934 |
37.2 |
60.7 |
| 15-16 | Boise, Idaho ** |
205,671 |
36.9 |
17.6 |
| 16-9 | Des Moines, Iowa * |
203,433 |
35.0 |
35.8 |
| 17-17 | Billings, Montana ** |
104,170 |
34.9 |
53.9 |
| 18-22 | Fort Collins, Colorado ** |
143,986 |
33.0 |
46.5 |
| 19-15 | Spokane, Washington *** |
208,916 |
32.6 |
45.2 |
| 20-23 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin * |
594,833 |
32.5 |
48.1 |
| 21-25 | Flint, Michigan |
102,434 |
32.0 |
51.5 |
| 22-20 | Lansing, Michigan |
114,297 |
30.7 |
49.8 |
| 23-13 | South Bend, Indiana |
101.168 |
30.3 |
64.3 |
| 24-46 | Minneapolis, Minnesota * |
382,578 |
29.5 |
50.1 |
| 25-38 | Reno, Nevada *** |
225,221 |
28.4 |
20.7 |
In 2005 i was in Fulton NY and a weather alert came across the TV. The alert said LakeEffect Snow will be falling in the amounts of 6-8 inches a hour. I got in my car and drove down the road to get out of there and got caught in it, as my windsheild wiper were on high there were moments that there was zero visiblity. I couldnt see the front end of my car. That year Fulton got 360 inches of snow. The front yards had 7-8 feet of snow for most of the winter.
Hi Anthony, Wasn’t that the season where Fulton and Oswego, NY had something like 3 weeks straight of a foot or more of snow everyday. Not sure if that was the season or not but I remember wishing the lake effect snow bands would drop down to Syracuse but they wouldn’t. They were just sitting up there to the north of Syracuse non stop. Then they finally dropped down and after about 5 days of the lake effect I was ready for it to go back up north
I remember that year; the National Guard had to bring some special snow-clearing equipment to clear out the streets; they dumped the snow into the harbor off of 1st West St.
I know we’re barely into the new season, but Erie, PA should be listed as #9 on here. So far, we’re at 2.6″. Lake effect snow watches in effect this weekend for 6-12″, so hopefully we will get slammed.
Hi Dave, I think I was doing an update as you posted. Between Denver picking up enough snow to jump into the top ten and adding Billings, Montana Erie just missed this update.
Hopefully Erie will cash in on the LES along with Syracuse. The first real lake effect snowfall just hit about an hour ago here just outside of Syracuse. Lasted about an hour where I live and dropped probably around 2 inches. Let’s hope it continues all weekend
Plus a coastal may be coming early this week but don’t know how it will effect Erie and Da’Cuse.
Why limit totals to just cities over 100,000 people? There are lots of places with fewer people that have greater snowfall counts.
Hi Cookiemonster. you’re right about there are lots and lots of smaller cities and towns that get more snow than the bigger cities. The problem is finding snow stats for them that are official plus it would take the whole season just to do one update. I tried a smaller city contest for just some cities and towns in NY and believe me it doesn’t work out unfortunately. JMO
If they did smaller towns, redfield NY and town in the Tughill area would win every year. Some years in that area people are snowmobling till june in 50-60 degree weather. 2005 they were snowmobiling on july 4.
Thanks for the read buddy!
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We’ve had some more snow today in Erie, put not what predicted. No matter how much snow we get, we’re not too bad off because main roads and highways are cleared right away (can’t say as much for local roads). I like Erie Winters, because getting them behind makes the other seasons so great. While we’ve had quite a bit of snow, it started late, and hasn’t been nearly as bad as some years.
Hey, i’m currently a resident of Lowell,MA…Population: 107,584 (2011)
I’ve noticed that we have gotten loads of snow this winter season..I just checked on accuweather.com’s monthly snow totals and when you add them it stands at 83.8”,which would place the city in 4th…
Nick, unfortunately The National Weather Service doesn’t have an office or station to measure their snow
That’s the case for several cities in different states. My guess is that accuweather may be getting snow stats from spotters which I respect to the fullest but can’t use them as official stats unless from NOAA. They may be getting them from Cornell also. Do you know where they get them from?
