1,282 comments on “Current Top 25 Snowiest US Cities

  1. I live in Erie PA and we I think I can say everyone here was bracing for this storm after last weeks dump and with what we got last year. I will admit we’re all a bit glad we didn’t get as much as anticipated, at least everyone I’ve talked to are praying for the safety of our eastern neighbors. I never dreamed it would be as bad as this. Again I wish everyone well and hope you all have a safe and warm weekend!

    • I hear ya Scott. I think most of the Nation is praying for them. I’m just hoping they can get a break now to try and get some of the roofs cleared off before they get hit with the warm temps and rain that is suppose to be hitting then in a few days.

  2. I live just outside of buffalo and currently have 3 and a half feet on the ground. There are plenty of towns surrounding me that have up to 6 feet right now with more coming tonight

    • I’ve been looking at so many pictures and videos of it Emily. I think it reached the point of scary a few feet ago. As much as this site is about having fun with snow, what’s going on as I know you know is pretty dangerous. Stay safe and hopefully no more deaths from this snow. No doubt this is epic no matter how old or long some of the people have lived in some of the towns. Stay safe ;)

  3. Hmmmm. It may just be that the heaviest snow band is missing their weather service office. It is showing only light snow. This should be interesting…

    • I have been hearing a lot of different snow stats Alan. Anywhere’s from 6 inches to more than 18 inches. No doubt it will be interesting when the official stats some out :)

  4. Buffalo has 50+ inches on the ground since around midnight last night, should have 70+ on the ground by 6 PM (4+ inches per hour snowfall rate), and the snow should continue into the night. Another similar lake effect event is predicted for Thursday. If this is falling at their NWS office we might as well all concede now. (I am not conceding….Yet) :)

    • I think the next 24 hours may be Buffalo’s turn to play catch up. At least where they measure which has been getting missed by the snow bands ;)

  5. 112 miles of New York Thruway closed from Rochester to Dunkirk for today’s storm. Stay safe up there, everyone!

  6. Evansville Indiana which has a population of 170,000+ just got 4.4 inches of snow on Sunday night (11/16-17/14) why is it not on there

  7. am writing a story for christmas and i need to know who has the most snow in November and December months and how many snowstorms you get then in those months. any help would be appreciated,

    • Hi Michelle, I am always more than willing to help out with info whenever I can but to be honest I don’t think I can find what you are looking for and if I could it would probably take hours and hours. My best suggestion would be to maybe try and contact the National Weather service to see if they have that info or could put you on the right rack to links to the info. Syracuse on average is the snowiest big city in the US but as far as months go and storms????? Here is the number to the Binghamton Weather Station that may be able to help you out (607) 729-1597 . Sorry I couldn’t be of more help :(

  8. Hey, we have not made the list yet; Melbourne Florida. Maybe later in the season. Oh well, Going back to mid 70′s and sunny isn’t so rough. (former Erie resident).

    • kit It’s a little chilly here in Shallotte NC, but we’ll be back in the 70′s by the weekend {former Erie resident also)

      • Hi Kit, I am a Syracuse native but visiting my daughter and her family in NC right now. Can’t believe the lows hit 17 degrees last night here :( Bring on the 70′s :)

  9. Hi All, I’m seeing a lot of traffic coming from Facebook pages and I’m curious as to where you seen the info about the snow site. On which Facebook page that is. The reason I ask is I normally like to Thank the people running the FB pages for adding a link to the snow site. Thanks,

    Patrick

    • Lol to afoot and then some ;) I am impressed Alan. The lake effect snow is just hanging to the north of Syracuse right now and will most likely weaken if it moves down to us :(

    • Hey Brandon, Pretty close to what NOAA is showing. 3 cities jumped ahead of Anchorage, Alaska so far. Doing an update right now and should have it posted in a bit. Gonna be another fun season :)

      • Hi Robert, thanks for the info. NOAA isn’t reporting the record for yesterday for some reason. Any chance you have a link with that info and Thanks. I kind of figured it would be a date record but I am shocked that it was that close to breaking it. I figured a foot of snow would have blown away the previous record.

