We might as well stop fighting the funk and own up to it; the snowfall the central New York area gets defines who we are and the type of people we all. It’s not just regionally, but across the nation. I applaud the area for its prominence. lol

Syracuse Liverpool snow

You won’t believe this but last year the Syracuse area got around 73″ of snow, which was our lowest snowfall since the 2002-2003 season. That low and Syracuse still finished 2nd nationally; curse you El Nino!

So far this year Syracuse is sitting at 67.4″, most of that coming during the big storm in November, which counts towards the season. The last week temperatures have been in the 40’s… in January! Very un-CNY like, if you know what I mean.

Yeah, I know the north country gets a lot more snow than Syracuse does, but there aren’t any cities up there with a population of over 100K so that doesn’t count nationally. Still, I remember all the major snowstorms that used to hit Oswego when I went to college there, including one horrific day when I got on a bus just as a winter storm hit on the day before Thanksgiving that ended up being a 6 1/2 hour ride covering, what, 35 miles or so… and ending up at Wegmans on Route 57 and having my dad sitting in the car waiting for me (we didn’t have cellphones back then); win!

You want to know a secret? Have you ever thought about how Syracuse got to be known for its snowfall? It’s all about… sports!

Syracuse wasn’t on anyone’s radar as a destination before ESPN started broadcasting Big East basketball on its network back in the early 80’s. It quickly became a Monday night staple in basketball fans lives, and led to their having Big Monday games with other conferences across the country. Those early commentators often led with tales about the weather, which either mentioned the amount of snow or how cold it was and a legend was born.

Syracuse has won the Golden Snowball, which is a New York state fun competition for the snowiest city on a yearly basis, 11 out of the last 12 years, and 47 out of 75 years, although we get to throw out the first 11 years because, believe it or not, since the snowfall totals weren’t captured at the airport none of them are considered official for the contest. Winning 73% of the time isn’t all that bad. 🙂 Syracuse is also the 5th snowiest city in the world; now that’s saying something!

There are a lot of people in the Syracuse area who hate being known for snow. I’m one of those people who basks in its glory. It’s better to be known for something that ignored and thought of as… well, not something special. 🙂

Enjoy it people; unfortunately, this year I don’t see an NCAA visit for either basketball team… sigh…