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All posts for the month March, 2010

Golden SnowCast Forecast 15

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on March 9, 2010
Posted in: The Golden SnowCast. Tagged: , , , , , .

Last week was my bye week. Let’s see if the week off helps me with my predictions, or if it will lead to rusty picks.

It’s a bit of a warm stretch now in the upstate New York region, so the New York State forecast involves a temperature forecast for the GSB cities.

All of the Golden Snowball cities will have high temperatures 5 degrees above average, with at least one city topping average highs by at least 10 degrees, on either Thursday or Friday.

It’s one of the rare forecasts where there are two standards going on at once. First off, all five of the GSB cities must be 5 degrees above average on either day. In addition, at least one of those cities must be above average by 10 degrees or more on either Thursday or Friday. These do not have to occur on the same day for the forecast to be correct.

For the World forecast, it’s a rain prediction for Maryland and Pennsylvania.

At least one of the five major reporting stations in Maryland and Pennsylvania will receive a half an inch or more of rain on either Thursday or Friday.

The five reporting stations that will be used are Baltimore, MD, and Pennsylvania’s Allentown, Erie, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. If one of these five cities report at least 0.5 inches of rain on either Thursday or Friday, this forecast will be correct.

Have a great week everyone!

NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Expansion?

Posted by Patrick on March 5, 2010
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: .

I’m stepping out of my usual role once again, and this time it’s to something COMPLETELY off topic. But it is one of my other passions, so it’s good enough for me.

On yesterday’s On The Block, a local radio program on WSKO 1260 (simulcast on Time Warner Cable Sports), the host Brent Axe spent a good portion of time talking about the possibility of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament expanding to 96 teams. I sent an email to the show, and it actually was read on the air. So here is that e-mail:

I am not completely against expansion. Division I has one of, if not the lowest percentage of teams that get to the tournament out of the major sports. Even with expansion, the percentage of teams will still be lower than most, so the sense of accomplishment will still be there. However, there would be a right way and a wrong way to expand. If they simply add 31 more “at large” teams, that would be a mistake and I wouldn’t be interested in that. Right now, in all conferences not named Ivy League, the regular season championship does not mean much. That would change if the 31 added spots went to conference regular season champions. If the regular season champion and tournament champion are the same (or if your conference doesn’t have a tournament), then the 2nd automatic bid goes to the #2 regular season team.

So, what are your thoughts on the possible tournament expansion?

NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Expansion?

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on March 5, 2010
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: .

I’m stepping out of my usual role once again, and this time it’s to something COMPLETELY off topic. But it is one of my other passions, so it’s good enough for me.

On yesterday’s On The Block, a local radio program on WSKO 1260 (simulcast on Time Warner Cable Sports), the host Brent Axe spent a good portion of time talking about the possibility of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament expanding to 96 teams. I sent an email to the show, and it actually was read on the air. So here is that e-mail:

I am not completely against expansion. Division I has one of, if not the lowest percentage of teams that get to the tournament out of the major sports. Even with expansion, the percentage of teams will still be lower than most, so the sense of accomplishment will still be there. However, there would be a right way and a wrong way to expand. If they simply add 31 more “at large” teams, that would be a mistake and I wouldn’t be interested in that. Right now, in all conferences not named Ivy League, the regular season championship does not mean much. That would change if the 31 added spots went to conference regular season champions. If the regular season champion and tournament champion are the same (or if your conference doesn’t have a tournament), then the 2nd automatic bid goes to the #2 regular season team.

So, what are your thoughts on the possible tournament expansion?

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!

Golden SnowCast Forecast 14 Results

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on March 3, 2010
Posted in: The Golden SnowCast. Tagged: , , , , , , .

For the New York State forecast, I believed that a majority of the Golden Snowball cities would have above freezing temperatures for either Monday or Tuesday. The table below shows the high temperatures for both days, as reported by the National Weather Service.

New York State High Temperatures
City Monday Tuesday
GSB Cities with high temperatures within above freezing: 5
Albany 42 45
Binghamton 35 39
Buffalo 36 36
Rochester 37 38
Syracuse 37 40

All five were above freezing, so the forecast was correct. Albany was the hot spot to be among the five, as both days high temperatures were well into the 40s. Buffalo was the only one within 5 degrees of freezing on both days.

For the World forecast, I predicted that at least 3 out of 5 New England NWS stations would have measurable snowfall on either Monday or Tuesday. The table below shows the NWS snowfall reports.

New England Snowfall
City Monday Tuesday
Cities with measurable snowfall: 2
Bridgeport, CT None None
Boston, MA 0.2 None
Hartford, CT None None
Providence, RI Trace Trace
Worcester, MA 0.5 None

The streak has come to an end, unfortunately. None of the five had measurable snowfall on Tuesday, and only 2 of them had 0.1 or more on Monday. That means only 2 had measurable snowfall on either day. Providence was the only one to have some sort of snowfall on both days, but each was just a trace.

Golden SnowCast Results
Region Record Percentage
Overall 24-4 85.71%
NYS 12-2 85.71%
World 12-2 85.71%

This week was a split, so the percentage went down a little bit. The New York State and World forecasts now have the same percentage, just over 85%. If my plan to have 20 forecasts holds up, there is no room for error to reach the 90% target.

Have a great rest of the week!

Clearing Up a Few Tidbits

Posted by GSG Fantasy Snowfall on March 2, 2010
Posted in: All US Snow Cities. Tagged: .

I figured it would be worthwhile for me to step out of my usual role and make this post regarding a few issues.

First off, the lack of updates. There is a post over on the New York State Golden Snowball site regarding that. As another note, I am not an admin, nor do I want to be at this time, so I can’t make the updates either. I’ve been fairly busy with work and online classes, so even if I was able to make updates, I am not sure how often those would have occurred. I will be done with my latest course by the end of the month, so with any luck I’ll be able to make more posts at that time.

Also, I’ve noticed comments about Flagstaff, AZ. Yes, they have more snow than Syracuse. However, part of the criteria for making the list is having a population size of 100,000 or more. Their population a bit short of that, so that is why they are not on the list. Pat will have to explain why the threshold is in place, instead of using all NWS sites, when that time comes. I have an idea of why, but it would be better if it came from him, especially if my thought is not correct. ;) For now, part of what I’d like to do when I’m done with my course is to have a ranking of the cities that are short of the threshold, but do have National Weather Service reports. I’d also use reports from stations that aren’t used on our official listing, like Dulles for Washington, DC. I figure it could be similar to the former WOW contest on the Golden Snowball site.

With this being the first year of this contest, we’re all working out the kinks. Things haven’t quite gone as planned on my end, as I would have liked to taken more of a reporting role like I did earlier with the first snow storm that hit the mid-Atlantic states and snow in Arizona. Perhaps I’ll be able to do that more next season when my program should be completed. We’re using everything that has happened this season as a learning experience to make the future seasons’ contests go as smoothly as possible.

Thanks for your understanding in all this and have a great week!