First as always I want to give a Big Thanks to Alicia M. for you donation to the snow site. I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate you taking the time. Thanks Alicia
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Updated 2/18 5:00 PM –
Right from the start I want to give a Big Thanks to Kim Buttrick from the Boston Weather Forecast Office in Taunton, MA for taking the time and helping me to clear things up. Not to mention taking the time to educate me on several things weather related. Thanks Kim, I can sleep again and I appreciate it Kim is (CoOp) Co-operation Manager for the Boston Weather Forecast Office which handles the 3 cities from Massachusetts that are in the National snow contest and right now in the top 3 spots in the contest. Well of course by the time I ever get this typed that may change

OK, so I ended up doing something today that I said I wasn’t going to do and don’t normally do I have been seeing snow stat totals floating around for Lowell, MA and have for the last few days that didn’t match up with what we have posted. They also didn’t match up with what the National Weather Service is showing on their website. I see this all of the time and I am a pretty patient guy and normally just blow them off. I figured I would wait a day or two or three and see if maybe it was just a matter of the National Weather Service site being behind a bit. After all I’m sure they are pretty busy crunching numbers on their side after all of the storms they have been getting.

It finally got to the point where news organizations were putting out misinformation that Lowell was in first place and were the snowiest Big city in the US. Most of the news media and journalists that I know were holding off on doing a story about it. I also was seeing stuff like Lowell, MA ahead and confirmed going around but nothing about the source from the National Weather Service that confirmed it.

It was finally time to check it out and to see for myself if I could get something confirmed from the only source that can confirm it. That would be The NWS office that handles the statistics for Lowell so I made the call and happened to get Lucky. Like I mentioned above I was able to get in touch with the exact person that I needed to speak with which was Kim who was totally awesome at helping me straighten things out

Kim took the time to go through the snow stats that have been reported for Lowell were up to date as of 6:00 am this morning when the last measurements came in from the Cooperative Weather Observing Station. She also mentioned that they were getting calls there about Lowell being the snowiest big city in the US and was wondering why. I gave her a quick briefing of the probable why and Kim said she may put out a weather brief or statement or whatever she called it(I type slow ) to straighten things out about the rumors that have been going around.

Here is a statement or at least most of what I was able to write down fast enough from Kim who is the (CoOp) Co-operation Manager for the Boston Weather Forecast Office – As of 6:00 am this morning 2/18 100.8 inches of snow has been reported from an Official Weather Observing Station for Lowell, MA. Kim said that that is what Lowell has as of that time for the season.

I believe Kim also told me that the official measurements for Lowell come from the Water Treatment Plant there. Thanks once again Kim for taking the time to straighten things out and I hope your calls and emails stop too

Once last thing! What really stood out from our conversation is how much Kim appreciates all of the work and time put in by the snow spotters that send reports in. She mentioned their dedication and brought up all of you snow spotters several time and nothing but praise. So if you ever fells discouraged for whatever reason keep in mind you are appreciated

OK, it still comes down to the 3 cities which are Worcester, Lowell and Boston as of the earlier update are the Top 3 snowiest BIG cities (pop of 100,000 or more) in the country. WAY TO GO MASS!!!

Kim, feel free to contact me if I misquoted or have anything wrong here, Thanks!