  10. Lake Effect snow in Erie, PA. – Mckean Township (south of Erie) has about 7-8 inches accumulated thus far and it isn’t stopping until Saturday. We should have a foot by Saturday. Good Luck to Everyone, but I gotta say it’s looking like Erie might take the prize again this year (jk i know it’s waaaay too soon).

    • Hi Dom, If it’s still snowing in Erie then the chances are you probably have that foot of snow already. Will post an update soon.

  11. NO, NO, NO at Stephanie and Alan. I am going to have to here this from you fine folks in Erie, Pa all season long :( Gonna be a longgggg snow season especially with me being from Syracuse. Of course I am joking and Erie without a doubt deserves the bragging rights after last seasons victory so brag away. Good Luck this season to Erie and all of the cities, pretty sure you will all need it ;)

  12. Welp here comes the reigning champs! Today is our first snowfall and it is sticking here in Erie Pennsylvania. Let the games begin!

  13. Only 3.8 inches for the top spot as of 11/12/14 ?? Erie will be back on the map and making a charge to the top shortly :)

  14. I grew up in Erie- I love the city and the hardworking blue collared work ethic. I moved to South Florida years ago because of the weather. I do not miss 1 inch of the snow. Congrats to the people of Erie for the victory and to all of the cities involved for making it through your winter. I have really enjoyed checking this sight and watching the competition. I do look forward to spending time in Erie when it is at its best July. Congrats again and thanks for the winter entertainment I feel like I went through the winter with all of you. LOl

    • They won’t make it official. It’s almost June. How about calling it? If Syracuse would happen to get a freak six, we can always pass it on, but WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.

      • Pat, I’m sorry, I was kind of thinking it was official when I posted on May 1st but I guess it could have been taken a little differently. I think I was trying to cover my butt just in case. Let me change a little in that post and I’ll repost it again :) Thanks for being a part of this season Pat, or was that last season. It’s been fun and CONGRATS to you and ERIE, PA :)

  15. Please, please Patrick–close down the contest and give us our prize !! This is driving me nuts! Ha ha BTW, I’m visiting Northern Wisconsin–last night we got 14″, on top of 6″ the day before. So Erie, it could be worse. :)

  16. Accumulating Snow in Syracuse. It ain’t over yet folks!!! Come on Wayne M. forecast a good total…

  17. Detroit received 3.1″ of snow overnight pushing the seasonal total to 94.8″. That’s a new record, the old record of 93.6″ stood for 130 years.

  18. Yeppy!!! It’s been snowing for almost an hour now in Erie, PA. The forecast is calling for 1-3″. PennDOT says the plows are ready!!!!

    On the down side: The mayor’s office wants to use tax dollars to build a trophy case at city hall for our Golden Snow Globe Award!!!! LOL

  19. Pingback: Erie Ambassador Program: Session 5 – Power & Water | Ann Silverthorn

      • I think it is snowing more than they called for here. 4.3 miles SW of Erie Airport. I imagine the airport is getting the same being closer to the lake. If it stopped right now Erie has an easy inch but it is snowing pretty hard……Will be up Buffalo way within a few hours.

    • I think it’s getting, scratch that has been getting old for awhile now. Erie is looking good right now :)

  20. Looks like Detroit will miss their all time record by less than two inches. The old record is so old I doubt we’ll ever get close again.

    • Still a little time left for Detroit. I know the feeling though. Syracuse was on their way one season to hitting the unreachable 200 inch mark one season and then March just died out :( Even though we are all thinking spring it would be nice to see Detroit hit it being that close…

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  22. All this silly posting about how the website works and who should or should not be included is just that – SILLY! Here is my 2 cents on the subject…. Let’s look at population of any given area divided by the population within that area… if that was the RULE Erie would win this contest HANDS DOWN every single year! LOL

    • I think you mean snow per capita? (snowfall/population). My husband said the same thing! Looks like Erie is on its way to winning no matter how it’s measured this year. Snowing now.

