I love Snow and Buffalo truly is a great snow place. I miss it so much here in Chicago. Chicago gets real real cold, colder than Buffalo but the snow is wimpy. Snow is what makes winter tolerable. Without it winter is gray and dull.

So here are a few pictures in Buffalo showing the glories of snow snow snow.

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/5738/snow37kl.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/1075/snow126mk.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/7704/snow115pm.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/2117/snow94iv.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/8137/snow89vq.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/1138/snow70il.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/5989/snow67qo.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/66/snow49tz.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/63/snow55tj.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/483/snow24vo.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/1393/snow15vz.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/9499/snnow105nx.jpg

It looks beautiful, but you guys can keep it! :)

Snow should be coming around WNY within the next few weeks.... although it was 68 degrees in Rochester today. Buffalo just had it's hottest summer EVER on record, I think they may actually be ready for the snow this year. One things for damn sure, they had BETTER get a while Christmas.... we went to Rochester for Christmas in 2003 and 2004 and there was NO SNOW AT ALL.... in 03, it was 65 degrees on Christmas day, the second warmest ever. I was PISSED. Christmas NEEDS snow.

Eeeek! I love snow storms, but I always want the snow gone after the storm ends, lol. Only time I ever want the snow to remain is for Christmas.

I can remember many a "brown" Christmas... Why is Christmas always unseasonably warm here?

I want snow, so I can make some new photo posts

I remember the winter of '94 we didn't get snow until early January but then of course we had snow till early May '95.

I'm originally from coastal Virginia and go back every year for the Holidays. I've never seen a white Christmas. Maybe if I stay in NJ for the holidays I'd have a better chance.

What is the average annual snowfall in the Buffalo area? Is it fairly consistent or is the lake effect, etc. highly variable?

Buffalo averages about 90 inches of snow a year.... yeah, it's lake effect, Rochester gets it too. BUT the lake effect also keep it from being as bitterly cold as interior areas.

^^ Here's a site that'll answer some of your questions, and maybe dispel a rumor or two:

The Truth About Snow in Buffalo (http://www.buffaloresearch.com/snow.html)

There are some links to some good snowfall maps as well. You'll see that most of the snow that the media claims to be falling in Buffalo usually falls well to the south of the city (where it's wanted - ski country), and as far as NYS is concerned, nobody beats the Tug Hill Plateau (between Syracuse and Watertown). They get 200 in/yr!

As the site author says (and let me state I'm not accusing anybody of attacking), "Buffalo has more days per year in which the temperature is above 60F than days with snow on the ground. Now, will smug out-of-towners please start aiming your climatological condescension at more appropriate targets? " :)

ROCguy makes a good point about the lakes. They do have an effect to moderate, or dull the extremes that the rest of the northest usually experiences. For instance, two years ago in NH (near Mass) I remember a stretch of 72+ hours where the temperature never cracked 0°F for a high. We'll usually manage to stay in at least the teens or low twenties. And it's probably the lake that gives us that freak weekend that seems to happen every year or so, where it's over 70 for a day or two in January or February.

There are a couple of points I would like to make from my experience living in lake effect country:


There is never 90 inches on the ground at one time. We'll usually get 2 feet dumped on us in one night, and it gradually melts (those moderated temperatures). Then we dumped for two more. Repeat... Occasionally we get one of those 7 foot monsters, but in the case of 2001, it hardly snowed again the rest of the winter! (aka "Winter in a week" as it was dubbed)
In the case of Lake Erie, once it freezes over (usually around March), the lake effect machine stops. Then it will get colder, and we'll just get the same snow everyone else gets.

So many whimpy people who can't handle a little snow in these forums :) It wont bite.

I live in Buffalo but I grew up in Syracuse. Buffalo is much windier, but as for snow? Please. If you can still get out your front door it's not snow.

Snow...I guess it just depends on the person.

Me, I love it. But I wouldnt want THAT much.

After our 90-degree-plus humid Naptown summers, a little snow is welcome this time of year.

I read the probability of having a white Christmas in Indianapolis is like 50 percent. Not bad, I just hope we dont have a Christmas like last year with over a foot of snow on the ground, making travel harsh.

Bottom line: Snow is fun, but I'll just stick to my 28 inches of snow a year, thank you.

Buffalo and Rochester actually only have about a 59% chance of a white Christmas, I found that dissapointind avd very suprising.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^me too^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

what if chicago had another series of blizzards similar to the 1979 blizzard that influenced the politics of the city? hmmm...

I heard about that on the weather channel... how exactly did it influence the politics again? I wasn't really clear on that part.

I heard about that on the weather channel... how exactly did it influence the politics again? I wasn't really clear on that part.

chicago is notorious for its politics, known as "the Machine"-heres a recap
well around february 1979 chicagoans got fed up at then mayor bilandic because he did not do enough to remove the heavy snow from city streets, it was the snowiest winter on record for chitown at over 80 inches that winter and obviously chicago is a very fast paced/go-getting city and they cant afford to shut down. anyway the mayor told folks to move their cars although moving a car out of 3 feet of snow is not easy, and then whats worse he told them to park the cars in school parking lots, most of which werent plowed at all, half of the lots were filled with cars and those that werent were filled with overflow snow eventually dumped on the chicago river. so after the series of blizzards the city proposed CTA route changes, which primarily affected working class blacks. they responded by voting in jane byrne as mayor. and the moral of the story: fuck with us and we'll fuck with "the machine". its ironic that something as simple as snow removal changed the politics of a city of 3 million

Wow.

i can't wait for snow

We've gotten a lot of snow the last couple of winters. I love it.

unfortunately the politics of buffalo could probably never be solved by any natural phenomena...