Too bad my little town down south can’t make the list…Davis, WV
Over 200 inches…and counting!!!
http://data.canaanmtnsnow.com/
Pretty impressive snowfall in Davis, West Virginia! for sure, I like to see that kinda stuff, but we have small towns all around the Syracuse NY area just like that. We have towns just 25 minutes north of Syracuse that get 300-400 inches of snow in a snowfall season. Redfield NY, 146 inches of snow in just 1 week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJy2wd0WLQo
Eric, I’ve see the woman from Redfield several times on TV. No doubt she is a dedicated snow spotter for Redfield
Have no Idea what people are talking about concerning a “rough” winter in Syracuse during the 2011-12 season. We had our 2nd lowest snow total ever in Syracuse at only 50 inches. And even though we have had almost twice as much snow this year, it is still pretty mild at only 92 inches and about 2 feet less than normal. Baring a big one, its possible that we may not reach 100 inches this season–hopefully. The only time I want it to snow is to break a record and not to worry about wishful thinking taking over my sick mind this year as we are over 100 inches away from setting any records. So Worcester, you can have the snowiest title this year and every year for that matter. But the one thing both Worcester, Erie and other cites lack is the biggest snow making machine in the U.S.–Lake Ontario! I remember Palermo, NY in 1994/95 getting a snow storm measuring almost 85 inches where the snow was falling an incredible 5 inches per hour.
No doubt Bob that last season was lame. The lamest one I can remember as far as snow totals go in the Syracuse area and for much of the country for that matter.
On another subject looking at your email address which is hidden to others I’m guessing like me you were one of the first customers of Road Runner? Cool email
I don’t know where you got your figures for Syracuse. Our past 2 winters have been fabulous…better check your facts!!!
Lowell, MA population: 106,519
Snowfall to date (as of 3-20-13): 79.5″
Hi Mark, I was curious as to where you got your totals for Lowell, MA. Are they from the national weather service? Can you post a link to them here so I can check them out. Thanks Mark,
Patrick
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the info. Here is what I posted to a couple other visitors to the site about the same question.
“It comes down to what I posted to Nick. NOAA doesn’t have an office for them and we use their stats as the official snow stats. I’ve looked and looked and finally called the Tauntan, MA office and NOAA doesn’t have stats for Springfield, Lowell and I think Cambridge was the other city I was looking for. Sorry!”
Today, WHDH TV Channel 7 in Boston reported that our total snow accumulation in Worcester, Massachusetts, for this 2012/2013 winter season so far is 101.7 inches.
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/10010047475421/worcester-s-snow-total-for-the-season-tops-100-inches/ -
Sherrye Weinstein
Hi Sherrye and thanks for the update
I’m just getting ready to post the latest snow totals from the National Weather Service which are the official totals used by all of the news organizations. As of their last update they are showing 101.0 for Worcester which totally blew my mind when I saw that. I was thinking that you all were going to have maybe a 6 – 8 inch lead but you sure piled it on and Congrats 
I’m sure there is more snow to add to that. Is it still snowing and if not do you know what time it stopped about. Thanks again for the update.
I moved my family from the Erie area to St. Louis, Missouri in 1990 and never looked back. The weather stinks in Erie and there is no way I’m ever going back. I lived southeast of Erie on the highest elevation in Erie County. We had double the snow fall as Erie had and as I got older and into my forties I couldn’t wait to get the heck out of there. The summers were nice sometimes but way to short. Last year forty miles west of the Illinois state line we had 2.5 inches of snow. This year we’ve had three blast of snow 2″, 5″ and now 6″. The difference here is its gone in a couple days. Erie is a nice town to be from but I saw 42 years too much.
I retired and moved from Erie to Jacksonville, FL in November. Watching the news and reading stuff like this reminds me why we did it. Drove around in our convertible today– top down, air on.
I’m from Erie, although I just came back to my hometown five years ago after living most of my adult life in the south-southwest. The winters we’ve had in these past five years are pretty mild compared to the snows of my childhood. I can remember when it would snow so hard, so fast and so deep that we wouldn’t be able to open the back door — and the snow drifted halfway up the house! Last year, we had almost no snow all winter, and this year, it hasn’t been bad at all.The cold is worse than the snow! But I do agree with other posters who say Erie is a great city to live in in summer. Temperatures are warm enough to enjoy the outdoors, but mild enough you don’t need the air conditioner until the latter part of summer. The things I love most about Erie: this gorgeous, beautiful, impressive lake we live on, and the miles and miles and miles of grape vineyards to our east, from Harborcreek into New York. Those sprawling vineyards stretching forever are one of my favorite things about living in Erie, although there is much to like about this town.
Ironic part is, it really hasn’t been a super snowy winter in Erie. I have seen much worse.
