The first snowfall of the season was spectacular to say the least. I was still bow hunting, and out of no where a dark cloud came overhead with wet snow shortly thereafter. It was really neat to see the first flakes fall to the ground while sitting in a tree stand. The atmosphere was so calm and peaceful. In fact, too calm, because there was no deer in sight and I left the stand after watching the snow for a few minutes.
November 7, 2017
November 10, 2017
November 13, 2017
November 20,2017
December 14, 2017
We have a great view from where our house stands. The views are always better to the north and on this particular morning there was some heavy snow falling to the north with a thick, black cloud proof of the significant accumulation.
December 17, 2017
With the daytime temperatures in the 50's and rain, the much awaited snow was gone. At this point, we just wanted a little snow for Christmas.
December 19, 2017
Dreams and wishes of adults also do come true, it snowed on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day, which made for a very festive environment.
December 25, 2017
After Christmas, I thought for sure it was going to keep snowing until May. We continued to have snowy days with significant accumulations. I was excited because a thicker snow base was being built up for snowmobiling.
Winter Storm Evan December 29, 2017
Winter Storm Fauna
January 2, 2018
This winter we also had a glorious 66 hours of non-stop snowing which was caused by lake effect. It started on Thursday 1/4/18 at 5:54 am and didn't end until Saturday 1/7/18 at 11:54 pm. The total snow accumulations were 19.3 inches for Syracuse and some areas in the southern hills saw about 25 inches.
January 4, 2018
Route 81 north bound
January 5, 2018
January 6, 2018
Winter Storm Genius January 12, 2018
January 13, 2018
On 1/14/18 I was able to capture a wonderful sunset with snowmobile trails in the farmers fields. During the winter we seem to notice the rare sun more.
January 14, 2018
Once or twice a winter, I have to do the necessary chore of climbing the garage roof to remove snow because the drifts get very high on that part of the house. Every year I told myself I will get a harness and rope just for precaution and so this was the year when great risk was no longer taken.
Little did I know that we will have 50 degree weather for the next 3 days and the shoveling was totally not necessary. I was just really nice to the roof!
January 18, 2018
When we had our third major thaw of the season, we decided to head outside and build a snowman with the kids. We even built a snow fort and had a snowball fight. But over the next few days we saw it all disappear and the memories treasured in our minds and many phone photo's.
February 11 2018
February 17, 2018
FOUR MAJOR SNOW STORMS HIT THE NORTHEASTERN USA IN ONE MONTH!
March was the luckiest month of the year, it got 4 storms instead of just one like the other months. Syracuse was effected by the first 3 directly and indirectly but managed to avoid the 4th. Not many people find these storms exciting and rightly so. The major reason is because the snow is usually really heavy and thats when you count your blessings when you have a snowblower or this is when you realize that you desperately need one.
Syracuse picked up 18 inches of additional snow from this "bombogenesis" of an event. I didn't even know that a word such was this existed. Apparently the snow looked massive from space as well.
Nor'easters Riley March 2, 2018
Quinn ending up adding 14.5 inches of nicely compact snow to the Syracuse area. Then we got a little more after from the usual lake effect.
Nor'easter Quinn March 6, 2018
Skyler wasn't that nice to Syracuse either because the tail effects of the storm continued to produce bands off Lake Ontario. The total snow from the 3/12/18 to 3/16/18 was 21 inches. There was a lot of wind associated with this storm. Our driveway had more snow drifts than actually evenly spread snow. The snow drifts are usually even more compact then the heaviest of nor'easter snows.
Nor'easter Skyler March 12, 2018
March 14, 2018
I came from work and saw the drift of snow on my garage and I was concerned. In fact, I was more concerned about the fact I didn't have enough time to climb up on the roof to actually remove it myself. But a couple days later I set a aside 2 hrs to take the snow down and then snowblow it off the driveway.
March 16, 2018
The last 2 winters have been terrible in the sense of consistent snow and no major thaws. And therefore I had a few failed attempts to get out and try my snowshoes. This winter right before that last big thaw, I tested the MSR Lightening Ascent pair. They were very good and I was impressed how well they handled under "mock falling" circumstances. Definitely looking forward to bringing them to the ADK and truly trying them out on a winter hike.
March 19, 2018
With a snowy and cold Easter in the books, my family and I were ready for spring. Well to our disappointment, it was royally delayed. A few kids in the neighborhood were brave enough to play a little ball in the front yard despite the heavy snowflakes falling.
April 10, 2018
Fast forward to the end of April, and we still had snow falling. At this point the weather forecasters on the local station were betting if we will have the coldest April every recorded.
One evening when driving home we saw huge snow clouds to the south and later we found out that the Tully/Cortland area had a few inches of snow.
April 17, 2018
April 20, 2018
As I am finishing this post, the local station is predicting wet snow tonight 4/28-4/29/18, especially in the hills south of Syracuse and the ADK.
Final Snow Count??
As of 4/27/18 according to the Golden Snow Globe website Syracuse is #2 (in the nation) with 153.6 inches. The average is 120 inch. Number one snowiest city this past winter will most likely still be Erie, PA with 198 inches. In the top 10 there are 3 cities that are in Upstate NY: Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Hey there is always next winter when we could be number one again!
