pennsylvania weather

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Snowiest US Cities Finally Updated

Posted by Patrick on March 4, 2010
Posted in: All US Snow Cities. Tagged: , , , .

I had some personal stuff going on and I’m sorry about the lack of updates all. They should be more regular from here on through the rest of the snow season. I really thought I did an update on the top ten snowy cities after the last storm but when I checked today turns out I didn’t :(

All of the top 10 stayed but there were some changes in the lineup. Erie, pa is hanging tough and Rochester jumped a couple of spots on the snow mountain. March has been know to have some decent storms and this contest is far from over so Syracuse better not start counting their snowballs yet ;)

That said I think it is time to cut some of the cities out of the updates on the all of the US cities page. I was thinking maybe knocking it down to about 25 – 30 cities. Any thoughts on that???

Hey, have a super day all!

Top 10 Cities Updated

Posted by Patrick on February 24, 2010
Posted in: All US Snow Cities. Tagged: , , , , , .

I just did a quick top 10 update on the snowiest cities. I figure no sense doing a full update until the storm thats ready to hit the North East blows through. Here in Syracuse it’s just a storm watch but hopefully that will change and the storm will shift a little. Right now Philly is looking like the place to be once again for some good snow totals. Can they make it to the top of the snow mountain and bump Da’Cuse down from it? Will Pitt or Erie maybe Rochester pile on the snow. Stay tuned because there could be a new leader in the next day or two.

Have a Super Night All and remember See Snow Drive Slow. Take it easy :)

Syracuse King of the Snow Mountain Maybe???

Posted by Patrick on February 16, 2010
Posted in: All US Snow Cities. Tagged: , , .

Pay attention to the maybe in the headline above. This should get some good controversy going :) I just did a full update with all of the cities and seen a few adjustments to a few cities. This happens during the season and has always happened at the smaller goldensnowball website every season. Sometimes it’s just a mistake while NOAA is updating the most recent stats. Other times it’s an adjustment that NOAA is making to the city stats because they may have found a mistake from previous updates which could go back a few weeks. Either way it’s not any kind of conspiracy and for now we will keep Syracuse as in the lead unofficially. No biggy, trust me on this my good friends in Baltimore ;)

With Pittsburgh in the top 10 now and still on the move I got to do an interview with a radio station in the Pittsburgh area. Every now and then I’ll get a call or an email from a journalist or reporter asking questions about our snow contest all in fun So anyways I was talking with Maria Leaf a Reporter at, Newsradio 1020 KDKA

She was a very friendly women and asked some good questions all of which I was clueless to of course :) When it comes to interviews I’m a big time sissy man and pretty much just freeze up and try to wing it. Kind of like I am when I first talk to a woman at a bar. Well I suppose after a few soda pops I do a little better but I didn’t have a chance for that today. For anyone interested in hearing the interview of the clueless (Me) you can check it out at Newsradio 1020 KDKA sometime tomorrow morning between 5 am and 9 am on their morning news. That’s if it even makes it past the cutting table. Unfortunately I’ll still be sleeping. So if it does make in on the air Hello and a Big Welcome to those of you in Pittsburgh. Hmmmm, a big welcome even though ya’s did spank us (Syracuse) for our first loss of the season. Pitt – Syracuse rematch at the garden????

Have a great Day All!!!

Golden SnowCast Forecast 11 Results

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on February 11, 2010
Posted in: The Golden SnowCast. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

With all the excitement with the snow storms, I forgot to post my results.

For the New York State forecast, I believed that one of the New York City reporting stations would have more total snow for the weekend than at least one of the Golden Snowball cities. The table below shows the snowfall for the NYC reporting stations and the GSB cities on Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Weekend Snowfall in New York State
City Saturday Sunday
GSB Cities with less snowfall than NYC: 5
Central Park Trace None
JFK 1.6 None
La Guardia Trace None
Albany None None
Binghamton None 0.4
Buffalo Trace Trace
Rochester 1.0 Trace
Syracuse None Trace

JFK had 1.6 total, and all the GSB cities had an inch or lower. So this forecast was correct. Interesting to note the difference between the 3 NYC stations, Central Park and La Guardia both having a trace while JFK had over an inch. Binghamton was the only city to report measurable snowfall on Sunday.