  23. Patrick, would you consider another award, perhaps the “Silver Shovel” for the top-25 city that receives the greatest amount of snow relative to their annual average?

    Erie’s been a great story all year and we’ve had another solid winter here in Syracuse, but Philadelphia’s numbers have been astounding! They’ve seen more than three times their annual average this year. That would be like us getting 380+ inches. I think they really deserve some recognition.

    Thanks for the work you do,
    Timster

  24. The amount of snow for Syracuse NY for the season 2013-2014 that you have posted is wrong. From July1 2013 through March 2014, Hancock airport in Syracuse NY where the snow is officially measured has received only 131.6. I am a former professor of meteorology and live in a suburb of Syracuse NY. You may also want to double check the other cities also for possible errors.

    • Dr. K is correct.
      From the NOAA page…Daily Climate Summary, Syracuse, 4-1-14….

      THE SYRACUSE NY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR APRIL 1 2014…
      VALID AS OF 1000 PM LOCAL TIME.
      SNOWFALL (IN)
      TODAY 0.0
      MONTH TO DATE 0.0
      SINCE MAR 1 21.7
      SINCE JUL 1 131.6

      • Eric, they must have changed it since yesterday. Joking and it was an April Fools day post. Erie still leads and is looking good ;)

    • Dr. K, living in the suburbs of Syracuse you should know that there was no LES.. Just a little fooling around on April Fools day ;) Will have all of the stats right tomorrow.

  25. Nice to see the Gem City of the Lakes back in the lead. But we have a disadvantage here in the Forest City (Cleveland) — our airport is on the wrong side of town. Over in Shaker Heights, in the eastern suburbs, I’ve measured 127 inches for the season, including 5 inches last night. If the airport/NWS were here, we’d be in Fourth Place! Love our “Lake Effect”!

  26. I’ve been visiting this site since the begining and it’s been pretty cool watching it grow and now it’s getting some national attention. Great job by the owner and good luck going forward.

    • Thanks Joe, I really appreciate that :) I’m curious as to where you have seen the National attention though? From the Erie site? Thanks again…

      • I saw the video of the Erie and Syracuse weatherman going at it and bringing attention to the Golden Snow Globe site. Syracuse and Erie are in different states so it’s at least getting regional attention if not national.

  27. Thank you for this site!! It is the ONLY thing that has made me cheer for snow in Erie. Imagine whoopin’ and hollerin’ as the white stuff falls on March 29th, no less. You have done a great public service. Now, how about some nice sweatshirts after Erie wins?? We’re SNOW PROUD.

    • Carol, I appreciate the kind words and thanks :) You summed it up perfectly for I’m sure most of us. It’s a fun contest to help pass the winter months by as we wait patiently for the nice warmer weather to get here. Then again we do tend to get drawn into the contest toward the end kind of hoping to win after we put up with it for so long. I’m sitting here thinking about hitting my sisters pool and sipping on a cocktail in 80 degree weather but I’m also thinking OK, just one more storm to put us ahead and then that’s it, lol. Good Luck to Erie.

      Season after season I keep saying I am going to throw up some t-shirts on the site (4 sale of course ;) ) I love the saying, can I steal, err I mean borrow it if I ever do ;) There are some shirts going around for Erie right now if you win. I’ll try and find the link and post it for you. Thanks again.

  28. Yesterday the high temp was 55. Today..Winter Storm Advisory issued! They are calling for another 5-8 inches by tomorrow morning. I love Erie.

