Erie, Pennsylvania, May Top 200 Inches of Seasonal Snow, Topping the All-Time Snowiest Winter For Any Large U.S. City; But There's a Caveat

Erie, Pennsylvania, is nearing 200 inches of snow this season, shattering not only its own seasonal snow record, but also threatening an all-time seasonal snow record for any large U.S. city.

As of early Thursday morning, the northwestern Pennsylvania city along the shores of Lake Erie had picked up 198.5 inches of snowfall this season, crushing its previous seasonal snow record of 149.1 inches from 2000-01.

As if that's not impressive enough, Erie's snowfall may also top the seaonal record for any U.S. city of at least 100,000 population.

That 199.4-inch seasonal total in Buffalo in 1976-77 is a modern record for U.S. cities with a population of at least 100,000, the Buffalo News reported, citing data from Patrick DeCoursey of the Golden Snow Globe National Snow Contest.

(MORE: Latest Erie, Pennsylvania, Radar | Forecast)

Besides Buffalo – and now Erie – the only other large U.S. city to record a seasonal snowfall total over 190 inches is Syracuse, New York, according to DeCoursey's data. This happened in the winters of 1992-93 (192.1 inches) and 2000-01 (191.9 inches).

To put this season's snow in perspective, Marquette, Michigan (203.6 inches) and Crested Butte, Colorado (206.7 inches) are two smaller U.S. cities with a population less than 100,000 that average around 200 inches of snowfall each year.

Christmas Week Historic Lake-Effect Snow Recap, With an Asterisk

This Erie seasonal snowfall total was largely due to a prolific Christmas week snowstorm.

Before we lay out the numerous notables, we have to note the snowfall totals are preliminary, and there is some question about their validity.

As first laid out by Weather Underground's weather historian Christopher Burt in a mid-January Category 6 blog post, there are questions regarding the extreme amounts of snowfall reported relative to the much lower amounts of snow depth in the days surrounding the storm.

NOAA/National Weather Service spokeswoman Susan Buchanan told Weather Underground meteorologist Bob Henson an ad-hoc committee of meteorologists and climatologists met on April 9 and made some determinations about the validity of the Erie Christmas snowfall.

A final report is due out in the coming days, Buchanan said.

From Christmas Eve through Dec. 27, Erie's snow total was an astounding 65.9 inches. A stationary lake-effect snow band off Lake Erie dumped 33.8 inches of snow at Erie International Airport on Christmas Day alone, with an additional 26.5 inches on Dec. 26.

This prolific event shattered several Erie snowfall records that date to 1893, as well as a Pennsylvania state record, according to the National Weather Service office in Cleveland.

• All-time record for two-day snowfall in the state of Pennsylvania: 60.3 inches (Dec. 25-26); previous record was 44 inches in Morgantown on March 20-21, 1958.
• All-time record for snow in any single day in Erie: 33.8 inches (Dec. 25); previous record was 20 inches on Nov. 22, 1956.

Erie's records for two-day, three-day, seven-day and 13-day snowfall were also broken during this lake-effect event.

• Two-day snowfall: 26.7 inches (Nov. 24-25, 1950; the "Great Appalachian Storm")
• Three-day snowfall: 30.2 inches (Dec. 29-31, 2002)
• Seven-day snowfall: 39.8 inches (Dec. 27, 2001-Jan. 2, 2002)
• 13-day snowfall: 52.8 inches (Dec. 31, 1998-Jan. 12, 1999)

That's not a misprint. Erie picked up more snow in less than 36 hours in this event than its previous 13-day snowstorm record.

Needless to say, the 120.9 inches of snow in December was the city's snowiest single month on record, shattering the previous record of 66.9 inches in December 1989 by more than 4 feet.

That's also more snow in one month than Erie averages in an entire winter season – 100.9 inches.

What's more, this was also the snowiest month on record anywhere in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania state climatologist. The previous record was 113 inches in February 2010 at Laurel Summit in Somerset County.

(MORE: The Great Lakes' Amazing Lake-Effect Snowfall Records)

This wasn't just an Erie preliminary record smasher.

In central New York's Tug Hill Plateau, a 48-hour snowfall record for Oswego County may have been broken, with 62.2 inches of snow near the town of Redfield.

However, the National Weather Service would need to investigate the validity of this possible record since Redfield is not an official weather-observing site in its database.

Finally, Muskegon, Michigan, picked up 14.7 inches of snow on Dec. 29 alone, enough for one of its 10 snowiest days on record, according to the National Weather Service.

Brian Donegan is a meteorologist at weather.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.