Heavy Snow in New York, February 24 to 25, 1998

A powerful storm system moved from the Tennessee Valley to the Delmarva coast. Once there, the storm intensified rapidly as it only gradually moved further offshore. The combination of cold air in place, a deep easterly flow of Atlantic moisture, and intense upper level energy produced widespread heavy snow across central New York. Snow began falling just after midnight on the 24th. It quickly became heavy as it persisted through the day, not tapering off until early in the morning on the 25th. A relatively narrow band of very heavy snow set up during the morning of the 24th from sections of the Mohawk Valley southward across Chenango and eastern Broome counties. By the time the storm wound down, snowfall tallies of 20 to 30 inches were common in this corridor. The highest official total was 30 inches in Conklin Forks in southern Broome county. Several reports of near 30 inch totals were also received from higher elevation sections of Chenango county. The heavy wet nature of the snow also brought down numerous power lines that resulted in widespread outages. In some more isolated locations, power was not restored for 3 to 4 days. Across much of the remainder of central New York, 10 to 20 inch amounts were common. From valley sections of Sullivan county into southern Delaware county, somewhat lesser amounts of 4 to 12 inches were recorded. Several hours of sleet and freezing rain mixed in across these locations, helping to keep snowfall accumulations down. The higher elevations in this region saw amounts approaching a foot. This included such places as Dale Mountain in Sullivan county and Stamford in Delaware county.