Tag Archives: us weather

The Big 3 From New York Lead The Snow Race

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I finally got a full update in and the top 10 snowiest cities shifted around quite a bit. Boston was pushed out of the top 10 by Green Bay, Wi who has been on the move the last few updates. Three cities from New York are in the 1, 2, 3 spots on the snow mountain.

Buffalo managed to move up to third place which is a little bit of a surprise seeing how they are in 4th place over at goldensnowball.com which is a contest between 5 cities in NY. Binghamton, NY holds the #3 spot there with Buffalo in 4th place. Right now it’s Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo holding the top 3 but other than Syracuse it’s still pretty close between several cities for 2nd place on the mountain. I’m pretty sure that Syracuse has this seasons Golden Snow Globe wrapped up :) We still have to wait a bit because it snows forever in Colorado. Not that they have a shot but just in case.

I’ll probably only be doing a couple more full updates but will try like I always say to at least get more top 10 snowiest city stats updated than I have been doing.

Hey, have a super week all ;)

Just Updated The Top 10 Snowiest US Cities

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We just did an update on the top 10 snowiest US cities only. I went back about 30 cities just to make sure. I’ll try and get all of the cities updated sometime today.

Right now one thing is on my mind and that’s the NC DOUBLE A Baby. Brackets to fill out still and this NCAA tournament should be a tough one to pick. I think the reason being I really don’t see any stand out teams that are wayyyy above the rest. No doubt there are a few that may seem to stand out but I think this tourney is going to be known for the tournament of upsets if you can even call it that. More to come and GO SYRACUSE – GO BIG EAST and I’m not talking snow either :)

Have a Super Day All!

Michigan Cities Climbing the Snow Mountain – Just Updated the Snowiest US Cities

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Well you called it dead on Joe :) Joe left a comment that Detroit was on the move and the had enough snow to jump past Chicago and NYC like Joe mentioned. I think what’s even more impressive is that all of the Michigan cities have a pretty good competition going on between them. Just as impressive is that the Michigan cities like Flint, Ann Arbor and Detroit are hanging in there with the big dog Grand Rapids ;) WTG!

Syracuse, NY still holds a commanding lead and no doubt it’s going to take an act of it’s not nice to fool mother nature in order for another city to jump ahead at this point I believe. Is it posible? Sure but it’s getting late in the snow season and it’s getting more unlikely that it will happen. I think after the above average snow season that most of the cities have had the question is does anyone want to really beat them now? Do you want another 50, 60, 100 inches more to beat them :) Plus Syracuse is under a storm warning right now with another 8 – 12 inches expected today. OK, enough said and check out Stephens Shot in the Dark Forecast below.

Have a SUPER week all ;)

The Snowiest City Snow Stats Are Updated, Finally Huh

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I finally got my lazy butt around to doing an update. OK, it wasn’t so much as being lazy as it was to having bronchitis which kicked my butt. Then I had to get caught up on my other work (real job) but now I’m good to go again I think ;) Anyways, sorry about that and I was just as curious as most of you as to how the stats look after 2 weeks of no update. Not a whole lot happened to be honest and I was a little disappointed.

There was a little bit of shuffling in the top 10 but it’s the same snowiest cities in there. None of the top 10 dropped out. What I noticed this update is how widespread the snow was. Other than a handful or two of the cities we have listed almost all of them are over their average snowfall for the season. At least the ones I could find stats for.

Syracuse continues to climb higher on the snow mountain and with winter rounding the corner to the finish line they may reach the peak of the mountain where no other city can catch them. I think we may be talking about at least a few good storms for any of the cities to have a snowballs chance. So in other words, get out there and do a snow dance or two so we can get this contest close :)

Have a Super Week All!

Syracuse, New York Snowiest City in US Population 100,000 Plus

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It’s officially unofficial that the snowiest city in the United States is Syracuse, NY.  Lets just hope I didn’t blow it this time.  Remember the Washington, DC Big Oooops :)   Anyways I’ve looked and looked, talked and talked to several people and everything is pointing to Syracuse being the King of the snow mountain for the 2009 – 2010 snow season.  The stats below are as of earlier today which is May 15th and this date seems to be a good cutoff date for the National Snow Contest.  A couple of the bigger Colorado cities did just get some snow added to their totals but it isn’t enough to knock off Da Cuse.  If anyone out there has any info on a snowier big city than Syracuse, pop 100,000 or more please let us know by emailing us at comments@goldensnowglobe.com .