We've gotten a lot of snow the last couple of winters. I love it.

Actually the last 2 winters we only got 18 inches each, which is average. In winter 2003, we almost got 60 inches of snow! It was Baltimore's second snowiest winter ever, with the February snowstorm of 28.2 inches, which was Baltimore's best snowstorm ever! The last 2 winters, NYC and Boston have been stealing a lot of snow from us. I hope we get more snow this coming winter, and more snow than New York and Boston. It's possible, and it has happened before.

^^ Yeah, Boston and southern NH got bombed last year, especially in March. I think they even got more than Buffalo (which lost the "snow derby" to Roch and Syr as well)?

All this talk about snow. Where I live, we haven't gotten snow in 16 years.

During the Blizzard of '77, our mayor just told everyone to get a six-pack and sit back and relax as they were stuck in their office buildings for a few days.

^^ Yeah, Boston and southern NH got bombed last year, especially in March. I think they even got more than Buffalo (which lost the "snow derby" to Roch and Syr as well)?

Yup. Rochester and Sycracuse in 2003 each got about 180 inches of snow, double the average (that's 14 feet) I'm not sure about Syracuse, but Rochester got a little over 100 last year I believe.

I'm all for some snow (you have to be to live here), especially after this summer we had, but last year was ridiculous. Wasn't much "winter" to speak of until March showed up. And then it went on, and on, and on, and on. I think it snowed almost every day during the month. I don't know what it was like here in Buffalo, but that was about as fed up with winter as I've ever gotten. And it was bitter cold, too. And right after coming back from a week off in SC lol. I guess we got off too early the year before when I came back and it was warmer in NH than it was when we left SC, in April!

So this will be your first winter back in Buffalo then?

First full one since 2000-01. But I was here for "Winter in a week" back in December '01, and last year's christmas eve storm. One-two weeks each in Decembers '01-04. So I've never completely "missed" one.

WAIT JUST A DAMN MINUTE. Buffalo had snow on Christmas eve last year? What gives? Rochester didn't get jack and they are freaking 1 county away from eachother.

Oh yeah, we had all the snow you could hope for. Especially pleasant because we traditionally go to my grandparents' in West Seneca (just across the Buffalo line), which is less than 10 miles from Hamburg (or Boston, in last year's case). I remember the ride back last year on US-219 (bad mistake taking a wide open expressway in a snow storm), and watching all the assholes speeding by at 50-60 mph in a whiteout. But the consolation was passing them at 10 mph after they'd lodged themselves into the median lol.

For all the lousy (meteorlogically speaking) Christmases I can remember (60° and rainy seems more often than snow), it ALWAYS seems to snow on Christmas Eve. Just doesn't last. God forbid it snowed on Christmas, when we don't go anywhere!

This is interesting...

Golden Snowball Award
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Golden Snowball Award is an annual award presented to the Upstate New York city that receives the most snowfall in a season. The original award was the result of a friendly competition of National Weather Service offices in Upstate. After the Rochester and Syracuse offices closed in the mid-1990s, the competition died out.

The award was revived during the 2002-2003 snowfall season, in which Syracuse won. It has won every year since then as well. The prize is accompanied by a ceremonial $100 check.

The cities that compete for the award are

Albany
Binghamton
Buffalo
Rochester
Syracuse
Several smaller cities now also compete for a smaller award, that includes a $50 check. These are:

Fulton
Oswego
Rome
Utica
Watertown
Utica's population is actually greater than Binghamton's by about 13,000. This was possibly overlooked and might lead Utica to compete for the main prize in the future.

Winners of the Golden Snowball
2002-2003: Syracuse
2003-2004: Syracuse
2004-2005: Syracuse

--

I also found that Buffalo has the highest per-capita number of private swimming pools of any major American city!

A "Golden Snowball" does not sound like something to which you would like being a recipient.

I would not want to be the guy making the "Golden Snowball" either.

I miss the 33 inches we got in the Blizzard of '96. That was tight.

Didn't Philadelphia have some sort of blizzard in January of this year?

LOL, Steel. But I'd rather give a golden snowball than receive one...if I had to choose, that is.

Didn't Philadelphia have some sort of blizzard in January of this year?

Philly got 13 inches from that blizzard, NYC got 15, and Boston got 24. However DC and Baltimore were screwed up by a dry slot. DC got 3 inches, and I got 6 inches where I live. That is why I am so angry at NYC and Boston for getting so much more snow.

Several smaller cities now also compete for a smaller award, that includes a $50 check. These are:

Fulton
Oswego
Rome
Utica
Watertown
Utica's population is actually greater than Binghamton's by about 13,000. This was possibly overlooked and might lead Utica to compete for the main prize in the future.

Oswego would win that one by a landslide (or I guss an avalanche would be the more apportiate term). They are right on the "elbow" of Lake Ontario, and average over 120 inches a year.

^^ Lowville would beat them all senseless!