The Snowiest Big Cities in the United States
All of the Snowiest Cities in the US Snow Stats Were Updated 6/30/2024 at 8:00 PM.
First off as always, a BIG Thanks to those who made donations so far this season. I truly Appreciate you taking the time and appreciate them. They help out a ton PayPal does accept most credit cards and Please let me know where you are from in the description box at Pay Pal OK, end of begging, and stay safe this snowy season
A Big Thanks For Your Donations This Season:
Below are most of the snowiest Big (pop – 100,000+) US cities and how much snow they have so far for the 2022 – 2023 snow season. We will try and update the snow stats as often as possible. There could be a few cities in the United States that we are missing. Feel free to contact us and we will try to locate their snowfall totals. For the time being, I keep an eye on about 90 cities throughout the snow season and try to update them as much as possible. Let’s face it, the snow season can be long. The GoldenSnowGlobe snow contest is just a way to have some fun and maybe speed up the Winter season a little.
The first number is the current place the city is on the snow mountain. The second number is where the city was on the last update. Just to give an idea of how the snowiest city is doing normally, within a week’s time.
Standings on 6/30 |
and Cities |
2010 City |
2023 – 2024 |
Average Snow |
1 | Anchorage, Alaska **** |
291,826 |
133.3 |
77.9 |
2 | Boulder, Colorado ** |
108,250 |
93.7 |
91.8 |
3 |
Lakewood, Colorado ** |
142,980 |
75.2 |
57.7 |
4 | Buffalo, New York |
261,310 |
71.3 |
95.4 |
5 | Syracuse, New York |
145,170 |
60.8 |
127.8 |
6 | Rochester, New York |
210,565 |
52.5 |
102.0 |
7 | Colorado Springs, Colorado ** |
416,427 |
50.6 |
32.5 |
8 | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
188,040 |
47.5 |
77.6 |
9 | Green Bay, Wisconsin * |
104,057 |
47.1 |
55.6 |
10 | Denver, Colorado ** |
600,158 |
44.6 |
??? |
11 | Madison, Wisconsin * |
233,209 |
43.3 |
51.8 |
12 | Worcester, Mass |
181,045 |
42.5 |
72.9 |
13 | Manchester, New Hampshire |
109,565 |
37.8 |
??? |
14 | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
113,934 |
37.2 |
61.4 |
15 | Boise, Idaho ** |
205,671 |
36.9 |
17.6 |
16 | Fort Collins, Colorado ** |
143,986 |
36.9 |
50.7 |
17 | Des Moines, Iowa * |
203,433 |
35.0 |
36.5 |
18 | Billings, Montana ** |
104,170 |
35.0 |
57.4 |
19 | Spokane, Washington *** |
208,916 |
32.6 |
45.4 |
20 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin * |
594,833 |
32.6 |
48.7 |
21 | Flint, Michigan |
102,434 |
32.0 |
52.1 |
22 | Lansing, Michigan |
114,297 |
30.7 |
50.2 |
23 | South Bend, Indiana |
101.168 |
30.3 |
64.5 |
24 | Minneapolis, Minnesota * |
382,578 |
29.5 |
51.2 |
25 | Reno, Nevada *** |
225,221 |
28.4 |
20.9 |
26 | Salt Lake City, Utah ** |
186,440 |
28.3 |
51.9 |
27 | Rockford, Illinois * |
152,871 |
27.3 |
37.1 |
28 | Cleveland, Ohio |
396,815 |
25.7 |
63.8 |
29 | Allentown, Pennsylvania * |
118,032 |
25.2 |
33.1 |
30 | Sioux Falls, South Dakota * |
153,888 |
25.2 |
45.3 |
31 | Erie, Pennsylvania |
101,786 |
24.8 |
104.3 |
32 | Hartford, Connecticut |
124,775 |
24.6 |
51.7 |
33 | Rochester, Minnesota * |
106,769 |
24.0 |
53.1 |
34 | Detroit, Michigan |
713,777 |
23.5 |
45.0 |
35 | Peoria, Illinois * |
115,007 |
23.0 |
26.2 |
36 | Pueblo, Colorado ** |
106,595 |
22.2 |
28.3 |
37 | Chicago, Illinois * |
2,695,598 |
22.2 |
38.4 |
38 | Provo, Utah ** |
112,488 |
19.8 |
44.9 |
39 | Omaha, Nebraska * |
408,958 |
19.7 |
27.1 |
40 | Providence, Rhode Island |
178,042 |
18.3 |
36.6 |
41 | Topeka, Kansas |
127,473 |
17.8 |
17.1 |
42 | Fargo, North Dakota * |
105,549 |
17.5 |
51.4 |
43 | Lincoln, Nebraska * |
258,379 |
16.4 |
26.0 |
44 | Pittsburgh, Pa |
305,704 |
16.3 |
44.1 |
45 | Bridgeport, Connecticut |
144,229 |
15.6 |
33.6 |
46 | Joliet, Illinois* |
147,433 |
15.2 |
16.9 |
47 | Akron, Ohio |
199,110 |
15.0 |
47.2 |
48 | Springfield, Illinois |
116,250 |
14.4 |
21.8 |
49 | Wichita, Kansas |
382,368 |
14.3 |
12.7 |
50 | Dayton, Ohio |
141,527 |
13.6 |
25.0 |
I believe that Flagstaff, Arizona has had over 115″ of snow this year.
