howdy1960

Well-known Member
According to Yahoo News "for U.S. cities with more than 50,000 people, the snow crown goes to Syracuse, New York, which averages around 9 feet of snow every year". Makes going to work in Syracuse interesting some days.
To think Syracuse isn't even in the snow belt areas east of Lake Ontario or Lake Erie (Buffalo)
 
I have been there in the summer and in front of the maint. building for INT. 90 there is a huge wing plow. On it is painted something to the effect that they get over 135 inches of snow a year. Now I went up a week after the big lake effect snow I guess five or six years ago and the storm was two days and the effect went on for a total of just short of ONE WEEK. Just east of Oswego, NY and a little north a town got over 185 inches at one shot! The weather beaura showed two days later to measure the snow and it had started to settle. It came in under the 180 mark and the town folk were fit to be tied but "official" is what they used. When I went through Mexico,NY they had used a rotary snow plow like the big airports use to dig the town out. You hook a tractor and trailer up to this machine backwards and tow it till it is full. Then the next truck backs up the path and so on. I saw drifts that were well over 15 feet deep. That means the top window of the house is your new DOOR! I know out in the Rockies you get some deep stuff like this but in the east I was just dumb founded. The motel in Fulton,NY uses a 10hp snow blower up on their roof when the manager can"t get his office door open. That means the snow load is getting too much. That area up there is so pretty in the summer but I don"t think I want to play with that mess.
 
Oh come on up as it's great here right now.

There are a few vids of 'lake effect snow Central square NY' on youtube but they are pretty lame. This is the town we pay school taxes to. Our zip code is Fulton NY.
A few people from work live in Fulton and they didn't come in for 3 days after the storm your talking about. It was the year before we bought this place. I'm sure happy Sadie, my 43 2N w/FEL runs mostly good so far.
 
Just go on you tube and look up the Blizzard of 77 and 78. Several feet of snow, cars buried, trucks buried. That lake effect snow with the drifting is downright scary. I have never seen more than 3 feet of snow drifted in one dumping. I cannot fathom 8 feet.
 
We are already at 16.6 FEET of total snowfall for the season and its only January UP here.

When the lake effect snow gets going like it is now its nothing for it to snow for weeks on end.
 
Have family in Mexico Ny.. Apple growers with upick berries just northwest on town. Worked helping them when I was a kid. Nice country in the summer. Lot of rocks in the soil, and it gets way to cold for me in the winter. Usaully only help picking apple till end of Oct before I was ready to head home to Florida.
 
Sounds like the Tugg Hill region :O
That's one area I hope to never live in without BIGger snow tools
 
I live NE of Watertown, NY which gets more snow most years than Syracuse. The city is on the eastern side of lake Ontario and in direct line for those lake effect snows that can dump several inches of snow per hour when conditions are right.
Here we get snow but seldom more than a few inches at a time although we do have occasions where we get much more.
The snow does not cause us much concern because we are prepared for it and we go about our daily activities. Our highway crews keep the roads open and sanded and safe to drive on.
For those who live in the warmer south my advice is that you should stay there because I doubt that you have the toughness to handle this awfull place.
 
I live about 15 miles from Mexico. We have gotten a lot of snow sometimes in the 12 years I have been here, but never that much in one storm.
Zach
 
I remember in I think it 2007 Mexico had over 100" of snow. We went to Williamstown to look at a tractor, dealer told us wait a week for the snow clean-up. Lol
 
Watertown got hammered the other week. I don't recall too many times they have closed 81 for a couple days from the snow. I almost felt bad for you folks up there but was real happy was you and not us lol
 
Just drove through a blizzard in Watertown to get to Syracuse airport because my flight out of Watertown was cancelled this morning.
 
We get spoiled UP here by road crews that keep the roads open no matter what, its very rare that a road gets closed for any length of time because of snow. Lots of plows and drivers on duty 24/7 means you can just about always get where you want to go.
 
