It snowed so much ...

Weather Channel On-Camera Meteorologist Jim Cantore talks with The Syracuse Crunch Hockey team mascot "Al the Gorilla" while broadcasting live on the Weather Channel in Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse. To see Clinton Square right now, click here: web cam. Photo by the Post-Standard’s Nicholas Lisi

It snowed so much...
["Just how much did it snow?!"]
... it already snowed so much in Syracuse that they closed down Syracuse University for the first time since 1993! I was there the last time and remember it being pretty much a historical event it was so rare. Lucky me, I get to see history first-hand. Twice.

The Syracuse Daily Orange (the official student paper) dishes up the details in a steamy, cocoa-like warmness...

Syracuse University cancels afternoon, evening classes
"Wednesday morning, a Syracuse University committee comprised of administrators and department chairpersons decided to cancel all classes and student activities beginning at 12:45 p.m. The last time classes were canceled due to snow was Monday, March 15, 1993, after the Syracuse area received more than 43 inches of snow that weekend, Kevin Morrow, director of SU News Services said in an e-mail... The Weather Channel predicts 6 to 10 additional inches of snow today and another 4 to 6 inches tonight, according to its Web site."

So what's the big deal? You ask...The World's Best-Designed Newspaper (or Category One) judges finished their work Tuesday and have presumeably split town, but the main group of dozens of international judges, professional assistants -- and the entire staff of The SND International Web Desk -- are all in various states of trying to get to Syracuse through a network of shut-down, delayed and cancelled flights... or pysching themselves up to do so over the course of the next 48 hours. It remains to be seen if everyone will all arrive in time to begin the judging promptly (and really early) Saturday morning. There's a mountain of newspaper pages to judge, literally.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that “at least a trace of snow has fallen every day in Syracuse for more than a month. … As of 9 p.m. Monday, Syracuse's Hancock Airport had received 69.7 inches of snow this season. A total of 19.6 inches has fallen this month. The normal snowfall total for Syracuse through Monday is 78.1 inches.”

So what lies ahead? More of the same, sadly: snowy and cold. (Hey, it's winter in Syracuse, right?)
Thursday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 14 / Lo: 12
Friday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 23 / Lo: 13
Saturday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 26 / Lo: 22
Sunday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 25 / Lo: 8
Monday: Snow showers and windy Hi: 15 / Lo: 15

Meanwhile, in Orlando it'll be sunny and in the 60s and 70s all weekend. They're playing friggin' baseball down there. Does anybody remember that one day that it was sort of humid and it rained a little back in Orlando at the conference? Then it was sunny again? That was nice.