    • Gatekeeper, this could be the make or break storm for one of the cities. At last check I didn’t see anything for Syracuse but rain. Hopefully that changes and we get some colder air to the east :(

      • Erie news last night called for 1-4″ they did bring up the Snow Globe and that Syracuse could see 3-7″ At this moment rain changed over to snow around 7:00 pm and there is 2-3″ on the ground and still in a squall.

        • Don, I’m thinking Erie will gain on Syracuse. Nothing at my house or it melted by the time I got up but I am about 5-7 miles guessing away from both the city and the airport so maybe we have something to report when the next update comes out. Keep an eye on Buffalo ;)

        • Hey Matt, I’m sure the next update will show the rest of the snow that fell for Erie, Buffalo and Rochester. The last update was just as of yesterday and didn’t count the overnight snowfall. I’ll do a top 10 when NOAA updates again around 5-6 PM.

    • I’m not sure Glenn, NOAA is showing 131.5 right now which should be right seeing how I didn’t do an update today.

  29. Its the end of March, we have had 133″ of snow so far here in Erie, and we are still having temps in the teens and twentys every day. Once Lake Erie thaws out and opens up, we could have the potential to get a LOT more snow. We will be the “snow-globe” champions of 2014!

  30. We have really enjoyed following your website this winter – it makes all the snow here in Erie seem worthwhile. I would like to thank you for all your work in maintaining the site, and continually updating the statistics. I have to say that I don’t follow the logic of the comments regarding larger cities suffering more with less snow! It seems that with the convenience of stores and public transportation, the “misery index” would be much less than in the rural snow belt areas that many of us grew up with. Well, I think we are all ready for this winter to end. Hopefully, it’s almost done!

    • Thanks Barb I appreciate that. I don’t think that when people say and that’s myself included that the larger cities have it worse any of us are talking about individual people. It’s more as in the larger cities have more people to deal with the snow meaning commutes with traffic jams because of a little fender bender, driving bumper to bumper 3 lanes wide during the rush hours and more stuff similar to that. It’s the more people as a whole part if that makes any sense?

      On an individual basis there is no doubt that the people in the smaller towns that get unthinkable amounts of snow each season have it way tougher than any of the people in the cities that are listed here. 200, 300, 500 inches in one season would probably break me in half in a month. If you read around here you will see that I have nothing but praise and respect those who have to deal with that much snow all season long. Hopefully this makes a little bit of sense :)

    • this for you pat laughlin and my other erie friends im praying you beat the record i know its a long way off though.
      and this site is great the way it is pat i hope you continue i know it is allot of work keeping it up but i really enjoy it

    • I think it’s almost time that Syracuse uses a play from last seasons playbook WeatherTracker. Sit back for a few days with some nice weather and then get about 10 inches of Lake Effect to slip into the lead for good :)

  31. Same w/NYC, Philly, BOS, all the big cities… 100k seems too low! Is there away to adjust this for population? Chicago has over 25 times the popluation as Syracuse and the metro area from Wisconsin from Indiana has over 9 million… Many parts of the metro CHI-WI-IN area are getting more than Chicago and its official station @ O’Hare! O’Hare is going towards Rockford… Where is Rockford on the list, it is way low on the list. NYC and Philly are getting pounded this year when population size/density are taken into consideration.

    Just saying, there may be a big difference between what Chicago O’Hare receives than say Chicago Midway or on the Chicago city line @ Hammond/Whiting, Indiana!

    • Onondaga County alone, has ~500,000 residents and is densely populated around the fairly small city limits of Syracuse. There are other neighboring counties withing minutes of downtown Syracuse. The vast majority of my coworkers live outside of Syracuse, and I work for an employer of 6,000 people. For those of you who cite the variability of where the snowfall is measured v. where the snowfall is heaviest, some of the fairly densely populated areas north of Syracuse get much more than the official NWS statistics. You do not have to get into the Tug Hill to see snow fall that dwarfs that of the city.

