Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - We've all heard the staggering totals. 80 inches of snow in Orchard Park. Just over three feet at the Buffalo Airport. It begs the question, how do they measure snow?
"I am in the snow zone," said Meteorologist Andy Parker who lives in Orchard Park. "I am in the direct center, not far from where that measurement was taken. And there's not 80 inches stacked on the ground."
Parker explained how snow is measured.
There are two ways to measure it. "There's snow depth," said Parker. "That's where you go out and you put a yardstick into the snow and come up with the measurement."
The other way involves a board. "The snow falls on a board and at a certain interval, you put a ruler in it. Then you sweep it off and start again, adding up the numbers." Parker said that's how the 80 inches was reached in Orchard Park. "It snows, and gets wiped, it snows and wiped, over and over again. That's how they got to 80," he said.
Parker said it's a bone of contention in the town. "People are saying, I don't have 80 inches outside my window. And that's true, because snow compacts as it hits the ground."
If you think about it, the 80 inches in Orchard Park is close to a season's worth of snow in a weekend.
Parker has been doing the math on that.
"The airport has 36.9 inches of snow (as of Monday morning). With a season average of 95 inches, they already have about 40% of their average snow total," said Parker.
In a normal season, Orchard Park gets more snow than the airport. 120 to 130 inches of snow is the average for the Southtowns community. 80 inches represents about 75% of an entire snowfall for a season came over the course of a weekend. That's a massive amount of snow," added Parker.