For the World forecast, I believed that at least 1 of Baltimore, MD, Newark, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC would have at least 10 inches of snow for the weekend. While it may look obvious that this held up, and wasn’t all that close, remember that a portion of the snow fell on Friday. The table below shows the snow totals for Saturday and Sunday for those cities, according to NWS.

Mid-Atlantic Snowfall
City Saturday Sunday
Cities with 10 inches or more: 2
Baltimore, MD 17.0 None
Newark, NJ 0.4 None
Philadelphia, PA 22.0 None
Pittsburgh, PA 9.7 Trace
Washington, DC 9.1 None

With Baltimore and Philadelphia over the threshold, this forecast was correct. Pittsburgh and Washington, DC almost broke through the 10 inch plateau as well. All but Newark broke snowfall records for February 6th. In case you were wondering, Newark’s record for February 6th was set in 1978 with 17.9 inches.

Golden SnowCast Results
Region Record Percentage
Overall 19-3 86.36%
NYS 9-2 81.82%
World 10-1 90.91%

Another two for two forecast, and I’m inching toward the 90% goal. I have changed the table a little bit, now showing the percentage for each region, in addition to the overall. Forecast 12 should be up tomorrow. Lately, Thursdays and Fridays have been days when I’m less busy, which is why I’ve done forecasts for the weekend, or days close to it, in the recent weeks.

Have a great end of the work week!

Golden SnowCast Forecast 11

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on February 4, 2010
Posted in: The Golden SnowCast. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

As a reminder for how this works, there are 2 predictions made in each forecast post. One is for anywhere within New York State and one is for somewhere else in the world. There will be no waffle words such as “chance of” or “possibility of” in the forecasts. So the forecasts have a lot of certainty to them. I’ll be keeping track of my progress throughout the season. The goal for the end of the season is 90%.

You can also take part in the forecasts with something we like to call Stump the Weather Chump. Reply to this, or any Golden SnowCast or Stump the Weather Chump post. Include the area and element you would like covered. Try to keep it something for 2-3 days in advance, but I’ll try to be flexible with each request.

For the New York State forecast, it’s a comparison with New York City and the Golden Snowball cities.

New York City will have more snowfall this weekend than at least one of the Golden Snowball cities.

I will be using the totals from Saturday and Sunday for verification. There are three NYC area reporting stations: Central Park, JFK and La Guardia. If one of those has more total snow for the weekend than either Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo Rochester or Syracuse, the forecast will be correct.

For the World forecast, it’s a look to the Mid-Atlantic region.

At least one of the five bigger Mid-Atlantic cities will have 10 inches or more of snow this weekend.

The five cities that will be used for this are Baltimore, MD, Newark, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC. If one ore more of those cities total at least 10 inches of snow for Saturday and Sunday, this forecast will be correct.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Golden SnowCast Forecast 4 Results

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on December 21, 2009
Posted in: The Golden SnowCast. Tagged: , , , , .

For the New York State forecast, I said that a majority of the Golden Snowball cities would have weekend low temperatures within 5 degrees of their Thursday high temperature. The table below compares Thursday’s highs with Saturday’s and Sunday’s lows as reported by the National Weather Service.

New York State Temperatures
City Thursday’s High Saturday’s Low Sunday’s Low
Cities with weekend low temperatures within 5 degrees of Thursday’s high: 2
Albany 22 8 12
Binghamton 19 15 17
Buffalo 22 19 22
Rochester 22 14 21
Syracuse 22 8 15

This one was a miss due to Saturday’s lows. Albany and Syracuse still were in the colder air early Saturday. That along with Rochester’s 8 degree difference proved to be this forecast’s doom. As a note, all of Saturday’s lows occurred very early in the day, with Albany’s low, the latest of the cities, being reported just after 6:30 am. Three out of the five cities were in range on Sunday, but at that point, the forecast was already a bust.

