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I'm Steve Fybish. I'm going to recite from memory the amount of snowfall in inches, including tenths of inches, that was officially recorded at Central Park from 1869-70 through 1999-2000. I want to emphasize the fact that I don't have a cheat-sheet. I haven't written these numbers on the palm of my hand or along my arm.

It all began in 1869 to 70: 27.8 inches. 1870-71: 33.1.

Things I guess sort of crystallized, as far as my being a real weather expert, in the winter of 1976-77, when we had an exceptionally cold stretch of months from September on. So that really got me going, and before I knew it I was trying to work up patterns of recurring phases of New York weather in particular, or US weather and global weather beyond that.

. . . and that propelled 1874-75 to number four on the list of snowiest winters, getting ahead of 1872-73 . . .

If people were more aware of some of the more esoteric records that were sort of up for grabs during a dry spell and so on I think they would have some fun. If they don't know about them then they can't do anything except to say "Boy, it's sure been cold for a long time." "Wow, you know, this heat is really getting to me."

1915-16, this gets sort of interesting: 50.7 inches . . .

I am quite a snow fan. I think "No two snowflakes are alike" is a well-known cliché . . .

1926-27 . . .

You've got these big fluffy flakes and you've got these sort of granular ones. And it whirls and it swirls in a dancing sort of a way.

1930-31: 11.6, mnemonically valuable because 1950 to '51 was also 11.6.

I don't like the idea of snow as something that I whiz around in at high speed. I do enjoy touching and feeling the snow when it's around. I don't obsess about it, but I like to get my hands on it and maybe have a little taste of it, since that's one of the purer forms of water that we're likely to encounter here in the Big Apple.

'72-'73, the least snowy of all the winters: 2.8 inches.

I also like hail. I don't think I'd really like to really be in a hail storm, but I've read quite a lot about what hail can do when it really gets going.

82-83: 27.2 inches, which I corrected from an erroneous 29.2 inches because they had two inches extra for February when we had a big snow . . .

So now I guess I'm sort of the Mr. Erudition on the subject of the weather of New York City and I rather like the idea that I can answer the question, "Where are the snows of yesteryear?"

. . . 12.7. '99-2000: a whopping 16.3 . . .

And that's the winter snowfall for the last 131 going on 132 winters at New York's famed and beautiful Central Park. Not the easiest thing to do, but it's kind of fun!

Produced by David Miller / Executive producers: David Isay and Stacy Abramson / Music consultants: Pete Sokolow and Henry Sapoznik. / Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to Steve Zeitlin at City Lore in New York City.

"Stephen Fybish, Weather Historian" premiered March 7, 2001, on Morning Edition. Copyright © 2001 Sound Portraits Productions. All Rights Reserved.

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This piece is available in the following audio formats [3:34 min]:
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		A list of the snowiest NYC winters, compiled by Stephen Fybish

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