Your list is not correct!!! Flagstaff, AZ has has 118 inches of snow this winter (09/10)!!!!
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Yeah, use Dulles Airport and list Fairfax County, VA. Over a million people…
National is always on the low side of the snow totals. Something about Congress being in session and hot air….
Washington DC, (Dulles Airport) should be on the list. Big variation from National Airport.
72.8 inches to date, 14.1 normal.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=ICAO:KIAD&almanac=1
I think that you should list the Dulles, Va statistics. The Northern Va area that it represents has over a million population and Dulles’ statistics are far more representive of the snowfall in this area than is National, which always records less snow than any other location in the NoVa/DC region.
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Yup, snows a little bit every day around here in Syracuse, including earlier today, so Baltimore won’t be up at the top for long.
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Baltimore # 1? I am now almost ashamed to say I’m from Syracuse!!
Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) Airport has recorded 79.9 inches as of 2010-Feb-11. BWI is in Linthicum. MD, a suburb of Baltimore.
I think your ranking for Grand Rapids is off (should be 11-7-7-7-7)
Just an FYI about Washington D.C. — changing the measurement from Dulles to National airport has a significant effect. For some reason (maybe being next to the Potomac River) National historically understates the snow totals recorded elsewhere in the area.
Also, D.C. total population is only about 10% of the DC / Va / Md / WVa counties that comprise the census bureau’s Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to Wikipedia, the 2008 population estimate was 5,358,130.
E, the number you see to the far right is what the normal snowfall for each city is as of the update. In other words as of yesterday Syracuse’s normal snowfall up until then is 75.3 and what from the national weather service stats Anchorage would be 46.6. Both cities just under their normals to date.
Jamie, Right now the golden snow globe contest is for cities with a population of 100,000 or more. Flagstaff according to wikipedia has a pop of 60,222. It looks like it’s a good season though with NOAA showing 106.9 inches to date
Sean, thanks and thanks for the heads up on the misspelling. I’ll fix it on the next update. BIG EAST ALL THE WAY BABY!!!!
Ed, when I first started throwing the site together I started using Wikipedia’s info for some of the cities. I ended up finding a page on Yahoo that had all of the cities with a population over 100,000 all together on one page and ran with it. I’ll be doing a lot of tweaking as the season goes on and in the off season as I have the time. The snow stats are accurate and from NOAA though
Paul, the numbers show what place the city has been in for the last 5 updates. The first being the most current update. I’m doing that so we can see which cities are piling on the snow and which are dropping down the snow mountain. Definitely a few surprises in there.
Very slow year for Syracuse, I kinda wish that storm to the south of us miraculously hits us haha.
What are the numbers in the first column?
DC Population is 599,657, according to the July 2009 census estimate (see DC’s wikipedia page).
Thank you for putting together this great information. However, I’m not aware of a Pittsburg, PA. Do you mean Pittsburgh, PA?
Check the Anchorage, Alaska annual. While the 2009-2010 total is right, the annual average should put the city up near Syracuse.
Why isn’t Flagstaff, AZ included on the list?
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Not sure what Matt’s talking about but here in Rochester,NY,we’ve gotten all the snow that’s been posted here and then some,…believe me.I live right around Rt.104 in the city,which is generally used as the cutoff guage between heavier and lesser snowfall amounts …and we’ve been hammered pretty good so far but nothing compared to the people who live right on the shoreline.Maybe he spent December in Florida and just forgot about it.
Matt, most of the people from Rochester that are posting at goldensnowball.com are saying the opposite. That where they are measuring the snow at the airport isn’t even close to how much snow has fallen else where in and around the city.
They must place the snow guage next to the snow fence. I live in Rochester and we’ve barely had a foot of snow this winter.
Nancy, too bad that there isn’t sledding anymore at Green Lakes. I know the hill was huge (when you’re a kid everything seems huge) and they had ropes to help you climb back up. You’re right Nancy four seasons is fun.
I’m from Fremont BTW and the Fremont elementary school is a popular place for the smaller kids to sled. It’s too bad they couldn’t come up with something for Westcott Hill
Patrick,
I have not seen any sledders at Green Lakes, Fayetteville NY in the past 20 years or more. Tubing at Four Seasons on route 5, east of the village of Fayetteville, is lots of fun, and sledding behind the Manlius Village Hall near the Swan Pond is good. For smaller kids sledding behind Fayetteville Elementary is also pretty good.
My favorite winter past time in Syracuse was hunkering down and watching SU hoops on TV.
