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All posts for the month May, 2015

How Lowell, Ma Moved into 1st in National Snow Contest

Posted by Patrick on May 18, 2015
Posted in: All US Snow Cities. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Updated 5/18/2015 - First as always I want to give a Big Thanks to Stephanie S. for your recent donation to the snow site and to all of you that have donated throughout the season. I really appreciate you taking the time and it helps out a lot, Thanks

I had a chance this weekend to talk to Kim Buttrick who is the person in charge of the CoOps at the Boston NWS office about Lowell, Ma’s snow stats. The obvious question was why did Lowell’s snow totals rise a couple of inches and to find out if it was was I thought, an adjustment or correction from a previous date.

I’ve talked to Kim a couple of times and she is such a nice person and really takes the time to clarify things for me. This time she went over all of the data that was reported along with explaining to me how it works as far as getting reports from Lowell which explained a lot ;)

Kim told me that the person that takes the measurements for Lowell, MA which are recorded at the Water Treatment Plant there will punch in the numbers each day using the phone. There are times when mistakes are made punching in the snow data and that is why they also fill out a manual form so that they have a hard copy of it also.

Kim then compares the data that was punched in by phone with the hard copy form that she receives each month with the written snow totals. She then makes any corrections or adjustment that need to be made. I see several NWS Offices making adjustments for several cities throughout the season and always have since I have been keeping the snow totals for the cities. Obviously the reason this one stands out so much is because the correction put Lowell in the lead. There is no conspiracy going on by the NWS and I can assure you they have no interest in the snow contest or the outcome of it ;)

Kim told me that there were a few corrections throughout the season for Lowell but the two that made the difference were what I posted below. March 22nd a correction was made and 1.5 inches of snow was added. Another was made on March 29th where 0.5 inches was added to Lowell’s snow totals. The math adds up giving Lowell the 2 new inches of snow which put them in the lead as of my last update.

A Big Thank You Kim for helping us out and explaining how things work with the NWS and also for taking the time to do so. Thanks Kim :)

OK, now that the controversy is cleared up it’s time to talk about when the snow contest ends. Normally I will call it a wrap by now but with the lead only half an inch I don’t feel comfortable calling it yet. IMO the chances are pretty good that the snowfall is over for Lowell, Worcester and Syracuse but I think I am going to ride it out a little longer. It’s been a pretty funky snow season for a lot of cities and I want to make sure the funkiness is over ;) For now Lowell is in the lead and stay tuned for any update or maybe even some more adjustments ;)

Have an Awesome Day Everyone :)

Buh Bye Worcester and Syracuse, Lowell, Ma Leads Snow Contest

Posted by Patrick on May 13, 2015
Posted in: All US Snow Cities. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

First as always I want to give a Big Thanks to John A. for your recent donation to the snow site and to all of you that have donated throughout the season. I really appreciate you taking the time and it helps out a lot
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Congrats to Lowell, Massachusetts on taking the lead in the National snow contest. Yup, you read it right and Lowell is the new leader right now in the 2014-2015 Golden Snow Globe snowiest Big city in the US contest.

Contrary to what you may have read in a few articles, the snow contest goes on like it or not until the last snow flake falls :) . Yes, the National snow contest is still going on and while you all have been enjoying the warm weather I am still sitting at the computer crunching numbers. OK, not really and I am enjoying the nice weather but I do check the snow stats every now and then.

I’ve have been checking the snow stats every now and then and for whatever reason had a feeling that Lowell was going to have some kind of adjustment to their snow totals. This happens with a lot of the cities throughout the snow season and adjustments were made a few times this season with Lowell, Ma.. I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been snowing there so no doubt adjustments were made.

I took a look back to see if I could tell when the adjustments were made. The best I could come up with is that perhaps snow was added for the dates of March 22nd and March 29th. On March 22nd Lowell shows 1.5 inches of snow and on March 29th there is 0.5 inches being reported. Tha would add up to the 2.0 inches of new snow that must have been added to Lowell’s snow totals.

Syracuse, NY and Worcester, Ma were in a tie for the top spot in the snow contest up until this last update. I don’t think Syracuse and Worcester natives are going to be happy campers getting bumped down a spot after camping out on top of the snow mountain together since around April 24th.

Frost is on the forecast for tonight in parts of the North East and it will be interesting to see if any of the cities can throw in some snow while it’s that cold. Hard to believe that some of the cities are going from 80+-degree weather to maybe below freezing in a matter of a day or two.

Will there be anymore adjustment or snow falling? Stay Tuned, The Snow Contest Lives and Congrats to Lowell on Taking the Lead ;)