The Golden Snowball Award: Where does Rochester Stand?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – If there’s one thing that all upstate New Yorkers can agree on, it’s just how much snow we have to deal with year in and year out. Some may find this to be a nuisance, and others a delight. Maybe to some, it’s become such a nuisance that tracking who gets to deal with it the most has itself become a delight. Another thing that New Yorkers have in common is their competitive spirit. So what better way to combine all of these things than by holding a yearly competition between the cities of upstate New York on who gets the most snowfall?

Of course, this “competition” involves no human strategy and is more of a game of luck, dominated by the trends of Mother Nature. The Golden Snowball Award, as it’s called, started as a friendly competition between National Weather Offices across upstate New York after the Blizzard of 1977. The competition took a hiatus after some offices closed, but resurged in the early 2000s. Technically, we can pronounce a “winner” for every year that snowfall observations were written down, but some cities started keeping records later than others.

As for the competitors, typically there are five cities in the running: Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, Syracuse, and Albany. More cities were once part of the main event, such as Oswego and Utica, but for the most part nowadays, the main event only includes the cities mentioned before.

Out of those, one city is the clear G.O.A.T. of snowfall: Syracuse. Even though many of the cities in upstate New York rank among the snowiest in the country, Syracuse consistently ranks at the top. Averaging out at around 130 inches of snowfall a year thanks to its location southeast of Lake Ontario, they beat out the next closest (which is us) by about 30″. They win a lot (including a nine-year run from 2003 to 2011), but not always. Buffalo completed the threepeat last year, and Rochester has won twice since the year 2000, most recently in 2020.

So how’s it looking so far this year? Well, unfortunately for us Rochesterians (or fortunately if you can’t stand the snow), it seems like things are returning to normal. Syracuse is in the lead by about twenty inches and has already cracked 100″, while we are in second place with over 80″. But hey! There’s still plenty of winter left… May the snowiest city win.