I’m convinced chicago lies about it’s snow totals. I grew up in Chicago and I’ve lived in Detroit for the last 10 years and 10 inches of snow in Chicago is 5-7 inches of snow in Detroit. It’s all political of course, they exhagerate snow totals because Chicago mayors have lost elections due to their administrations poor snow removal performance so they pump up the numbers to make it look like they’re doing a great job.
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Looked this morning….Erie received 3.6″ of snow yesterday (Feb 2) putting us right at 59.0″. Syracause is OH SO CLOSE at 58.6″. We (Erie) are still ahead by 0.4″!! And we have another Lake Effect Snow Warning from noon today until 6am Tuesday for 8-15″ more snow. So does Syracuse, though, so we’ll see who’s on top after this storm!
Hi Dave, I’m getting ready to do an update now so it should be pretty interesting. I think we, Syracuse, were only under an advisory for later on tonight when I looked earlier. It looks like cold air will be around for both of us for this week which will make it even more interesting. Good Luck
We ended up with 6.4″ for 2/3. That puts us over 65″. And it’s still snowing.
good luck to you guys, too. Looks like there is a band just to your north as of 1am on Monday.
Unfortunately for Syracuse the band seems to hang to the north of Syracuse and by the time it drops down to us Dave it has been pretty weak. I’ll get a top 10 update in today and thanks for the updates
I think this latest strorm, might just give the Cuse our rightful number #1 spot. Is Erie getting hit by the northeastern blizzard?
Robb
Hi Robb, Although we got less than a lot of the forecasts were calling for I think it’s going to be close when the snow stats come out in a bit. According to a comment by Dave it doesn’t look like they got hit.
I currently live in a northern suburb of Syracuse NY, which is deeper into the “Snow Belt” than the actual city is. We had a rough winter last year, and this winter and hasn’t started out that great either. But I can assure you that once the lake effect gets going, as it did today (pretty heavily I might add), Syracuse will once again claim the title of snowiest U.S. city. It’s all just a matter of time.
It would be nice Devan if some of those snow bands would just hang around for awhile instead of starting up north, then dropping to the south only to go back up to the north. That 10 inches on Friday helped us out at least. Are you up near the Central Square, Brewerton area?
In Brewerton, right on the Oneida river and the Oswego-Onondaga county border. Hoping this snow tonight and tomorrow will bring some accumulation.
I don’t recall a rough winter last year…I only snow blowed twice – Oswego
Received a link for this site on FB
Thanks Joyce for the feedback
Congratulations Erie for being the snowiest! I moved from Erie in 1985….had one heck of a huge Blizzard in 1984…couldn’t wait to get away from the snow. I do miss it sometimes – but more important is the beauty of Summer in Erie. I still have family there and visit often (usually in the Summer). Living on Long Island in New York now.
I live in Erie and we are expected to get more snow over the next few days!
Hey Michelle, I know that the cold air is suppose to hang around for most of this week I think that I’ll cheer for Buffalo this week hoping that the snow bands stay on more of a west wind pattern and hope they don’t drop down to the south
I moved away from Erie, PA 11 years ago now. Currently live in Philly… and we JUST got our first snow fall last week. Maybe 3 inches of snow thus far this winter. What a world of difference–but these east coasters freak out a tad too much about snow.
P.S. Green Bay’s population was 104,057 in the last Census count. Erie, PA was 101,786. Green Bay has in fact beat out EPA.
I moved to Philly in 1992. At the time, I was taking SEPTA to work. My boss let me go early because there was a chance of snow that afternoon and a possible storm. You need to stay clear of grocery stores. I went one time not thinking we were getting snow and left.
Hi, I had lived in Erie all of my life up until 2009, the one thing in the article I disagreed with, was the average snowfall Erie gets each year, I always remembered them saying erie average was 88 inches per year…
Hi Larry, which article are you referring to?
I’ve been seeing a lot of new visitors to the site the last couple of days including a lot from Erie, Pa. I was curious as to how you found out about the site? Thanks and it’s good to see ya’s all here
I saw the link on facebook
Thanks for the info Aubrey. I was seeing a lot of traffic from facebook but couldn’t tell if it was from a news site FB page or just personal FB pages
Thanks for the P.S. too, I’ll update those!
A friend received the link on Facebook and shared it with me.
Thanks Jim. I know the site got a lot of visiors for about 3 days, more than normal and I still don’t know if most came from a facebook page with a ton of friends like a media page on facebook or if it was just a matter of a bunch of people sharing the link with their friends that wnet viral for a little while. Either way it was cool having everyone here
Yeah ERIE!! We’re NUMBER ONE! HA! Now if I can find my car, I need to go to the store…
Now it will be interesting to see if Erie can hold on to the lead. It should be fun with this many cities so close to the top this season
haha I live about 20 min south of Erie and we laugh because Erie hardly gets any snow compared to Edinboro. We get literally twice as much as Erie every year! (but we’re not a city over 100k, just a little town, burried in snow most years)
Hi Erika,
There are quite a few of the smaller cities that do get a lot more snow than the bigger ones. I did try to start up a small city contest several years back for just New York but the problem was getting snow stats. I use the NOAA, the national weather service for snow stats here which are official. Some of the smaller towns and cities do have some snow spotters which I respect what they do but not too many of them around. It would be almost impossible to do it nationally for the fact that we would be talking hundreds if not over a thousand cities to find stats for
Each full update with just the 63 cities listed here takes about 3 hours give or take. I think it would take the whole season to do one update on the smaller cities
That said I appreciate the big numbers that some of your towns stack up each season and love seeing the pictures of them and videos when they hit the news.
I’m more amazed Eries population is greater than Green Bay!
Eric, that may have changed. The populations are from an old census. I need to find some time when I can update all of the cities populations with the new census.
I moved away from my hometown of Erie, PA partly to get away from the snow. I moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia. What a difference! Not even 3 inches of accumulation this winter!!!!
Kayla, My brother lives somewhere in Philly and he was surprised that they were showing 4 inches. He said probably just a couple inches if that where ever in Philly he is.
If you’re going to leave Erie to get out of the snow you need to come to SC like I did. However there isn’t much better place to spend a summer than Erie, PA. Definitely miss it then.
I can’t remember ever being to Erie but I have heard several people say it’s nice there. Most likely talking about the summers too.
Erie is finally number 1 at something haha
Are you from Erie John? I knew it was just a matter of time before they would get to the top
Your site helped me win a bet with my husband! I told him Syracuse was the snowiest city in the US
Just make sure you say snowiest city on average with a population over 100,000 Blueberry . Ummm, we split 50 – 50 right? Scratch that last comment because I don’t know the bet
There are sections of Chicago that haven’t had any snow yet.
I can believe it. I wonder what Chicago’s least snowiest season is Rick.
I think that this year may be Chicago’s least snowy season. I’ve lived in Chicago for two years and before that i spent 25 years in Pennsylvania. I grew up in Johnstown (which i’m sure would be on your list if it had 100,000+ people) and then I spent four years in Erie for college so I’m well-adjusted to snow.
My two winters here have been nothing compared to my PA winters! Last night we got, oh probably 4 inches and that is by far our biggest “storm” this year. We went 335 days without a measurable snow which finally happened at the end of January. It sure has been cold here this winter, but I never would’ve guessed that my winters would be easier in Chicago than PA… so far
I have come to the conclusion that since the earthquake in japan and the change in the axis everything including the weather has moved. the la nina or el nina has moved so the temp patterns have changed as well. Look at the hurricanes season and where they hit also a majority of the storms are east to west not west to east. can tell this on how the tress are coming down in a storm. trees in the north east have a root patter to withstand winds from the west. Just a thought take a moment to research some of this. No one is talking this theory
Robert I truthfully hope that was a complete joke. Trees moved that way because of the wind. Which does change quite often sir! The storms hit all over this hurricane season with a couple marching up the coast. I think the reactor in Japan may have fried your intellectual process.
I agree with the axis thing since its the bases for the seasons…. it seems that the seasons have shifted to start later than when were kids….
Update the list with Boulder, Colorado
You should make a list for all cities without the population restriction.
Luke, I think if I were to add all of the cities it would take around 3 months to get one update in. By the time I finished one update the winter would be over
Way too many cities. I will try to get an update in tomorrow. At least a top 10 update anyways.
I live in Roxborough, about 20 miles from Lakewood, and I have had 86.5 inches so far with over 120 inches reported from part of my town just 5 miles south. We are loving this winter. It snows a foot, and for the next 6 days, its 50 and mild, Love this pattern
I live in Syracuse, and to be honest, although we locals do have an odd sense of pride about our status as the snowiest city in the country – it’s nice to let someone else hold the championship belt for a season.
Sorry to hear that you are not getting much snow down there. I am here in Anchorage and as of yesterday we broke all previous records for the amount of snow to date. We have had 81 inches as of yesterday and it is still snowing today. 81 inches is about twice what we normally have to date. In 94-95 we got 77 inches by January 9 and ended up with 120 for the winter. That year was beaten by 1954-5 which got 132.8 inches for the year and only 75 inches by January 9th. I was here in 94-5 and I recall that everyone started worrying about roofs collapsing under the snow. It happened in several places in town including the church down the street from me.