I did talk to a couple of people from a couple of stations for NOAA, the national weather service and they both seemed to also think the stats should be right.  That said there is always that chance that we have missed a city this being the first annual Golden Snow Globe contest and kind of a test run for the first season.  Below you can see what we came up with for the top 10 snowiest BIG cities.  There is no doubt that it was pretty time consuming but the fun comments from all of you and just the competition of all of the cities competing for bragging rights made it worthwhile.   Being the first season of the contest all I can say is I hope I got it right with calling is Syracuse, NY. 

Steven, our Golden Snow Cast master did an awesome job with his forecasts.  I think he came out at being something like 90 + percent right which is pretty good.  Hey he is looking for a job in meteorology, forecasting, mapping, burger flipping or whatever you have for him.  OK, I’m kidding about the burger flipping kind of jobs but he is a graduate of State College and he knows his stuff.  Thanks Steven for all the time and hard work you put into the site this season.

More to come on how the snow season went and look for some improvements come next season including getting a lot of the populations up to date and hopefully some cool contests and prizes for our visitors.  There were a lot of good suggestions from quite a few people and we will be adding some of them next season.  Thanks again to all of you and to those of you who made this a fun contest by posting and emailing.

Top 10 Snowiest Cities in the United States Last Updated 5/15/2010

 

 US States and Cities

City Population

2009 – 2010
Snowfall Totals

Normal
Snowfall to Date
1-36 Syracuse, New York

141,683

106.3

111.9
2-17 Erie, Pa

102,612

91.4

91.7
3-2 Lakewood, Colorado

140,671

90.6

???
4-10 Rochester, New York

211,091

90.2

100.3
5-1 Fort Collins, Colorado

128,026

88.7

???
6-6 Philadelphia, Pa

1,463,281

78.7

19.3
7-45 Pittsburgh, Pa

316,718

77.4

40.6
8-7 Baltimore, Maryland

635,815

77.0

18.2
9-5 Anchorage, Alaska

275,043

74.6

69.5
10-14 Buffalo, New York

279,745

74.1

97.0

We’ll try to get a summary posted on how the cities started, finished and how some of the cities like Baltimore, Washington, DC, Pitt and others came out of nowhere to land in the top 10 at certain times during the contest.

Have a Great Weekend All!

Still Working the Phones of NOAA

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The snow stats have been updated as of April 30th! Read below about calling it a wrap!

I’m still trying to make sure we call this contest right and have had a couple of conversations with some people from Noaa at a couple different weather stations.  From what I gathered is that if the city isn’t coming up with snow stats on NOAA the chances are there isn’t a weather station for that city and whatever comes in is probably from snow spotters.  I’ve said it sever time how much I respect what snow spotters do and the time they put into it but we are going to go with cities that have NOAA weather stations.

I talked with Chad Gimmestad from the Colorado NOAA station and got some really good input from him.  Thanks Chad for taking the time :)   I’ve come up with a date that should be safe enough to call the contest or hopefully safe enough to anyways.  We wanted to go with May 1st which is when we call the smaller snow contest at goldensnoball.com but seeing how the national snow contest involves many more cities we have decided to extend it just a little longer.  Colorado and a couple of other states are pretty much the last to receive snowfall so we decided to base it on that.  Snow is in the forecast for some of the Colorado cities depending on the temps for the next day or two and it could turn out to be a significant snow event.  With that said, the date is picked and it is soon so stay tuned is all I can say while I keep working the phones to make sure we get it right.  Of course there is always a chance we don’t and look like the normal fools we really are trying to have a fun contest.

Cheers and Have a great week all.

Syracuse is Looking Like The National Snow Champ Butttt

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I still need to get some stats for a few cities that have me concerned. Mainly some of the Colorado cities not listed here because I haven’t been able to find snow stats on them plus a couple of others. In other words I’m being a sissy man in calling Syracuse the winner just yet. I will get a hold of everyone I need to and make an announcement next week. Yeah I know I’m a wimp but I would rather get it right for the first annual national snow contest for cities with a population of 100,000 or more. Just a bit longer.

Cheers, Patrick

2009-10 Golden SnowDown: 1-50

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At last, it’s time to reveal the top 50 NWS reporting stations.