    • Good point bro, maybe you should start your own snow contest than for cities with pops over a million, collect all the data and do all the leg work. There won’t be many cities on that list though and it will be kinda boring dontcha think? Bet you still get stragglers come on there saying, hey what about my rinky dink one horse town, we got almost 200 inches of snow this year, how come we ain’t on the list?

    • Same situation here in Erie, we actually get alot more snow inland than is recorded at Erie International.

      • I agree. To go by what the airport gets is stupid. They should collect the data from south west Erie. Around West Grandview St. I for a fact the airport only gets maybe 3/4 the snow that south Erie gets

    • It’s nice to see people have my back and Thanks ;)

      I do get part of what Thamus is saying though. No doubt that when it snows in the more populated area it does effect a lot more people. One of the reason I set the cutoff at 100,000 compared to try and get the smaller cities in too. I do feel more for the smaller cities, make that the people that live in the smaller cities though than I do for the giants like Chicago, Philly and even those of us in the 100,000 + range. Just imagine how snowy this season was for some of you and think about getting 200 – 300+ inches of snow every season. No doubt you have to be a special kind of person to deal with that constantly.

      THAT SAID lets raise the population to 1,000,000 or more ;) We will have 9 cities that are in the contest.
      ——————–
      NYC
      Los Angeles
      Chicago
      Houston
      Philly
      Phoenix
      San Antonio
      San Diego
      Dallas

      Of those cities even though some of them do get a little snow we can safely throw out 6 of them. Dallas, San Diego, San Antonio, Phoenix, Houston, Los Angeles.

      Now we are down to 3 cities and it probably would be a good competition between the 3 of them.
      ——————————–
      I’m Guessing right now on seasonal snow totals but should be close.
      Chicago – 38 All Season
      NYC – 22.4 All Season
      Philly – 19.3 All Season

      So I have to agree with some of the others comments that it looks like a kind of boring contest but a pretty easy one to update each day. Scratch that, you wouldn’t have to update it each day because there will be times when a week or tow go by with no snow to add to the totals.

      Thamus, I’m just busting your butt while trying to prove a point ;)

    • The suburbs of NYC, just 10 miles north of manhattan get usually double the amount of snow a year that central park, but of course, the station is in NYC not westchester

      • I have friends out that way Jan. I see a lot of decent pictures and I know you do get more snow but like you mentioned, no Weather station for that area that I can find anyways. I have seen the proof though as to how much snow falls there :)

  32. Interesting arguments when one points out population size. Take into consideration Syracuse and its 145k population vs. Chicago’s 2.8 million. Chicago @ 80″ is like Syracuse’s 130″ on steroids! True, 80″ is only over half of what Syracuse, Erie, or even Buffalo is getting, but how many more times the people, big downtown area, and extremely flat geography exists in Chicago. 100,000 seems way too low a number. Is there a way to “correct” the snowfall total for dealing with amount of people? Look what happened to Atlanta w/a 2″ snowfall! Amount of people make a difference. It is more of a breeze getting around town with 130″ of snow and 145k people than 80″ of snow and 2.8 million!

    • Hold on Thamus, Erie City Gov’t will make sure the population drops below 100K It was once the 3rd largest city in PA at 150K The regulations and new codes have slowly forced away freedoms. Business owners get tired of it so they leave, labor follows. They are trying to become a resort town on the remaining tax payers dollars and 50% of the taxpayers don’t even live in Erie. So hold on it’s a rapid decline and most likely Erie won’t count in the Snowiest city. Give em another year or two.

    • What are you saying. The list is cities with the most snow not how difficult it is to handle the snow. And no matter what Syracuse gets WAY more snow than Chicago does. I love the list quit trying to change things that don’t need to be changed.

      • Amen. Where are we going here? Flake per follicle? I am afraid that cities like Erie will drop off the list. This is not a contest of where it’s snowiest. Nobody lives on the top of Mt. Washington. It’s a list of where a whole bunch of people get snowed on. If you want a contest for the most densely populated area, consult your atlas. None of those areas, not coincidentally, will win this award.

