GEDDES -- It’s been about two weeks since my first story on the weather for the Syracuse Crunch's Mirabito Outdoor Classic hockey game at the State Fairgrounds, scheduled for Saturday February 20 at 1:00 pm. But, although we are that much closer to this big event, it’s still way too early to be “nailing down” the weather for game day.
As I said in my last story, since we can’t actually predict the weather for the game at this time, the best thing we can do is go back and check past years and averages. This can give us at least an idea of what the conditions “could” be. In case you missed what those “averages” are, I have posted them again below.
With this update, I also want to give you something else to consider. I want you to consider “record weather”. Averages are always what you look at first, but despite averages, sometimes unusual conditions of one type or another can occur, and these can go down in the record books. It’s much like statistics used by the Crunch or any sports teams. For instance, the Crunch might average say three or four goals a game, but as we know, once in awhile they score more than three or four goals in a game, and we don’t like it, but sometimes its less than the average. It’s the same with the weather.
So first, let me restate the averages. If you are a believer in averages, I’ll do the math for you. For the past five February 20ths in Syracuse:
- The average high temperature: 29
- The average low temperature: 13
- The average snowfall: 2.3”
If you want to consider a longer term average, here are the averages for game day based on the past 107 years - since record keeping began in Syracuse.
- The average high temperature: 35
- The average low temperature: 16
Now lets talk about record weather for February 20 in Syracuse:
- Highest temperature ever: 65 degrees in 1930
- Coldest high temperature ever: 5 degrees in 1950
- Lowest temperature ever: -21 degrees in 1966 (also the 4th coldest temperature)
- The warmest low temperature ever: 50 degrees in 1966
- Snowiest day on record: 7.2” of snow in 1960
As we draw closer to February 20 I’ll start evolving from averages to an actual forecast. Keep checking back and stay tuned. And remember, when game day gets here, if there is any snow or rain around, you can track it with the CNYcentral.com Triple Doppler Radar.
