First Alert Weather In-Depth: A little short of average yearly snowfall totals

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Ahead of Friday’s anticipated snowstorm, First Alert Meteorologist Glenn Johnson took a look at the average amount of snow in Rochester, month to month.

Measurable snow totals at the Frederick Douglass-Greater Rochester International Airport show January is usually Rochester’s snowiest your month with an average of a little over 27 inches, followed by February at 23 inches.

It’s around this time of year that you might think winter is over, but it’s really not. On average, the Rochester area gets about 18 inches of snow in March, and 3 inches in April.

When you add this all, up it is pretty close to about 100 inches of snow in an average season.

However, that is only for the Rochester Airport. What about town by town? That is a totally different scenario.

The average annual amount of snowfall down through the lower Genesee Valley is about 40 to 50 inches in a given season, those amounts of snow go up substantially the farther you go up I-390. What if you live in Sodus? Well, you can see anywhere from 125 to maybe 150 inches of snow. Of course, that differential is due to lake effect snow.

So how is it playing out this season? We need to check back where we stand at the Rochester Airport. Again, 68 inches of snow thus far, and that is compared to 76 inches of snow on average, to date. We are now officially running a deficit. Can you believe that we are right around 7 inches of snow below normal?

Johnson thinks it is a safe bet that we are going to make up that deficit quickly as we go through the next couple of days.