Even though winter weather is holding on here in Central New York, part of our winter forecast is in the books.  When we make our winter forecast back in November we focus on our coldest 3 months, what is called “meteorological winter’ which is the months of December, January and February.  Here is how those months ended up in temperatures:

December                    -.7 Degrees

January                     +6.8 Degrees

February                      +1.2 Degrees

That averages out to about 3 degrees above normal.

When we come up with our snowfall forecasts we look at statistics that include every flake, not just what falls in December, January and February.  That part of the forecast is incomplete but we’ve passed the 100” mark and with more snow (along with rain, freezing rain and sleet) possible as we head into the weekend the seasonal average of 120” still looks like it may be in reach.

So those are the raw numbers for the weekend but I would be curious as to how you would characterize the winter so far.

One other note, as you all probably know by now, we head into Daylight Savings Time this weekend.  You move your clocks AHEAD one hour Saturday night which will mean daylight after 7 PM Sunday evening!  To me that’s kind of a double edge sword.  For years and years when we would ‘Spring Ahead” in early April it really signaled the beginning of Spring.  Snow was just about over for us and you could really enjoy the evening daylight with average high temperatures in the 50s.  This time of year you can still be cold and snowy so I can almost guarantee that over the next few weeks you are going be stuck inside looking out your window at 7 or 7:30 PM and while it is still light outside it will be snowing.

I didn’t mention lake effect on Y 94 over the last week so the Lake Effect Challenge remains at $28.25.  When winter winds down in a few weeks I’ll be writing a check to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to cover all the times I mentioned lake effect on the radio (at 25 cents a pop).