The small towns of Cordova and Valdez are also getting hit with more snow than usual:
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/10/2256990/cordova-short-of-shovels-as-snow.html.
Thanks for this site. Somewhere nearer the beginning of the season I couldn’t find the total for Anchorage anywhere else.
Anne,
Thanks for the great info on Alaska. I’ll add it to the next post I make when I do an update in the next day or two. I was going to do an update the other day but saw that a storm was coming across the Great Lakes and decided to hold off. The reason being it takes about 3 hours to do a full update and I wanted to include this snowfall rather than trying to find six hours to update the stats twice. I don’t think any big snow was falling other than in AK so chances are Anchorage will be adding to the lead. Now that you/ak are finally giving up some of your cold air maybe the rest of us can start trying to catch ya’s
Good luck! You will all have a chance to catch up because we are in the midst of 10 days or so of clear cold weather here. I’m enjoying it although the temps are in the minus numbers between one and sixteen, but no shoveling!
How crazy is it that the top 5 from last year have not even received five inches of snow yet. South Bend, Indiana, where I am from has only received 3.9 inches, and they are not even calling for any snow in the 16-day forecast. I can’t remember a year when we have had no snow on the ground for Christmas AND New Year’s. Not even a trace. For snow-lovers life myself, this is depressing
Cory, I feel your pain and this season has been pretty lame to say the least. Here in the Syracuse area we have a slim chance of a white Christmas. Something we normally take for granted. I can only remember a few times when we haven’t had a white Christmas. Last year I couldn’t even get the lights up on the roof because we had too much snow and the ice built up on it. They are up this year but nothing looks the same without that nice bright snow
Cory, top 10 man. That cold air helped out a few of the cities including yours and mine (Syracuse). Now we need to keep it going
I got to SUNY Oswego, which takes a pounding from the lake each winter, but I root for Da Cuse. As a snow lover, by this time last season there was so much snow that I have to admit I started hating it a little. I just don’t understand what’s happening this year, its quite depressing
Calvin, I hear ya about depressing. Oswego hasn’t had too much snow either this season have they? My daughter graduated from there and man is it cold walking the campus. Hated visiting there sometimes because of the brisk winds coming off the lake. Right now it’s windy and snowy here in Syracuse and it looks like it’s been up North too so you must be getting some decent snow right now. Hopefully it will last now for the rest of the season.
Ken, no doubt there are many smaller cities that get a lot more snow than the bigger cities listed here. This site is based on cities with at least 100,000 population.
I absolutely LOVE the snow and winter! I have always wanted to move to a place where it snows a lot and the highest temp is around 70-80 degrees. It is something about a place that’s cold and snowey that creates a warmness in peoples hearts. I have heard that places like that are filled with people who care about people, there is a sense of comraderie and caring. I graduate next year and I would love to move to one of these places to start my career and life and hopefully, soon after, my family. Any suggestions?
Teresa, where are you from now. I’m a little bias so I would say Syracuse. Then again with only 0.7 inches of snow so far this season maybe not. I do love the Northeast though
I don’t believe this is correct unless you define “cities” by population??? A lot of towns/cities in the Rocky Mountains get much more snow than Syracuse. I live in Colorado and I’ve heard numbers in the 3 and 4 hundreds just last winter.
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@ Anon on Boonville : Boonville does get more snow than a lot of areas in NYS, but it is just out of the heavy snow belt areas. Places like Montague, Barnes Corners, Martinsburg, and Redfield get significantly more snow than Boonville. I would also say there are many years that Syracuse gets more snow than Boonville. I have spent many winters in Boonville, and often have to “trailer” to the snow for snowmobiling becuase of lack of it in Boonville.
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I live in syracuse and agree the smaller cities get more snow. I would just like to point out boonville, ny gets a ton more snow than any other city in the state. Actually it gets more snow than any city in the continental US.
Good job with the site, i enjoyed referring to it.
It was a very good winter we had lots of snow in the lower great lakes with nice cold temps. I can’t wait until next winter, I hope it’s as good as this winter was. I’m also glad I found this site it’s awesome!
Anon, just updated and once again sorry it’s been awhile. I think what I’ll try and do the rest of the season is look at the top 15 cities and at least try to get a couple of top 10 updates a week in.