One thing you’ll likely hear nearly every winter is that it’s not as snowy as it used to be in our area. We'll take a look at some data in a moment.
First, we should keep in mind that city and county snow-removal crews do a great job more often than not of keeping up with the snow and keeping it off of our roads so we can get to work or school and run errands with ease. Crews are more effective now than in the past.
Three of the snowiest winters on record in Rochester were in the 1970s. A lot of folks remember those winters as benchmarks and compare recent winters to those three. If you were a youngster walking to school then, no doubt they would be especially memorable.
There were, however, winters prior to the 1970s where much less snow fell. In fact, the top ten least snowy winters on record for Rochester all occurred well before the 1970s.
10 least snowy: 10 snowiest:
1) 29.2” in 1932-33 1) 161.7” in 1959-60
2) 36.0” in 1918-19 2) 160.9” in 1977-78
3) 41.7” in 1952-53 3) 142.7” in 1970-71
4) 44.3” in 1905-06 4) 141.5” in 1900-01
5) 46.1” in 1943-44 5) 140.6” in 1958-59
6) 49.5” in 1934-35 6) 138.5” in 1978-79
7) 49.5” in 1945-46 7) 135.2” in 2002-03
8) 50.7” in 1887-88 8) 133.0” in 2000-01
9) 50.9” in 1948-49 9) 131.5” in 1992-93
10) 54.5” in 1939-40 10) 131.3” in 1899-00
You can go to this website and see how much snow fell each winter in Rochester going back to 1940-41.
The 1970s was a remarkable decade for snowfall. The 1990s and 2000s were also. Other decades prior to, sandwiched in between, and after these three, not so much.
The seasonal snowfall average is currently 99.5 inches. Since 1990, we’ve had 19 winters with an annual snowfall of more than 100 inches and 8 winters with an annual snowfall of fewer than 95.5 inches, or 10 winters below 100 inches.
For this season (2019-20), we’re sitting at 80.9 inches as of 2-21-20, which puts us 7.3 inches above average for this point of the season. That puts us at 948.9 inches for the decade which we will definitely be adding to in the weeks ahead.
Meteorologist Mike Gouldrick explains why this winter doesn’t seem all that snowy:
"We have only had a few significant snowfalls this winter. The greatest 24-hour amount occurred on November 11 with 8.7 inches. We have essentially been 'nickeled and dimed' with an inch or two here, two to four there. With the lower amounts on most days, combined with many thaws that melted the snow, it certainly seems like we haven’t had much this year."
You can find his blog here.