Any horror story about the Syracuse weather may, at present time, seem irrelevant – perhaps even impossible – with what the city has been experiencing lately. But don’t count on it keeping up for too much longer. The streets will soon be littered with snow (white, brown and even yellow), despite any wishful thinking. And don’t forget about the cold.

Is the weather really that bad? Well, yes. You’ll learn to love it in due time, but chances are the weather is even worse than you’ve heard.

But don’t take our word for it. Talk to NBC3 meteorologist Chris Brandolino, the man bringing us the weather from 5 to 7 each morning and then again at noon.

Is the Syracuse weather all it’s cracked up to be in the rumors?Chris Brandolino: They’re all true. Last year was as bad as it gets. Usually you have bitter cold or you have a lot of heavy snow. We had both. It was ridiculous.

What makes it so bad?CB: We average about 117 inches a year in snow. The big thing is the lack of sun because of (Lake Ontario). So even if you only have snow flurries, you’re going to have cloud cover. A lot of it is because of Lake Ontario.

How does Lake Ontario come into play?CB: You have a large body of open water, one of the Great Lakes in our case, and you have cold moist air moving over the lake. The cold air and warm water – relatively speaking – allows for rising air that has moisture from the lake, which condenses. Then you’ve got cloud cover and snow. The wind is the steering wheel.

The wind pushes the snow directly from Lake Ontario to Syracuse?CB: It’s a very localized phenomenon. The snow belt is from Syracuse to Watertown. And that makes Syracuse the snowiest metropolitan city in the country. This is a fact. There are snowier places, but they’re smaller in population.

Is Lake Ontario the sole reason for our troubled winters?CB: We don’t get too many more than eight or 10 inches from a lake effect event or storm. But we get nickeled and dimed. We’ll get four inches, six inches, a handful of seven or eight inches – that’s pure lake effect. Then there are the Nor’easters that we get that cities like Boston and Philly get.

How long into the springtime does this weather last?CB: In the springtime, there’s no spring. In March, there’s no sun. Even in April. We have a very minimal spring. You’re just getting beat down. You’ll get tickled and teased a little bit, but nothing really happens until May. We go from winter, with a minimal spring and then right into summer.

Then how come the summer and fall are so nice?CB: What happens in the warmer season from May to September, the air passing over the lake is no longer cold and you’re not going to get lake effect. In the summer, it’s the opposite. And that makes for some beautiful weather. The Lake giveth and the Lake taketh.

Published on August 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm