I come from New York state. We grew up in the town of Horseheads to be specific. Horseheads is centrally located on the Southern tier of the state near the border of Pennsylvania. When I was young, I remember 3 foot dumps, demolition derby sledding, snowmobiles, building jumps for our cross country skis, and even 10 foot wind drifts perfect for snow forts…you know, good ‘ole redneck stuff. But what I DO NOT remember are storms depositing 115 inches of snow in the time span of a week!! Well this is what areas of NY state in the lake effect bands got earlier this month.
I heard a couple of interesting tidbits as to why. For one, it was a very mild early winter. This unseasonably warm weather didn’t allow the great lakes to cool down the way they’re suppose to by February. Add the ingredient of arctic cold air moving over the water and the result was a serious lake effect snow machine. 9.5 feet in the Oswego County town of Parish, about 25 miles northeast of Syracuse. Oh yeah, Syracuse only got about a foot!! Thus the nature of the squalls fueled by balmy, great lake moisture.
This kind of reminds me of a special canyon here in the Wasatch range of Utah that gets relentlessly pounded from time to time. You know, to the tune of 28 inches when 4 was the prediction ;). I’ll let you figure out where this canyon is. Hint.
I found a great news piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about this record New York snow storm:
“The snow got even deeper Sunday but the end was in sight after a week-long series of squalls that have buried towns on one corner of Lake Ontario. By early Sunday, the persistent streams of squalls fueled by moisture from the lake had piled snow 115 inches deep at the Oswego County town of Parish…”
Umm, Parish needs 1700 vertical feet of 35 degree ski terrain. Yep, have that installed and I’ll be there! BTW yes that’s a car in the photo above.
