I remember it was Christmas Eve, and I hate to admit it, but I was not too interested in weather at the time, I rarely paid attention to the forecasts. It had been a mild winter so far, and grass was visible. It was my fiest winter in NNY, and people had warned me of the winters when I first got here. So far the weather had been dissapointing, and the one thing I really wanted was a white Christmas. We were driving to church for the Christmas Eve service when I first heard the forecast- snow; but the car was turned off before I could hear how much to expect. It was cloudy, and I hoped the forecast be accurate. After the service, the snow started to come down. It was going pretty hard on the drive home, but I had Christmas on my mind, not snow, and I ignored it.
Christmas morning when I woke up I was in for the suprise of my life- so far almost 3 feet had fallen, and it was still snowing! I couldn't even see the fire hydrant in the street next to my house- it was buried. I tried to shovel some so I could get the car out of the driveway, but I was no match for the 3 feet of snow. I didn't have anywhere to go anyways, so I enjoyed it...
The snow piled up even more, and soon we had over 50 inches accumulated. I had never seen such a thing in my life. The following is NWS data and pictures from the storm-
Maximum Snowfall: Lake Ontario: Montague 127"
Duration: 7 Days
Prime Feature: Longest lasting lake effect event on record. Record snowfalls, tremendous metropolitan impact. Not much wind. Temperatures not exceptionally cold.
Part I - Lake Ontario
The first part of the event on the 24th and 25th was limited to St. Lawrence and extreme northern Jefferson counties because the winds were out of a SSW direction. The large scale weather pattern which included the cut-off low over the Upper Great Lakes was too far west of the eastern shores of Lake Ontario to provide well organized snowbands. In fact, the highest snowfall totals were highest across Chaumont in northern Jefferson county. However, the traditional snowbelts over the Tug Hill Plateau reported very little snow.
Part II - Lake Ontario
During the night of the 26th and daytime hours of the 27th the snowband fired up again mainly across the northern parts of Jefferson county...north of Watertown. the snowband continued across the far northern portions of Jefferson county. Then on the 28th the band settled south across southern Jefferson and Lewis counties. Snowfall totals on the 28th were over 30 inches at Montague. Thunder and lightning were reported within the band that evening as snow fell at rates of 2 to 4 inches an hour. The winds remained out of generally a westerly direction...though small scale disturbances shifted the winds enough to make the band oscillate north and south across southern Jefferson and Lewis counties through the 30th, with Montague picking up another 4 feet of snow in a 24 hour period. By late on the afternoon of the 31st, the band narrowed and moved south into southern Lewis and northern Oswego counties. It continued through the early morning hours of the 1st before finally moving south and weakening.
Final Snow Totals from our Spotters
...OFF LAKE ONTARIO...
...JEFFERSON COUNTY...
.CARTHAGE.......... 54 INCHES
.REDWOOD........... 46 INCHES
.MANNSVILLE........ 43 INCHES
.ALEXANDRIA BAY.... 36 INCHES
.WELLSLEY ISLAND... 31 INCHES
.WATERTOWN......... 30 INCHES
.CLAYTON........... 21 INCHES
...LEWIS COUNTY...
.MONTAGUE.......... 127 INCHES
.HIGHMARKET........ 104 INCHES
.N. OSCEOLA........ 86 INCHES
.HOOKER............ 64 INCHES
.BARNES CORNERS.... 62 INCHES
.LOWVILLE.......... 48 INCHES
.BRANTINGHAM....... 42 INCHES