For the World forecast, I predicted that the four major cities in Pennsylvania will have snowfall range between a trace and a half an inch on Saturday. The table below shows how much snow each city received in the day, and compares it to the record for the day.

December 19th Pennsylvania Snow
City Previous Record Saturday Snowfall
Cities with snowfall between trace and half an inch: 0
Allentown 8.6 (1995) 5.4
Erie Not Available 1.3
Philadelphia 9.2 (1945) 21.0
Pittsburgh 4.8 (1982) 4.7

This one was a complete disaster. On Thursday morning, the idea was the storm would just graze the PA cities. However, on Thursday night/Friday morning (depending on what time zone you are in and what you consider night and morning), I realized that was not to be the case. At least I knew in advance my forecast would be wrong…now if I could only have noticed that before I made that forecast, I would have been in better shape. :lol: As an interesting note, Philadelphia’s December 19th record held for over 60 years was broken on Saturday, shattering it by almost a foot.

So, it was an 0-2 forecast for the week. Last week, I wondered if maybe it was time for a change with the forecasts. This week, I missed both. I guess that answers my question. :lol:

Golden SnowCast Results
Region Record
Overall Percentage: 62.5%
NYS 2-2
World 3-1
Overall 5-3

Missing both forecasts puts the percentage in the 60s. Now to reach my goal of 90%, I need to get 22 straight predictions (11 weeks worth) correct. As we’re entering the heart of the snow season, I doubt I’ll be able to reach the 90% goal. At this point, I’m just trying to avoid going back to 50% for the season.

Have a great week everyone!

The Snow Storm is Wrapping Up

Posted by Patrick on December 20, 2009
Posted in: All US Snow Cities, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , .

Ok! Most of the snowiest US city stats have been updated and man were there some changes. No to the top 10 are Philadelphia, Pa, Washington, (Dulles) and ummmm, errrr Baltimore, Maryland. Yup you read it right. There are still a couple to report though.

After that storm went through Philly, Pa picked up 23.2 inches of snow which I find kind of funny because my brother lives there and is from Syracuse originally. The part that is funny is that he always complains that Philly doesn’t get any snow. Well they finally get close to a couple of feet of snow and guess what. He is coming to Syracuse today where there is no snow. Bummer for him I guess :)

Baltimore was next with 22.2 inches of snowfall which has to be way over their annual snowfall totals I would think. When I have some tie I’ll try and see which cities are already over their annual snow totals already. The Dulles airport picked up 21 inches which is just as amazing as some of the other cities. Most of these stats were reported around 5:00 pm give or take a couple of hours so the chances are that there will be some changes come tomorrow once everything catches up.

The cities that fell out of the top 10 were Buffalo, New York, Madison Wisconsin, Green Bay and Omaha, Nebraska. I’m sure at least a couple of those cities won’t be out for too long.

Have a Super Week All!!!

Golden SnowCast Forecast 4

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on December 17, 2009
Posted in: The Golden SnowCast. Tagged: , , , , .

It’s starting to look and feel more like winter in New York State. There will be some warm up over the weekend, which brings us to the NYS forecast.

A majority of the Golden Snowball cities will have their Saturday and Sunday low temperatures be within 5 degrees of Thursday’s high.

This is sort of a blind forecast in that obviously Thursday’s high has not yet been set. I’m not sure if this is an indication of how cold Thursday will be, how much warmer the weekend will be, or a combination of both. Either way, for the forecast to be correct, both Saturday and Sunday’s low temperatures must be within 5 degrees of Thursdays high in at least 3 out of the 5 GSB cities.

For the World forecast, it’s a look at Pennsylvania.

All of the four of Pennsylvania’s major cities will have at least a trace, but no more than a half of an inch of snow on Saturday.

There will be snow in Pennsylvania. However, it looks to be no big deal, at least as far as PA’s major cities go. The four major cities in PA are Allentown, Erie, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. As long as snow accumulation on Saturday falls between a trace and a half of an inch in all four cities, this forecast will be correct.

Have a great end of the work week everyone!