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.
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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 |
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You might want to update soon! Cordova Alaska has had 18 feet so far this year, Anchorage only about 90 inches
Hi Dayna,
I’ve been hearing and watching the snow on one of the news stations here in Syracuse about Cordova. That’s a lot of snow and from what they have been saying it’s been nonstop for awhile now. We have a few places here in NY that normally get that much snow but I don’t think they are even close to that amt this season. I should be able to get an update in sometime this weekend or later today and my guess is that Anchorage will still have the lead and most likely will gain on all of the cities. Thanks for the heads up
Cordova, Whittier, Valdez all have record snow, but their population is way below 100,000.
I happened across this. It’s funny, everyone kept mentioning Flagstaff, AZ; then all the other people would discard it as not meeting the population threshold. Flagstaff has over 125K in the city proper. Most of that in the last 10 years, but still..90 miles north of the hottest big city in the US (PHX), is one of the snowiest cities. It snows more in Flagstaff than 99% of these other places. Add Flagstaff. Check the population stats. It is larger than a bunch of the cities on this list.
Chris, I looked around last year and just took another look for the population. I keep coming up with the population around 65,000 – 66,000. Believe me, I would love to have some more snowy cities listed for the contest w/pop 100,000.
*http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/0423620.html
*http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-Arizona.html
Diane, thanks for the heads up
I think I removed them at the end of last season but just added them back in. I do use NOAA stats which are official but they are also showing the same as Wunderground is. I have to admit that when I started this contest I was surprised to see that Albuquerque even got snow. Whats the normal weather there in the winter months?
Albuquerque is at 5000 feet at the river and then it’s uphill from there. Sandia Peak above ABQ is just over 10,000 feet, and there’s a ski resort on the east side. Temps in the winter are usually lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s or above. Ave. snowfall is about 9 inches, and ave. precip. is also 9 inches. It has been very dry in 2011–we had only 3.55 inches of precip (no snow) all year until these last few days. Unlike Syracuse, ABQ is not accustomed to dealing with much snow, so all the schools were closed today and probably will be tomorrow. Lows tonight and tomorrow will be in the single digits. In 2006, we had 20.8 inches in December in two big storms. If your photo-posting was working, I would have uploaded pix of Sandia and Manzano peaks.
Diane, thanks for that great info. I remember when I was a kid visiting Texas, Mexico and New Mexico. I was expecting to see all sand and was surprised when I saw all of the mountains and how beautiful it all was. Sooner or later I will figure it out so pictures can be uploaded. Until then feel free to email any to comments@goldensnowball.com . Thanks again
I took you up on the photo suggestion. Also, it seems to me like the most recent posts should be at the top of the stack instead of the bottom. One has to wade through posts from March 2010 to get to the most recent.
Diane, thanks for the pictures and what a view you have
I’m going to try and get a gallery up but it probably won’t be until after Christmas. I don’t see any spare time coming soon. I agree with you about the comments and went back and forth with it last week. Now that someone suggested it, it’s done. Thanks Diane!
Patrick,
We need an update to include Albuquerque, NM! They’ve had 1.1 in so far, not including what fell last night, and it’s not over yet. Official weather is at the airport, but we have 3-4 inches on the ground at my house. It’s not often that we have more snow than my birthplace (Syracuse).
Here’s the best source for info I can find at the moment: http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KABQ/2011/12/4/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA
Jenny, are you in the US, Southern part?
DJ, me too. For awhile anyways
Jay, thanks for the link and I bookmarked it. I do have a few stats pages for Denver and and the other cities but some of the stations don’t add what they had this time last season. I’m hoping to get a full update in Monday or Tuesday
I’ve noticed you don’t have snowfall to date for Denver, thought this link would help you out so you can put them in.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/?n=denver_snowfall
I love the snow
I’VE NEVER TOUCHED SNOW. =(
I was shocked to see an inch and a half of snow when I woke up this morning. It should be enough to put Detroit past New Wark.
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It snowed in Detroit again today. I think Detroit has caught up to and passed alot of cities like Chicago and New York. We had over 32″ of snow in Febuary.
I haven’t seen Manchester, NH on the list. The have at least as much if not more snow than Boston. Pop – 109,395.
Harry, I still haven’t read up enough on global warming so I can’t comment. That said never mind sending money to the scientists, just send it my way
Anon, the Golden Snowball contest doesn’t need to have a 100,000 population, where the Golden Snow Globe contest does. I’m still shell shocked at the snow season Albany has had so far compared to the last couple.
Zeeker ans Tim, sorry about the lack of updates. Hopefully I can get back to at least a weekly update. I look forward to seeing what’s going on as much as all of you do.
As for being snowed in
pretty good plowing around here so it normally takes a blizzard or Nor’Easter for that. A couple of Saturdays ago was pretty nasty though and AWESOME with some snow falling and the winds were nuts. I love it when it’s like that 
Rick,
Thanks for that great info. I love stats, records and so on. I hope you get that one storm that breaks the all time record. Still a lot of time left in the season and March has a reputation for some decent Nor Easters
I think I’ll add that info in a post next time NYC has something happening, credit to you of course and thanks again Rick.
Coaster, been kind of sticking to one of the airports for NYC or Central Park which NOAA keeps updated. I am going with which ever one is the highest for what it’s worth.
Gus, I can’t see living any place else but the “cuse area. I did give Florida a shot when I was a kid, around 19 for a couple of months. Too hot for me. It’s been awhile but I do have a good time when I visit there
Of course about this time in the season the beach does sound pretty good!
The global warming is gonna getcha! If you don’t send money to scientists to do more studies.
Shouldn’t Albany be at 12? According to the snow ball race they have 60.7 and aren’t even on this list
miss ur updates
No update in two weeks….you snowed in?
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I hope NYC breaks it’s seasonal snow record. We’re 17.9″ away. All we need is one big one. Of course a few small ones could do the trick.
Just some tidbits…
As of now, the season is ranked 6th snowiest going back to 1869. It is also only the second time in recorded history that NYC has had two 50″+ seasons back to back. The last was 1915-1916 and 1916-1917. This last decade (2000-2010) has been amazing for snows with an average of a little less than 32″ and only three below average seasons. I wish all seasons could be like this. Since the turn of the century we have had five snowstorms enter the top ten list. Three of them have been 20″ or more. January 2011 was also only the third time with 30″+ in a month .
The only thing we have not seen is below zero temperatures. The last sub-zero reading was back in 1994. If the possible storm on the 10th/11th pans out we could top the 95-96 record then follow up with possible record lows.
Don’t forget Yonkers.
I LIVED AND WORKED IN THE ‘CUSE FOR 40 YEARS. I AM RETIRED IN FLORIDA. CAN YOU IMAGINE WHY?? THE BEST VIEW OF SYRACUSE IS IN YOUR REAR VIEW MIRROR.
GUS THE TRANSPLANTEDE BEACH BUM & LOVIN IT
Roy, I’ve been going back and forth with the location for NYC. I think last year I picked JFK because they had more snow when the season started.
That said, I don’t see a problem with going with either JFK, LaGuardia or Central Park. Which ever is higher should work unless someone has a reason that I am missing as why not to???
Rich, thanks for the info. I’ll be adding a few more cities from the south or at least I keep saying that anyways. BTW, my daughter just moved to greenville, nc not too long ago and is loving it so far
Mr Snow, I can only list cities that have a pop of 100,000 or more here. That said I did take a look around and couldn’t come up with any snow stats for Houghton, MI at the national weather service or elsewhere. There could be a snow spotter site around that may have them somewhere.
For NYC you should use Central Park, JFK gets less snow due to the impact of the ocean on its weather.
Another spot is Islip, NY, it is a town but a town larger than nearly all the cities on this list
Rich, I’ll try to get some of the other cities in asap
It has snowed in some cities in the south too….atlanta, raleigh, greenville, nc, chattanooga.
Please track Houghton, MI. We aren’t a big city but we are a city with over 50 inches this season.
Caryzoo, it seems like a lot of Syracusans end up in NC or SC including my daughter who is in NC right now
No doubt Syracuse is off to a good start but some of the other cities are coming after us 
Go, ‘Cuse! Would like to this list updated..although even as its posted it will be changing! A former ‘Cusian in NC, I love showing folks here in the South what REAL snow is!
Again I say(to the tune of USA USA). Syr-a-cuse Syr-a-cuse Syr-a-cuse !! And then we play”We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”lol
The Dallas nightly news just announced that we have had 17.1 inches of snow this season.Someone please list the city & yes we meet the population minmimum.
best regards from a Syracuse native
The repeated comments from people in Flagstaff who can’t *read* either the site information about minimum city population or all the previous comments in this thread are pretty funny.
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lol what about Flagstaff..one more time
What about Flagstaff, Az. We’ve had more then 10 feet so far. We were proclaimed a natural disaster zone after our 6 foot storm that collapsed tons of buildings.
Dont forget us, just because the rest of the state is full of desert.
Just talked with the newspaper in Marquette, Mich., pop. 30,000. Snowfall total to date (March 10) of 147 inches was “right on schedule” to reach the winter average of 200 inches. Flagstaff likely toi be at 135 inches by tomorrow after today’s storm.
Ah, that’s another note worth mentioning. Comments go through approval (only Pat can moderate his posts and pages while both of us can moderate mine), so even though my comment was before tricia’s, she wouldn’t have been able to see it when she hers.
tricia, did you read what PSUSyr5 posted? Flagstaff doesn’t meet the population requirement. Enjoy the snow, thought. We have more cities in upstate NY that have more snow than Syracuse, but they don’t meet the population requirement either. We don’t get upset. We just enjoy the snow.
It March 9 and it is still snowing in Flagsaff, Arizona. Update your page because we are diffently the snowiest city in the US.
It’s the “major” cities (population of 100,000 or more) that are in this contest. So while Flagstaff has more snow, they aren’t included because they don’t meet the population threshold.
Pat will probably have to explain the reasoning for the population limit as it is an interesting topic. To an extent, it also surfaces in the NYS race from time to time as well.
Toward the end of the month, I’d like to get a post up involving the cities that have NWS reports, but that were left out of this list.
What about Flagstaff, AZ? We are a city and we’ve had over 10 feet.
I wish they would include ALL cities in the US. Flagstaff, AZ (population = 60,000) has had more than 120 inches this year and we are expecting another 10 inches today. More than 2 ft greater than the “snowiest” US city!
Actually, Valdez, Alaska has had almost 500 inches this year. So, even though Flagstaff, Ar did receive 10 feet of snow so far, Valdez has crushed that total.
Please update this more often, Syracuse is already above 100″