Winter Storm Stella dumps two feet of snow in Cortland County

Beaudry Park, Cortland, NY (Photo by Elias Kushner)

CORTLAND, N.Y. — Winter Storm Stella will likely go down as one of the biggest blizzards in upstate New York history.

The Nor'Easter storm moved up the East Coast Tuesday night, and heavy snow quickly spread across parts of central New York and Pennsylvania.

About 24 inches of snow fell in Cortland County, according to preliminary estimates from The National Weather Service.

The city of Binghamton was one of the hardest hit areas in the Southern Tier, getting a walloping 31.3 inches of snow. That breaks the previous recorded snowfall total of 23 inches set in February 1961. Binghamton is also just 4 inches shy of the all-time seasonal snowfall of 131.3 inches that was set in 1994. Interestingly, Binghamton received an all-time low record snowfall last year of just 32 inches.

This map from the National Weather Service shows snowfall total estimates for parts of New York and Pennsylvania.

 

In Cortland County, the sheriff's office implemented a travel ban on all county roads at 2 p.m. Tuesday. The ban was lifted at 8 a.m. Wednesday, though Sheriff Mark Helms says drivers should expect roads and highways to remain snow-covered and slippery through Thursday morning .

Snow showers, blowing snow and sub-zero wind chills will continue Wednesday evening into Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Several more inches of snow are possible.

Temperatures will drop into the low and mid-teens tonight, then rise into the 20s by Thursday.

If you have grown weary of Stella's wrath, you can look forward to highs around 35 degrees on Friday, and temperatures could reach 40 degrees on Saturday.