And The Winner Is....

I'm not sure they're proud of it, but the current snow capital of America is Copenhagen, NY, a village of 801 souls just 80 miles north of me.

Copenhagen, N.Y. -- The snowiest place in America is Bill Hanchek's back yard just outside the Upstate New York village of Copenhagen, pop. 801.

More than 21 feet has fallen on Hanchek's small snowboard behind his house on River Road this season. That's more than any other spot in the United States as of Friday, including the Rockies and Alaska, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"It's more than usual," conceded Hanchek, who has been the official federal snow measurer for 23 years. "It's not unusually large yet, though."

Hanchek, who became a National Weather Service volunteer spotter after his wife, Kathy, saw a notice at the post office, recorded 358 inches in the winter of 2008-2009. Last winter, it was 325 inches.

Copenhagen lies in Upstate New York's Tug Hill region, perennially the snowiest area east of the Rockies. Tug Hill rises from the eastern end of Lake Ontario, and cold winter winds that whip across the lake pick up moisture and dumps aptly named lake effect snow, sometimes several feet per storm. While Buffalo gets national attention for its lake effect snows from Lake Erie, Lake Ontario stays open all winter while Erie freezes. That gives Tug Hill snow well into the spring.

In comparison, Syracuse has had 114 inches (9.5 ft.) of snow so far this season.