The digging begins after a typical heavy lake effect snowstorm in Oswego County. Photo by Flickr.com user kgcyclist.
OSWEGO, NY – The Syracuse area is making a big deal about going more than 277 consecutive days without any snowfall.
The hoopla prompted Oswego’s Bill Gregway to see how the Port City was stacking up. Gregway is the longtime recorder of Oswego weather for the National Weather Service.
The streak, Gregway said, is for days with less than an inch of snow falling.
“On April 7th we were up to 1.1 inches and added 0.8-inch on the 8th,” Gregway said. “So, from there until now we have gone 235 days.”
Fulton’s last snow greater than one inch (2 inches) came on April 7.
The Oswego area is more apt to get late spring snowfall while Onondaga County often sees more late fall snow.
So, for them, it is a bit odd they haven’t gotten any snow yet, Gregway admits.
“For us it’s really not that big of a deal,” he said. “There’s something else that might be a big deal, a real big deal, for us.”
According to Gregway’s figures, November, 1948 received just a trace of snow. For that winter, the total was 64 inches.
In 1960, November again had just a trace of snow. That winter’s total stalled at 74.5 inches.
In 1966, Oswego had no snow in November (the only time that has happened, so far). The total for the winter came in at 92 inches. (The Blizzard of ’66 occurred in January of that year, in the previous winter season.)
“In 2001, there was also just a trace of snow for November. We wound up with 70.6 inches over the course of the entire winter,” Gregway said. “The odds are we are in for a low snow winter. It could be less than 100 inches.”
In the last 110 winter seasons, seven have been greater than 200 inches – with 251.6 in 1971-72 ranking as number one.
Fifty-two have been greater than 100 inches. Twenty-five have been between 80 – 99 inches.
Twenty-one have been between 60 – 79 inches. Two have been in the 50s and three were in the 40s with the least snowiest being 47.4 inches in 1932-33.
The average snowfall is 150.8 inches.
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