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

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

Continuing the look at snowfall throughout the United States, here are the next 50 cities in the list.

I did not expect cities in Colorado or Montana to be this far down on the list, and yet, here they are at 154, 155 and 173. There is another Alaska city fairly down the rankings as well, Fairbanks in 156. Other than that, this seems to be as expected, most of the cities in this ranking area are in the southern portion of the country.

The next SnowDown update will feature rankings 101-150. More northern cities will be shown, including one from New York State.

Without further delay, here is the bottom 52 of the 2009-10 Golden SnowDown:

There are a few surprises to this list. First off, only one official reporting station in California reported measurable snowfall for the season (as of early April): Campo with 1 inch. I know some parts of California can get a lot of snowfall, but apparently none of them are official measurements. Second, I did not expect to see any Alaska cities to be in the 100s, let alone the 200s. However, Annette is there, ranked 202.

Congrats to New Orleans on being the city with the least measurable snowfall for the season!

Next SnowDown update will feature cities ranked 151-200. Colorado is known for snow, and yet, one of their cities fell in that range, as well as another Alaskan city.

With the comments on the All Snowiest Cities page about Flagstaff, AZ (among others), I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at how the smaller cities stack up to the cities with a population of 100,000 or more. Before I begin revealing the results, here is some background on the criteria I have set.

First, all snowfall stats are from the National Weather Service. If a city does not have NWS stats, I did not include them on the list. Second, to make the list, a city must have measurable snowfall shown. That is anything 0.1 or more for the season. If a city has missing data, trace amounts, or no snowfall, they were not included in the list. Third, population does not matter. If a site meets the first two criteria, it’s going to be listed, whether it has a population of 100 or 100,000 or 100,000,000. Population data is taken for the city listed on the NWS site. If it is a multiple city area (such as Scranton/Wilkes Barre), the first name listed counts. This is just for quick statistics purposes and has no barring on the results. Finally, a city that has multiple reporting stations will have all sites included. For example, I consider New York City to have 3 sites: Central Park, JFK and La Guardia airports. All three will count separately as New York (Central Park), New York (JFK) and New York (La Guardia) with population data for New York City.

All snowfall statistics were taken the first week of April. With over 250 cities making the list, and having my course work start up again soon, I would rather not go through all cities another round, especially since most of the cities have not seen substantial snowfall since the start of the month.

In the next few days, I will begin revealing the results of the 2009-10 Golden SnowDown. I couldn’t come up with a better name, it’s a snowfall showdown, so put it together and that’s what you get. If you have a better name for it, then you’re just more creative than I am.