[Overpaid Slacker]

Dateline: Syracuse.

Most of the snow has belted the area described above by Bill V.
Perhaps strangely to those not familiar with our terroir, the worst of it is not the furthest north. It's about halfway between here and Watertown, in the environs of Mexico, Oswego and Hastings (Google map 'em).

The reason, IMHO, is that we had an unusually mild early winter. As a result, the Great Lakes remained unfrozen, and with all the "fetch" the cold air has over open water (instead of ice) that area is getting a ton of lake-effect snow at a time of year that the worst of it is usually over.

In prior years, the LE snow would come earlier in the winter, before the lakes froze, and by this point there would be no liquid water available, so it'd just be very cold and windy.

Evidently we're in for it tonight/tomorrow. Thing is, tho'... we're geared up to handle ridiculous amounts of snow. Our DPW, plows, sanders, etc. can keep primary and secondary roads serviceable, if not clean, at sustained snowfall rates of a few inches an hour.

AFAIC, if the roads are open, there's not much difference between 2" of snowfall and 24" of snowfall. 140" is another story (storey!) entirely.

They actually circulated the "office closing due to inclement weather" policy via email this afternoon, so I guess someone is taking the threat seriously.

JP