In February 2007 (I think) we had 12 feet of snow in two weeks here in Orwell and the National Guard was brought into the hamlet to shovel out the intersection. Out here on the fringe we were assisted by the town payloader which came and pushed back our snowbanks and piled them up higher. Back then I was still plowing with a back blade so I could only pile snow 4-5 feet high at best.
Zach
 
Only THREE FOOT DRIFTS , that is nothingin 77-78 i was going thru drifts with my pick up that were a foot above the bubble gum machine setting on the roof rack on top for a 73 Ford F250 and we had several roads that had drifts as deep as 30 feet deep and those county roads required something a little more substantial to DIG them out as these drifts were in places a mile long . Took two Cat 992 and a half dozen 988 a couple 475 Michigan loaders a week to dig them out . And this was just in my little corner . I was the one WITH a pick up that opened up about eight miles of a state highway so we could get a young girl out of her home to the hospital . To get to her home my buddy and i carved a path across open fields thru three ft. yards on hedge row and once i had him in there i went ahead and busted out the drifts on the state highway . If hitting the drifts at 35-40 MPh did not get the job done just back out and get a better run for it . I had to beat my way thru one drift five times to make thru as it was over a quarter mile long and seven to eight feet deep. At the North end of that drift was a state bear and a state truck setting there looking at this drift as the state truck could not get thru . I called the bear on the C B and told him to get the state truck out of my road as i was coming thru that drift as there was another 4x4 coming up behind me with a young girl that needed to get to the hospital . He told me that all i was going to do was get stuck . I Backed down over the hill and got a decent run on it and hit it at about 45 and went in about 3-400 feet before i felt the truck start to spin and went into rev. and backed out . when ya hit the drift everything went into white out mode as you could not see a thing . Ya did not have to even steer as you were in a slot car track . The wind was blowing at about 40 MPH and it was way below 0 . When i was out of the cut and the wind blew away the snow i could see how far i made it and i was impressed . IF 45 was good then 55 will be better so back down the hill past tower road and back into drive and foot on the floor and hit the drift again going further into it and when the truck started to hoop slam it into rev. and back out and stop and look when the snow cleared . This is working real well , we'll hit it harder so back down past tower road and again drive floor board the old Ford and the 428 S/CJ that i stuffed into that truck did her thing and this time i was running well over 65 when i dropped the plow instant white out could not see a thing and this time there was no hopping jumping spinning as i was still moving . Something told me to stop and i slamed on the brakes and slid to a stop and when the snow cleared my plow was withing a foot of the side of the bears car. and i was setting window to window with Mr. Smokey E Bear . He and i roll down our windows and the first thing out of his mouth was Give this boy two gallon of yellow paint and two DOT stickers for his door , just how many more drift can you bust thru ?? and about that time her come Mikey screaming past with the girl her parents in a red blur headed to town . The rest of the morning myself the bear and the lone state truck worked on getting atleast a lane and a half opened all but where the lone semi that was buried almost to the tips of his exhaust stacks . we were able to bypass that area till we could get bigger equipment in to DIG that out and that took two 988 Cats six hours of digging to get to it . 77 Myself and Mikey worked non stop for over 92 hours . We cut paths thru field to get milk trucks in hauled in grocery fuel oil Coal people water what ever it took . we did not wait for the Gov. as the locals all chipped in . We set up a command point at the little gas station and between the C B's and phone lines that was all that was needed and when the Gov did respond they were a bigger problem as we had to go a rescue them as they were getting stuck and stranded . Mikey and i had to go rescue the crew from a tank retriever that got stuck in a snow drift on a back road . They were trying to get a path thru to a farm that needed toget there milk hauled out . Got the crew out and instead of trying to open the road we cut a path thru the field where the snow was only a foot or two deep then back on to the road and back thru a couple more fields wright up to the barn and milk house .
 
Years ago Rt 177 across Tug Hill was a Lewis County Road. The County highway dept had a couple of old war surplus snowblowers. Big old Oskgosh (spelling?) trucks and huge 8 or 10 foot blowers maybe. The trucks had 4 wheel steering. At the point where 177 became a State highway, the Lewis County State DOT in Lowville took over the responsilbility for snow removal. There was a bit of a learning curve for the State DOT guys and they took a good bit of ribbing from the County highway boys. If memory serves me, I believe the DOT used the county's snowblowers a few times to clear out the road. The blizzard of 77/78 one of the county fellows told me he was opening up the Sears Pond road off 177 and he plowed a car right over the snow bank that was in the road and completely buried. Fortunately there was no one in the car.
 
I think we're both right it was February 2007, I see Orwell isn't far from Pulaski?? my brother goes there salmon fishing on Lake Ontario. I haven't been out that far yet but he tells me it's nice. I've been to Camden and Williamstown which isn't too far from you. The place was Kennedy tractor.
 

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