Rochester N.Y. – It seems like it is snowing every day in Rochester. So, we might as well have some fun with it!  If you want to measure the snow just grab a ruler (preferably a wooden yardstick) and head to an open field, away from the buildings and trees. I went outside our News 10NBC studios, right here on East Avenue, and measured about three to four inches of snow.

But what about the consistency of this snow over a longer period of time? Specifically, I looked at the amount of snow on the ground from season to season. This tells us not only if it is snowing but also if it is cold enough to keep that snow on the ground. That snow is calculated at 7 A.M. every morning and has been done so since 1926.  It should be noted that in the early days, it was measured in downtown Rochester, but even with a different location, the data would be very similar. If we use one inch of snow as a benchmark, this should reveal the so-called snowier, colder seasons and drier, milder seasons. So far this season has produced 46 days with one inch or more on the ground. I would say it has been a rather persistent winter. To make this more relevant, I also looked at the least number of days and the most number of days with one inch of snow in a season. 

The 1959-1960 season had the greatest number of days with a tally of 112 days. More recently 2003 had 108 days of one inch or more. Impressive, but what about the other side of the coin? The minimum amount of one-inch snow days was back in 2012 with just 29 days. However, it is important to note the number of more recent seasons that top of the list.  In 88 years of record keeping, four out of six seasons with significantly fewer days of snow have happened since 2002.

 What does that tell you? First, we have a high variability from season to season. Second, a majority of the time Rochester has measured less snow over the last two decades.

 We will see how this plays out for this season for Western New York.