Chardon City officials are watching the weather closely. They report that the city is close to breaking its all-time snowfall record - set in the winter of 1959-60 - and more snow is possible overnight.

After the last big blast, the city was officially up to 148.1 inches, just about 13 inches under the 161.4 record.

"That's one good snowstorm away," said City Manager Dave Lelko, as he pored over statistics on the city's website at: http://www.chardon.cc/snowfall.html (This season's numbers have yet to be updated).

While this week's precipitation isn't expected to drop heavy amounts of the white stuff, the records - kept since 1952 - show that average snowfall for March is nearly 16 inches, and two feet of it has been dropped on the city in April twice within the last six years (three times since 1952).

Should no more snow drop this spring, the snow total would still rank fifth in recorded history. The closest the tally has come before is 157.6 inches during the 2004-2005 season.

"It's been a long winter, and I know everyone's tired of it," Lelko said.



-- Betsy Scott, BScott@News-Herald.com