BrandoKC, That is definitely my favorite past time Another good win for SU against Notre Dame tonight and now I’m watching Texas get ready to lose their 1st game of the season
Nancy, unfortunately I think the only winter activity I do is shovel I live about 5 minutes from Green Lakes and I keep trying to get some time to take a ride there and take some pictures. Hopefully the next good storm we get I will get a chance.
I wonder if Green Lakes still has sledding like they did when I was a kid???
When you live in the Syracuse area, finding a winter outdoor sport is key to loving life here. Cross country skiing at Green Lakes has been excellent. Hope it continues!
First off I’m sorry about the lack of responses to your comments everyone. Normally I get back ASAP but some stuff going on at the home front. That said all of your comments and input are appreciated.
CGHill, There are quite a few cities that I left out but I’ll be adding Oklahoma City to the update today. 14 inches is worthy enough I also had another request in an email to add them.
Cindy, that was a nice run we had huh? The best part is even the shoveling wasn’t bad because it was really light snow. No doubt cities that get the snow know how to deal with it like Da ‘Cuse does.
Mike, one of the hardest things to decide on with the smaller Golden Snowball contest was the end date. Mainly for the fact that if it is a super tight snow race the little bit of snow we get in April could decide the winner. I do like the April Fools date though and will keep it in mind. Thanks for the suggestion.
Tom, sorry but if there is any fund it will be to get this dude a snowblower :p I’m like you with just a shovel and a super cheap LIGHT one at that. Every year including this year I said I am going to get a snowblower. Then the days, weeks and months go by and I say well it’s too late now so why bother. One of these years though
Gerald, it was kind of strange seeing the like of NYC, Maryland, Philadelphia and some of the other normally low snow cities near the top. Just think, another Nor Easter or storm up the coast and they could be right back in the thick of the snow again.
Thanks for the comments everyone and keep them coming. Like I said they are all appreciated.
Tom, because Syracuse got off to a slow start this season, NYC was actually ahead of Syracuse three weeks ago.
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I meant the Central/Upstate NY metro areas, not NYC (not like they’d “beat” us anyways).
http://www.goldensnowball.com has the 5 NY state metro areas snowfalls and they seem to update it very frequently. I live in Syracuse, NY and I only have a shovel.
Anyone want to donate to the Tom Needs a Snowblower Fund? lol
Great contest–thanks for all the work you’re putting in–you asked for an “end date”–how about April 1st–kind of fits the day.
As a transplant from Syracuse to Atlanta, I am sitting here bracing for the “trace to 1″ that threatens to paralyze the north half of Georgia. What a difference.
Yay Syracuse and the ungodly amount of snow we get! Woohoo! It’s been steadily snowing every hour of everyday for the past week. This morning the weatherman said “It’s nothing we can’t handle” and not a single school has been closed. We rock. B-)
Oklahoma City (2008 population 551,789) got 14 inches of snow in December, though none so far in January.
Typical snowfall for an entire winter is 9 inches.
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Hey Patrick,
Overland Park, Olathe, and Kansas City, KS are all part of the KCMO metro. Think of them like Liverpool, Solvay, and Dewitt only larger.
Here’s a little more in depth info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Metropolitan_Area
Not that any of them will be taking the Golden Snowball
Brandon
Jill, Ah your right on the second post I keep meaning to explain that but keep forgetting to. I’ll do it right now
Ah – or is that number the ranking from the previous update?
OK, maybe my brain isn’t working 100% right now because I literally spent *all day* shoveling the two feet of snow that fell in my driveway because my snow blower decided to go on strike. Or die. I don’t know which one it is yet. But anyway, what is the second number for in that first column? Last year’s ranking? Probably once you give the answer, I’ll smack myself in the forehead and say “Duh!”
It’s great to see three of New York’s cities in the top ten!
BrandoKC, Thanks for the heads up and for the link to the weather blog
I have several cities from a few different states that I have been unable to find stats for. I’m trying to stick with just NOAA stats which are considered official but I may have to compromise at least until the end of the season when I can see if NOAA can verify them. Right now the cities I have for Kansas with a population over 100,000 are:
Wichita
Overland Park???
Kansas City???
Topeka
Olathe???
I won’t pretend to be a Geography major so one of the problems I am having is I can’t find Kansas City, KS but I do show Kansas City, MO. Am I missing something? Thanks again for the help BrandoKC, it’s appreciated
I see you have Independence, MO and Kansas City, KS on the list but not Olathe, KS.
Olathe had an estimated population of 118,034 in 2007 per Wikipedia.
Now all of the cities are part of the greater Kansas City, MO metropolitan area, so it may not be necessary to break them all down.
The local NBC affiliate has an excellent weather blog. You could try there, if you would like to get accurate snowfall amounts for all of the cities.
You can find it here: http://community.nbcactionnews.com/blogs/weatherblog/default.aspx
One last thing…Go Syracuse!!! Take that Golden Snowball!!
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