Syracuse snow records go back to 1951
As expected, March 2009 will go into the record books with the least amount of snow for any March since 1951. On average, Hancock International Airport receives 18.8” of snow every March. This year we received only 0.9” (less than one inch!). That seems rather impressive when you compare that to 148” of snow that we received between November and February.
Here is a list of the six lowest snow totals of March on record with the year that it occurred after it:
0.9” (2009)
1.2” (1962)
2.8” (1991)
3.0” (1987)
3.6” (1973)
7.1” (1995)
I thought it would be interesting to compare how snowy the subsequent months of April and May were in those other five years listed above. This may gives us a clue on how much snow may be left for Syracuse this season. Here is a list that I compiled with the amount of snow received in April and May following those low snowfall totals above. I have also listed the average amounts of snow for March, April and May.
Year March April May
1962 1.2” 5.7” 0.0”
1991 2.8” 3.0” 0.0”
1987 3.0” 1.3” 0.0”
1973 3.6” 5.3” 1.2”
1995 7.1” 4.7” 0.0”
Normal 18.8” 4.8” 0.1”
By reading the table above, all of the other “snow-less” months of March still had measurable snowfall for the subsequent months of April. In fact, we normally see 4.8” of snow on average every April. You may also notice that one of those years we had snow in May, as well.
Taking this information into account gives us a clue that we will most likely see another round of snow in April before we are completely done. However, we all know that the snowy season in Central New York only has a small amount of shelf life left before even warmer and more consistent pleasant weather becomes commonplace.
