The Morning Blog is brought to you by the Penn Mountain Sno-Riders! Established in 1969 with over 100 miles of groomed trails across Northern Oneida and Central Herkimer Counties, this club is a major club in the region with one of the larger club memberships in the entire state of New York! For decades, this club has always been amazing at what it has been able to accomplish through the dedicated network of volunteers and hard workers! For more information CLICK HERE.

SNOWMOBILING BEGINS FOR ALL OF NEW YORK STATE AT SUNSET TONIGHT! PLEASE BE SURE THE TRAILS CAN BE OPEN, IN YOUR AREA, IF YOU CHOOSE TO RIDE. YOU CAN ALWAYS STAY UP TO DATE ON WHICH TRAILS ARE OPEN AND CLOSED THROUGH THE NYSSA APP! REMEMBER THIS POSTED ON THE NYSSA SITE THIS MORNING:

Remember trails are not open until the local club says that they are. Hunting season or no hunting season, snow or no snow. They are not open until the club says so!

Good Morning Upstate Snow Nation! Happy New Year! Zack, myself and everyone on the team wish you nothing but the best in 2026 and beyond! What a year we have had so far. We have so much stuff to get to so let us go get em!

POST MORTEM ON THE MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY STORM
Now that we have rung in the new year, the snow fell fast and furiously, even during the ball drop at midnight (did you see that Utica???). As of yesterday morning Utica was up to 59.2″ for the season! Do you realize we have all of January, February and March to go, and we need just over 30″ to make it an ABOVE NORMAL WINTER??? That’s what being a TOP 10 WINTER in November and December combined does to your numbers! Is it the most we have EVER been at for this point in the season? Nope. But if we are not top 10 we are awful dang close to it!

What about the rest of the state besides my hometown where I was born and raised? We handled this storm well. For the most part. Most areas we got, in particular with the big accumulations. We went HUGE for Syracuse. BOY DID THEY DELIVER WITH THEIR SECOND BIGGEST ONE DAY SNOW ON RECORD! Not since the BLIZZARD OF 1993 has Syracuse seen this! In areas where the snow was way behind, the bands came in yesterday and caught them up IN A HURRY! Some places in the 20-36 zone had next to NOTHING yesterday morning. By the ball drop, they had their snow. Or like Worth in Jefferson County, missed it by that much!!!

I AM SORRY
To folks in Wayne County, Northern Cayuga County, Oswego County (particularly Fulton to Oswego) and into coastal Jefferson County, PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES. I WAS VERY WRONG. I WENT WAY OVER ON ACCUMULATIONS FOR YOU. You got nowhere near what I had expected. The lake, even though it is at a normal temperature for this time of year, dropped so much moisture, it really took down the snow totals within the first 10-15 miles of the lake. Just don’t ask folks in Syracuse about the lake. In the same storm I blew it for you, I nailed it for them.

WHERE ARE WE NOW
It’s cold but nowhere near records. This isn’t 2018 all over again. But it definitely one of the colder starts to the year since that brutal late 2017 to early 2018 stretch. The snow showers and lake effect squalls have become a lot more limited now.

As factors which will come together to produce more lake effect snow, particularly this time off of Lake Ontario, this takes over our forecast starting this evening then goes through tomorrow and Saturday.

The lake effect snow is present off of Lake Erie. It really is even though you don’t see it anywhere near as much as off of Lake Ontario. Expect activity to get better organized tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night. From tonight through early Saturday looks to be the best chance for most of this snow. Again there is not much. This is a 2 1/2 day forecast. Please bear this in mind.

NEXT WEEK THE SNOW FADES AWAY
By Saturday afternoon as you see most of the lake effect snow is lifting away and is gone. And we get into a pattern next week, which has been showing up consistently for several days, and it’s time to bring it out to you after 60″ of snow ti start the winter in Central New York: THE JANUARY THAW

8-14 DAY
Now it’s January so even if it is above normal, that could only be at to just above freezing. That won’t be a killing warmth like above normal in March can be. We have much in our favor. For now. Good snow pack. Good riding conditions for a good portion of the state once the holiday season hunt is over with at sundown tonight.