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I concur with above posters, but also would include the northeastern part the of the state as well. Just imagine seeing the snow covered mountains of the Adirondacks out of your window on Christmas morning, oh how I miss it!
If you want a larger city with A LOT of snow...Buffalo, Rochester or Syracuse...with Syracuse getting the most. The snowiest area would be the tughill plateau area and around Oswego or north to Watertown (smaller towns-small cities).
Actually Buffalo only gets about 100" of snow (not really that high for upstate NY standards), you get double that amount in ski country south of Buffalo, towns like Mayville, Sherman, Findley Lake, Ellicottville, Springville, etc. which are south or east of the ridge along Lake Erie.
But lake effect snow is unpredictable and crazy. It's not all that uncommon to have no snow at Christmas, but you could also get a storm in late October. I think the Adirondacks is the most reliable place for snow (and most scenic) because of the elevation.
the Nor'easters..............................What the ADKs lack in elevation and snow storms off the Great Lakes, they can make up for in other systems that come through. There is a reason they put the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.................Actually went hiking to a peak last weekend that was "only" 4200 and yes, at about 4,000 there was definitely some snow. Mts. Marcy, Whiteface, Algonquin and Wright Peak had snow covered peaks as well. It was very pretty due to all the leaf color changes and contrasts. I think we had every northeastern state (and Ottawa and Quebec up here hiking...........saw NJ plates, Ma, CT, of course VT and tons of our Canadian friends........oh and PA and only one lone Florida plate and one California plate as well. I don't mind at all. It is great to meet new people getting out and enjoying our backyard playground. It is funny how many people are getting the heck out of the cities now, though.............Guess telecommunting can do that for you. We have friends who build log homes and they are about the only business I can think of in the housing industry that are really busy right now..........must be those golden parachutes (from NYC?) coming down in the mountain retreat areas...............?????????
If what you are looking for is HUGE amounts of snow....
then yes, by all means go to Oswego and that entire area.....Fulton, Mexico, Tughill Plateau......I helped my friend's daughter move both in and out of SUNY Oswego one year and that winter, they had so much snow in one 24 hour period, the stop signs were unreadable (7 feet of snow?) and they actually ran out of places for the dump trucks to take the snow off the streets.........Then, in MAY (!), we helped move her out of her dorm and on that afternoon, we got about another inch or two of snow! This was mid- May...........I had lived in upstate NY for twenty years at that point, but I have never ever seen anything like that. We get Noreasters and fairly consistent snow cover particularly in the Lake Placid, Saranac Lake area, but not the huge squalls and dumps that happen in that Great Lakes area of NY. The Oswego kids were joking about having to find their cars in the spring when most of the snow melted and they could dig them out after not using them all winter long because they were completely buried in the parking lots.
That's a lot of snow.
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