The Golden Snowball Award is an annual award presented to the city in

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

that receives the most snowfall in a season. The original award was the result of a friendly competition of

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offices in Upstate. It was originally conceived after the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977. After the

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and Syracuse offices closed in the mid-1990s, the competition died out. The award was revived during the 2002–2003 snowfall season when Patrick DeCoursey started up a website to inform people of this fun snow contest from the past. This was the start of the revival of the snow contest that dated back to the late '70s. Syracuse won that season and they had won every year from then through the 2010–2011 season as well. In the 2011–2012 season, Rochester was the first city other than Syracuse to win since the award's revival. They also receive temporary possession of a trophy for the year. The original competition's trophy went missing, prompting its replacement with a new one donated by a trophy shop in Syracuse. The current Golden Snowball trophy resides in Binghamton City Hall. Compared to Syracuse's average snowfall of 127.8 inches, or over 10 feet per year,

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's annual snow average is a relatively small 2–3 feet per year in the city and about 3–4 feet per year in nearby suburbs. This is due to a number of factors, including lower latitude and oceanic influence keeping much of the precipitation as rain in the winter, combined with distance from the Great Lakes keeping the city well away from the influence of lake-effect snow. For the first time ever, during the 2005–2006 winter season New York City did have more snowfall than Albany, mainly due to the Blizzard of 2006, which was the city's biggest snowfall to date, while Albany was on the extreme northern fringe. The cities that compete for the award are: * Albany *

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

* Buffalo *

* Syracuse Until the 2006–2007 season, several smaller cities also competed for a smaller award, that includes a $50 check. These are: *

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* Oswego * Utica *

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Winners of the Golden Snowball

* 2002–2003: Syracuse * 2003–2004: Syracuse * 2004–2005: Syracuse * 2005–2006: Syracuse * 2006–2007: Syracuse * 2007–2008: Syracuse * 2008–2009: Syracuse * 2009–2010: Syracuse * 2010–2011: Syracuse * 2011–2012: Rochester * 2012–2013: Syracuse * 2013–2014: Syracuse * 2014–2015: Syracuse * 2015–2016: Syracuse * 2016–2017: Binghamton * 2017–2018: Syracuse * 2018–2019: Buffalo (Refused Award) * 2019–2020: Rochester * 2020–2021: Binghamton * 2021–2022: Buffalo

Snowfall by season

Note: Official

snowfall statistics were not kept at the current locations for Binghamton and Syracuse until the 1951–52 season. All measurements are in inches. Snowiest Season for all Golden Snowball Cities: Buffalo 199.4 inches (1976-77) Least Snowiest Season for all Golden Snowball Cities: Albany 13.8 inches (1912-13)

Max, min and average snowfall by city

Albany

Max: 112.5 inches (1970-71) Min: 13.8 inches (1912-13) Average: 59.2 inches

Binghamton

Max: 135.2 inches (2016-17) Min: 32.0 inches (2015-16) Average: 86.5 inches

Buffalo

Max: 199.4 inches (1976-77)This is due to the Blizzard of 77. Min: 36.7 inches (2011-12) Average: 95.4 inches

Rochester

Max: 161.7 inches (1959-60) Min: 41.7 inches (1952-53) Average: 102.0 inches

Syracuse

Max: 192.1 inches (1992-93) Min: 50.6 inches (2011-12) Average: 127.8 inches

References

* *{{cite web , url=http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?clip=5538&collection=videocoll26&nav=141&from=abramsandbettes , title=A fierce snowball competition , accessdate=2007-02-23 , format=Video , work=

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: Abrams & Bettes , url-status=dead
Golden Snowball is symbol of upstate winters. So where is it?
by Sean Kirst for ''The Buffalo News''; December 15, 2016.

External links

The Golden Snowball Award
Ironic and humorous awards Snow in the United States New York (state) culture Upstate New York Community awards American awards