What Happened To Winter In Buffalo?

We are into the month of January ... so where is the snow, heck where is Winter?

It was a "green" Christmas, the ski resorts are open, but just "barely", missing out on Christmas week, usually their biggest week of the year. The forecast calls for highs in the 40's today and the 30's tomorrow and even warmer when we get to mid week. The Farmer's Almanac called for "average temps, but a very stormy and snowy" Winter for our area.

So I decided a call to the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service was in order. Meteorologist Dave Thomas was nice enough to answer my questions, beginning with how far behind are we in snowfall for Buffalo as of 1/8/12? The answer 37 inches, as if that weren't enough Lake Erie is still wide open at 39 degrees (5 degrees above the January norm). So is it possible that the Lake will not freeze over this year? It has not frozen 4 times since record keeping began, most recently in the 2001-2002 Winter season. For those of us who are native Western New Yorker's we know that an "unfrozen" lake dramatically increases our risk of lake effect snowstorms.

So is there any cold weather on the way? Meteorologist Dave says weather models show below normal temperatures toward the end of next week...but, it doesn't look as if they will last.

All I can say, is every day without snow, is a day closer to spring!