SYRACUSE -- I guess 178.9” of snow, countless cloudy days, and temperatures dropping way below 0° wasn’t enough for Syracuse to win one competition.
The city famous for winning the Golden Snowball Award several years in a row now was knocked out of the toughest weather in America contest - in the first round no less!
The online contest was run by the website Weather.com in conjunction with the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament. Right down to a 64 team field, cities across the northern parts of the continental United States were matched up head-to-head with one another. Visitors to the website were then able to cast their vote for the winner to advance to the next round.
Just as the Orange were stopped in their quest for the national championship, so was the city of Syracuse. A formidable opponent in Caribou, Maine knocked out what I think was a higher seed in the first round of the toughest weather competition.
Taking a look at Caribou weather statistics, the city averages less snow per year than Syracuse: 116” versus our 121”, and they average less precipitation, rain and snow combined, than Syracuse per year: 37.44” versus our 40.05”. It’s a draw between the cities when looking at the number of snowy days per winter at 64. Caribou has Syracuse beat when it comes to record cold; their -41° beats our -26° all-time record low, and while Syracuse averages 22.7° during the month of January, Caribou is down at 9.5°.
I think what may have put Caribou through to the next round, in triple overtime, was their record snowfall winter of 197.8” versus our 192.1”.
Caribou eventually was taken out of the competition in the third round by Bradford, Pennsylvania, who lost in the finals to Fargo, North Dakota. So as tough as our weather is here in Central New York, I guess we can be glad we don’t live in Fargo!
You can read more about the contest on Weather.com by clicking here. Take a look at then leave a comment below and let me know if you think Syracuse should have gone deeper. Maybe it is a good thing that we didn’t win. Also, you can read more stories like this and get forecast details anytime by friending me on Facebook.com by clicking here.
