April Snow

Yes, winter is coming back for a brief stay next week. Our spring like warmth will come to an end Wednesday as a powerful cold front moves through. It looks like snow showers are a good possibility Thursday right into the weekend. In fact, it is possible we will have a more Christmas like Easter than Christmas this past year (It was 40.5 with 0.47" of rain on Christmas, just for the record.)

But....is this so uncommon? My records are going on 5 years now, so I have 4 other Aprils to look at. Here is what I found in regards to April snow:

2003: We got 1" on the 1st and another 2" on the 7th, and 1.25" on the 23rd
2004: We got 4" on the 4th, and a dusting on the 28th
2005: We got 0.75" on the 4th, and a trace on the 24th and 25th
2006: We got a dusting on the 4th and 5th, with a trace on the 6th. No more snow in April, but in May last year, some of the hills in Cortland and Onondaga county got a couple inches of snow!

So....the first week in April seems to be historically snowy, making snow later this week not so odd.

However, I also looked at the temperatures following these snowy episodes: High 60's at least, with temperatures in 2003 getting all the way into the mid 80's! But even after that, as you see, one final cold shot. Then, on to summer!

The Latest Updates

Here are the latest updates on the winter storm. Some developments have occurred that has caused me to change my forecast a tiny bit. Here is what I am seeing:















These are regional radars from WSYR News Channel 9 that are 3 hours apart. The one on the top, image 1, is from just before 5PM, while the one on the bottom, image 2, is just before 8PM.

As you can see in image 1, the arrows point to the snow to our south, which is painted with solid, darker greys. This indicates a pretty solid area of heavy snow. Then look at 3 hours later. The darker, solid greys have broken up and there is a lot more white, indicating lighter snow. I think what is happening is the storm is a bit farther east than anticipated, which is breaking up the precipitation one the west side of the storm. As a result, I think our snow totals will be a bit less than I originally thought. By tomorrow morning, expect 5-9" with another 2-5" by Sunday as another low from the mid-west helps intensify our snow tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Storm Update!

Here is the latest on the snowstorm:



Groton High School has moved the Cottilion dance from tonight to tomorrow night from 8-11PM



The snow is almost here and once it starts, it will snow steadily for a long time. the heaviest is still excpeted to fall later this afternoon and evening, probably between 2 and 9PM. Storm totals also are unchanged, with a good 7-12" expected by the time the steady snow ends tomorrow late morning.



Here is a radar loop from accuweather.com from 8:45AM through 10AM: (click to animate)