How much snow?

Here I am, happy that I convinced myself that a walk was a good thing to do in spite of the very chilly temperatures - and then I took a look at the weather in upstate New York.

All I can say is wow!

My parents live in an area of New York that normally gets lake effect snow. They have been getting their usual amount of the white stuff, constant, every day snow. It appears that their normal amount of snow this week is quite reasonable when compared with a very narrow band to their west, closer to Lake Ontario - apparently only 10 miles wide - of very very serious snowfall.

I heard the numbers, the snowfall so far plus the predicted snow yet to come, and I find the reality very difficult to imagine. A report titled "Again?" in the Oswego Daily News showed snowfall totals for the five-day storm as of early this morning - and they were impressive. Examples? The town of Parish had 77 inches of snow as of 6:20 this morning, with snow falling at the rate of 4 inches per hour, and the town of Mexico was close behind with a total of 72 inches of snow as of 4:20 AM with snow falling at the rate of 5 inches per hour. That's beyond my wildest imagination - and I've seen predictions that the storm total will top 100 inches by tomorrow night. Eight feet of snow! I feel for the people who live there - but at least they have an inside to escape to... the poor animals!

When I compare our cold and dry weather with the snow coming off of Lake Ontario - well, our weather is nothing. OK Denise, no more (winter) complaining!

A quick update on February 9th: I just saw an article in the Washington Post and another on CNN saying that the snowfall totals were approaching 100 inches, and that the town of Parish had reported 94 inches of snow by this morning. Still continuing...