Winter storm snowfall totals!

Well folks, we made it! The biggest storm of this winter season thus far is now a thing of our past. Mother Nature certainly spared no expense, with everything from freezing rain in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier causing power outages, to heavy sleet and snow, and even several areas of thundersleet!

The StormWatch 8 weather team is very happy with the outcome of our forecast. As was expected, the northwest areas of Rochester and those closest to Buffalo took the brunt of the snowfall, with some areas well over a foot. Reports from Greece had over 15 inches, with Lockport, NY so far the big winner: over 25"!

But snow was quite difficult to measure during this storm. The main culprit for this difficulty was the intense amount of sleet that most of the area saw during Saturday morning, over an inch of that alone in some spots! Since sleet is relatively heavy, it actually acts to compress the snow that it falls upon, making measurements much more inaccurate. Any time a mix of precipitation occurs during a snowstorm, the true measurements should be taken with a grain of salt (or sleet?) Either way you look at it, this was easily the biggest storm of the year so far for the western New York community.

But as you may notice in the picture above, our snow totals for the area are quite incomplete. We ask that you please send us your snowfall totals for your area and we would be more than happy to add it to the map! I would personally like to thank all the viewers who called or e-mailed their observations as well (specifically when the sleet turned over and when they heard thunder) during this storm, because it is often difficult to figure out the locations of that mix line based on just radar alone. You are our extended eyes and ears!

Looking down the road though, this snow may not be on the ground for long. A few days of sun and then warmer temperatures next week could provide for good melting conditions in the next few days.