Rankings 11-50
Rank Location City Population Season Snowfall
11 Burlington, VT 38,889 91.0
12 Rochester, NY 219,773 89.6
13 Cheyenne, WY 53,011 87.3
14 Mansfield, OH 49,579 84.1
15 Binghamton, NY 47,380 81.4
16 Bluefield, VA 5,078 81.1
17 Philadelphia, PA 1,517,550 78.7
18 Pittsburgh, PA 334,563 77.4
19 Baltimore, MD 651,154 77.0
20 Youngstown, OH 82,026 75.7
21 Buffalo, NY 292,648 74.1
22 Cold Bay, AK 74 74.0
23 Muskegon, MI 40,105 73.6
24 Washington (Dulles), DC 572,059 73.2
25 Wilmington, DE 72,664 72.7
26 Scottsbluff, NE 14,732 72.4
27 Grand Rapids, MI 197,800 72.2
28 Caribou, ME 8,312 69.6
29 Des Moines, IA 198,682 69.0
30 Sault Ste. Marie, MI 16,542 68.8
31 Casper, WY 49,644 64.9
32 Worcester, MA 172,648 64.6
33 Akron, OH 217,074 63.1
34 Juneau, AK 30,711 62.2
35 Charleston, WV 53,421 61.3
35 Duluth, MN 86,918 61.3
37 Valley, NE 1,788 60.6
38 Anchorage, AK 260,283 60.5
39 North Platte, NE 23,878 60.2
40 Sioux City, IA 8,2807 59.8
40 Allentown, PA 106,632 59.8
42 Cleveland, OH 478,403 59.5
43 Sisseton, SD 2,572 59.3
44 Denver, CO 554,636 58.8
45 Watertown, SD 20,237 58.6
46 Riverton, WY 9,310 58.4
47 Atlantic City, NJ 40,517 58.1
48 Harrisburg, PA 48,950 57.3
48 South Bend, IN 107,789 57.3
50 Sioux Falls, SD 123,975 57.1

You didn’t believe I’d just reveal the top 10 that way, did you? Big surprise for me among the 40 listed is Cheyenne, WY almost cracking the top 10, coming in 13th. A little humorous to me is Cold Bay Alaska, population 74, has 74 inches, one inch per person. Probably won’t see that again any time soon. Now, here are the top 10:

10. Ely, NV: 91.1
Ely’s population is 4,041 and just snuck in ahead of Burlington, VT and has the most snow among the Nevada cities.

9. Erie, PA: 91.4
Erie, population 103,717, the 2nd place city among those with population over 100,000 comes in 9th among all NWS sites.

8. Lander, WY: 102.4
Lander, population 6,867, has the most snow among Wyoming sites.

7. Elkins, WV: 104.7
Elkins, population 7,032, is 7th overall, but is 2nd among West Virginia stations.

6. Syracuse, NY: 106.1
Syracuse, with a population of 147,036, having the most snow among cities with population over 100,000, is 6th place.

5. Yakutat, AK: 107.1
Yakutat, population 680, is the top city among those with population under 1,000.

4. Beckley, WV: 132.9
Beckley’s population is 17,254 and has the most snow among West Virginia sites.

3. Flagstaff, AZ: 141.8
As mentioned in the previous post, Flagstaff, with population 52,894 is not the top city, but does have the most among cities with a population of 50,000 or more.

2. Marquette, MI: 145.6
Marquette, population 19,661, has the most snow among those with a population of 5,000 or more and is in 2nd place overall.

1. Valdez, AK: 293.3
Valdez, population 4,036, with almost 300 inches of snow, claims the top spot among all NWS sites.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this countdown for the season among all NWS sites. Remember, all snowfall data is from early April, and population statistics are from the most recent estimates available from city-data.com.

Have a great week everyone!

2009-10 Golden SnowDown: 51-100

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As we are closer to revealing the season’s snowiest National Weather Service stations, here are the ones that fell in the 51-100 ranking range.

Rankings 51-100
Rank Location City Population Season Snowfall
51 Washington (Reagan), DC 572,059 56.1
52 Bangor, ME 31,473 55.7
53 Norfolk, NE 23,516 55.0
54 Chicago, IL 2,896,016 54.2
55 Bismark, ND 55,532 54.1
56 Islip, NY 20,575 53.8
57 Blacksburg, VA 39,573 53.6
58 Waterloo, IA 68,747 52.8
59 Rochester, MN 85,806 52.5
60 Kodiak, AK 6,334 52.0
61 Concord, NH 42,255 51.8
62 New York (Central Park), NY 8,008,278 51.4
63 Great Falls, MT 56,690 51.0
63 Billings, MT 89,847 51.0
65 Rockford, IL 150,115 50.7
65 Madison, WI 208,054 50.7
67 Huron, SD 11,893 50.6
67 Columbus, OH 711,470 50.6
69 Jackson, KY 2,490 50.5
70 Elko, NV 16,708 50.3
71 Davenport, IA 98,359 50.1
72 Scranton, PA 76,415 48.5
73 Mitchell, SD 14,558 48.0
74 Newark, NJ 273,546 47.9
75 Omaha, NE 390,007 47.6
76 Grand Forks (University), ND 49,321 47.3
77 New York (LaGuardia), NY 8,008,278 47.2
78 Moline, IL 43,088 46.9
79 Fargo, ND 90,599 46.6
80 International Falls, MN 6,703 46.4
81 Hastings, NE 24,064 45.5
82 Chanhassen, MN 20,321 45.4
82 Albany, NY 95,658 45.4
84 Flint, MI 124,943 45.1
85 King Salmon, AK 442 44.7
86 Grand Island, NE 42,940 44.5
87 Kansas City, MO 441,545 44.3
88 Detroit, MI 951,270 43.7
89 Alpena, MI 11,304 43.5
90 Nome, AK 3,505 43.4
90 Pierre, SD 13,876 43.4
92 Dubuque, IA 57,686 43.3
93 Mobridge, SD 3,574 43.2
94 Roanoke, VA 94,911 43.1
95 Green Bay, WI 102,313 43.0
96 Lansing, MI 119,128 42.6
97 Mason City, IA 29,172 42.5
98 Peoria, IL 112,936 42.4
99 Rhinelander, WI 7,735 42.3
100 Lincoln, NE 225,581 41.6