  33. Good stuff here Pat, like I said awhile back, those people in the ski area’s up at elevation don’t live in those area’s full time, they come down off them mountains and go back home to salt lake or provo or where ever they live from an afternoon of skiing. Same when I lived in Washington state, which by the way gets way more snow in the mountains than Utah. Stampede pass and Paradise ranger station push 1000 inches a season, I lived in Arlington Wa. which saw maybe 7 inches of snow a year. Trust me if those mountain people saw that much snow everyday and lived in it and had to take their kids to hockey and ballet practice and go to walmart and school and work in that much snow they would be whistlin’ a different tune. I still say the lake effect snow belts of the Tug Hill and the UP of Michigan are the bad boys of snow! Just wanted you to see this cage match I found, you don’t have to post all this mumbo jumbo I just typed up.
    CAGE MATCH…..TUG HILL VS. UTAH MOUNTAINS
    http://wasatchweatherweenies.blogspot.com/2013/12/cage-match-tug-hill-plateau-vs-wasatch.html

      • Thought ya might like that stuff Pat, I used to work for the Speno Rail Grinders out of East Syracuse back in the day. we did the Denver Rio Grande and Western line. We ground the railroad tracks from Denver all the way up to Salt Lake City, the train only worked at .7 mph, so you could literally walk faster than the train when we were grinding, it took 6 1/2 months to get from Denver up to Salt Lake, anyways, We went all through the Wasatch Mountain Range and nobody lived up through there, maybe a small siding area for the railroaders to fix stuff and fill the water cars back up in Soldier Summit Utah but no houses anywhere with swing sets and kiddie pools setup thats for sure. all the towns are always down at the base of the mountain where they don’t see any kind of real snow, 40-60 inches maybe but nothing like the Tug or the UP of Michigan sees, could you imagine the snowfall totals if the Tug or the UP was at an elevation of 7000 feet?

        Hey Harun, take a break would ya!

        • That had to be a pretty interesting job Eric, not to mention a tough job I would guess. I’m from the East Syracuse area and I know I have heard of Speno but can’t remember where they were located??? I lived in the Fremont area most of my life, just outside of East Syracuse. I’m sure the Tug Hill area and all of the other LES places are more than happy at whatever elevations they are at now :)

    • You should see northern Minnesota. It’s like every day they get lake effect and when we get a blizzard, they literally get 5 or 6 times more snow. If only they were more populated…

      • That might just be why nobody wants to live there. I recall growing up in Erie that the coldest place in the country, Alaska excluded, was regularly International Falls. I always wondered why anybody would want to live where it’s that cold. Then again I’m guessing there are more than a few folks who ask that about us nut-cases in Erie, Syracuse, Buffalo, or any Golden Snow Globe contest contender cities.

    • Yeah, Washington is a weird state for snow. I live in Bellingham just a bit north of Arlington, and we get snow *maybe* once a year. And yet, I can literally look out a window and see Mt. Baker 30 miles away, which often ends up in the 400 inch range and occasionally gets upwards of 800.

      But I grew up in Erie : )

  34. Come on Syracuse!! I’m an Erieite rooting for you to win. Lol lol. Sorry, but I’ve had enough of winter. Lol

    • Me too! We were tied this morning and will be in second later today as the front that missed us lays another few on Syracuse. You go, New York! Hope you get a foot or three.

      • Lol Pat, we’ll settle for a tie so I hope Erie gets a foot or three :) Just light rain so far here in the Syracuse area…

    • Harun, I did an update around 1am in the morning and they weren’t being reported yet. Just got home from fixing some computers. Gonna eat and if I have time will do a top 25 update. If not tomorrow for sure.

    • Harun, I’m curious as to where your snow stats are coming from? They don’t match what I am seeing…

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