It has been an interesting trend for snowfall the last few years and we are still waiting on winter this season.

The last time that we had over 100 inches of snow (the average season is 102 inches) is six years ago when the 2017-2018 season came in with over 120 inches. However, the last few seasons have been a downward trend for snow and that culminated with last season when measured a paltry 50 inches of total snow. The last time we saw this little amount of snow at the Rochester airport, you have to go back some 70 years. On closer inspection, even though Rochester had such a small amount of snow, the folks in Buffalo measured an amazing 133 inches of snow!

So why the difference, considering Buffalo is only about 50 miles away? The simple answer is the historic heavy lake effect snow they had in November when the Buffalo airport measured 40 inches of snow in just a matter of days. Obviously we did not see that in Rochester.

Maybe we can turn the tide this season, but we are not off to a great start. The long-term average shows that Rochester would have typically already accumulated 4.5 inches of snow to date. But so far it has been next to nothing with only “trace” of snow at the Airport. Looking forward in time, the trend is encouraging as we expect to see shift in the overall weather pattern. We cannot be definitive just yet, but we have the ingredients for accumulating snow for later next week. Exactly when, where and how much will be answered in the coming days.

And whatever happens, we know the folks down at Bristol Mountain would like to see this trend come to fruition.