Parts of Upstate New York have seen tons over snow over the past few days -- at least eight feet of it. The latest tally is 85 inches in Oswego country according to a 1010 WINS story. Some towns in Upstate New York have received 120 inches plus.
Persistent bands of squalls have swung up and down this part of central New York along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario since last Sunday, prompting Gov. Eliot Spitzer to declare a state disaster emergency in Oswego County.
The National Weather Service said Parish — about 25 miles northeast of Syracuse — reached a milestone early Saturday morning: 100 inches of snow over the past seven days. That was pushed to 110 inches by early Sunday with fresh snowfall. Unofficial reports pegged snowfall totals at 123 inches in Orwell and 131 in Redfield, but the weather service said those numbers included snow from a storm a couple of days before the latest run.
The winter wonderland was a magnet for snowmobilers, with one caveat — stopping was out of the question. Dan Hojnacki of Syracuse was having a blast, flying over snowbanks along Main Street until his yellow Ski-Doo ground to a halt in a small field and he struggled mightily to get it out.
"You can't stop or you're done," Hojnacki, 23, said. "I never got stuck until today, and I've been snowmobiling for 10 years."
Hojnacki figured to have plenty of company before the day ended. After a morning respite, the storm picked up in earnest just after noon Saturday, cutting visibility to near zero.
Photographs and footage from the snow weary area show mountains of snow, buried cars and people shoveling snow off their roofs. Some photographs can be found at 9WSYR, News10Now, Flickr and the BBC.
Stu Ostro explains why the snow keeps banding over the same areas in this post on the Weather Channel Blog. There is some long overdue snow coming for the Northeast this week. Accuweather's Henry Margusity is predicting a big storm with a widespread area getting a foot or more of snow.
Update: See a video of people digging out from all the snow here.
Parts of Upstate New York have seen tons over snow over the past few days -- at least eight feet of it. The latest tally is 85 inches in Oswego country according to a 
