ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – The snow drought continues as we wait for an any signs of winter. Rochester is now over two feet behind in snow and it shows. There is no snow pack even in areas that have seen record snow this year. Ski resorts are struggling to keep snow on the slopes, and there are no places to go for snowmobiles. 

Most resorts only have half of their slopes open, down from just a week ago. Their busiest time of the year is often the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. That was a week that featured mostly man-made snow as Mother Nature has brought very little to show across New York State (outside of lake-effect snow east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario).

RESORT CONDITIONS:

Bristol Mountain is describing their snow as machine groomed, frozen granular, and loose granular. Swain Resort is describing their snow as loose granular. This snow is a lot more like what you can expect for a middle to late spring day, not in the dead of winter.

WHERE’S THE SNOW?

Rochester now has just over 9” on the season. A number that should be a lot closer to three feet. Buffalo is the opposite, flexing their total season’s worth of snow already fallen. Despite this, they have nothing to show for it as warm spells have melted any signs of past blizzards. Find those numbers in the archives here.

At this point, Rochester needs to get significant snowfall over the next three months to catch up. The airport (where records are kept) is four inches behind on the month. If it stays that way, that would mean we finish January with 23”. Average for the rest of the season would put Rochester at 77”, which would be in the bottom half of snowfall totals for the season since 1950. 

The pattern shows no significant snow for the next few weeks. If January finishes with (for example) just 6” of snowfall, that would put this season in top ten least snowiest since 1950. It would take top ten snowy months February and March just to get back to normal. This, however, is unlikely.