Albany, having the least snow among the Golden Snowball cities, is in a tie for 82nd place in the country. It’s also a bit interesting to see the differences among cities with multiple reporting stations. For example, New York City’s Central Park station is in 62nd place, while La Guardia in 77th and JFK was on the previous post at 101. Grand Forks’ North Dakota University station is in 76th but the airport was 134th. Washington, DC’s Reagan is 51st, with Dulles yet to be revealed. Just goes to show how much difference a few miles can make. That is the beauty, and the beast, of the system.

In the final update, the top 50 will be shown. Who is #1? It’s not Syracuse, NY…or Flagstaff, AZ.

2009-10 Golden SnowDown: 101-150

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Continuing the trek toward the snowiest National Weather Service reporting station, here are the next 50 cities on the list.

Rankings 101-150
Rank Location City Population Season Snowfall
101 New York (JFK), NY 8,008,278 41.3
102 Topeka, KS 122,377 40.7
102 Minneapolis, MN 382,618 40.7
104 Rapid City (Downtown), SD 59,607 40.1
105 Huntington, WV 51,475 40.0
105 Dayton, OH 166,179 40.0
107 La Crosse, WI 51,818 39.8
108 Dalhart, TX 7,237 39.7
109 Barrow, AK 4,581 39.3
110 Asheville, NC 68,889 39.2
111 Toledo, OH 313,619 39.1
112 Kalispell, MT 14,223 39.0
113 St. Joseph, MO 73,990 38.7
114 Cincinnati, OH 331,285 38.4
115 Bridgeport, CT 139,529 38.1
116 Milwaukee, WI 596,974 38.0
117 McGrath, AK 401 37.8
117 Aberdeen, SD 24,658 37.8
119 Rapid City (Airport), SD 59,607 37.7
120 Havre, MT 9,621 37.3
121 Eau Claire, WI 61,704 37.1
121 Portland, ME 64,249 37.1
123 Boston, MA 589,141 35.7
124 Kotzebue, AK 3,082 35.2
125 Goodland, KS 4,948 35.1
126 Williamsport, PA 30,706 34.9
127 Lynchburg, VA 65,269 34.8
128 Concordia, KS 5,714 34.7
129 Iowa City, IA 62,220 34.4
130 Reno, NV 180,480 34.3
131 Bethel, AK 5,471 34.2
132 Salt Lake City, UT 181,743 33.8
133 Indianapolis, IN 781,870 33.0
134 Grand Forks (Airport), ND 49,321 32.1
135 Providence, RI 173,168 31.5
135 Colorado Springs, CO 360,890 31.5
137 Clayton, NM 2,524 31.2
138 Williston, ND 12,512 30.9
139 St. Cloud, MN 59,107 30.8
140 Houghton, MI 7,010 30.7
141 Hartford, CT 121,578 30.6
142 Alamosa, CO 7,960 30.0
143 Glasgow, MT 3,253 29.7
144 Guymon, OK 10,472 29.6
145 Wausu, WI 38,426 29.5
146 Fort Wayne, IN 205,727 29.3
147 Amarillo, TX 173,627 28.9
148 Pueblo, CO 102,121 28.8
149 Pocatello, ID 51,466 28.3
150 Richmond, VA 197,790 28.0

Once again, the surprises to me are the cities in Alaska and Colorado being so low. Other than that, this table of 50 cities has more northern representation than the previous two posts, which was bound to happen at some point.

The next update will showcase the cities in the 51-100 range. At least one of them is a Golden Snowball city.

Have a great weekend everyone!