Shovel, scrape, repeat: This season is one of the snowiest ever in Rochester

If it seems like it's been snowing and snowing and snowing some more, you're not mistaken.

This has been one of the snowiest starts to the winter season that Rochester's ever seen.

Through Thursday, Rochester had measured just over 24 inches of snow since the first flakes fell on Nov. 1. 

That makes this season the ninth-snowiest to date since 1871, when official record-keeping began here. If Rochester gets the 3 inches of snow that were in the forecast for Friday, that would place this season in fifth place.

The bulk of the snow has fallen in two bursts — one that brought a startling 17 inches over three days in mid-November, and another that dropped 5 inches in early December.

It's been unusually cold at times since November began, meaning that snowfall lingered. There has been measurable snow on the ground in Rochester on 15 days so far this season — the third-highest total to date on record.

All this, and we still have two weeks remaining in astronomical autumn. (Meteorological winter began Dec. 1.)

However you label the season, solace is on the horizon. After flurries on Saturday, temperatures will warm into the 40's Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Any precipitation that falls will be rain, and the snow on the ground should largely melt away.

Temperatures will drop again at midweek, though the forecast at present does not include significant snowfall then.

SORR@Gannett.com