Another Storm On The Way To New York State

Monday, February 12th 2007, 6:16 am

By: News On 6

REDFIELD, N.Y. (AP) _ The snow squalls that have buried Redfield and its neighbors up to their stop signs finally tapered off Monday, but forecasters warned that another storm system was on the way.

Unofficially, the past week of lake-effect storms dumped 12 feet, 2 inches of snow at Redfield.

If that number checks out, it would break the state record of 10 feet, 7 inches of snow that fell in nearby Montague over seven days ending Jan. 1, 2002, said Steve McLaughlin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Buffalo. A weather service representative was sent to Redfield on Monday to verify the total.

Residents of this hardy upstate New York village seem unfazed by the weather, and a bit surprised by all the attention. Their economy thrives on snowmobilers and cross-country skiers, and they usually average 270 inches of snow for the season _ more than 22 feet.

``It's snow. We get a lot of it. So what?'' said Allan Babcock, owner of Shar's Country Diner in this Oswego County village of 650 people.

The nearby community of Parish had recorded 115 inches of snow by early Sunday. Mexico had 103 inches, North Osceola had 99 and Scriba 94. The city of Oswego had 85 inches.

A cold front finally stifled the lake-effect snow squalls created by persistent wind picking up moisture from Lake Ontario to the west.

However, McLaughlin noted that a coastal winter storm expected to plow along the East Coast during the middle of the week could bring another 6 to 12 inches to parts of upstate New York. A winter storm watch was in effect through late Wednesday for Oswego County and other areas from Virginia to Maine, the weather service said Monday.

Oswego County roads had been mostly cleared as workers turned their attention to removing the snow and trimming down 10- and 12-foot-high snow banks that made driving dangerous.

``In all my life, I mean my entire life combined, I've never seen this much snow at once,'' said Jim Bevridge, 47, of Timmonium, Md., who drove up for a long weekend of snowmobiling.