More ice than usual

RIVER VALLEY — It might seem like we had more snow in January than is normal for the region, but according to data from the National Weather Service (NWS), that’s not the case. The station at Scranton, PA reports that there was about 11.4 inches of snow, slightly less than the normal 13.5 inches; the station at Binghamton, NY reports that there has been 25.3 inches, which is a bit higher than the normal 20.5 inches. But what is somewhat higher than usual is the number of days with snow or freezing rain: in Scranton, there were 24 days with measurable snow and seven days with freezing rain, in Binghamton, there were 24 with snow and six days with freezing rain. A spokesman for the NWS said the service doesn’t keep records of freezing rain totals but in his opinion this was higher than normal.