Submitted photo The 2025-26 winter was the coldest locally since 2014-15. The cold temperatures helped in the construction of the Mayville ice castle pictured above.

While the official start of summer is later this month, it wasn’t that long ago that Chautauqua County residents were bundling up, trying to stay warm in a cold winter.

It was a cold one. In fact, it was the coldest winter in a dozen years for our area.

“The winter of 2025-2026 was the coldest winter in over a decade, with consistent cold and snow through the majority of the cold season,” the National Weather Service wrote in its 2025-26 winter summary, which was recently released. “Temperatures were below normal four months in a row from November through February, with an above normal March ending the streak. The November through February stretch was the coldest since the 2014-2015 winter in Buffalo and Rochester, and coldest since 2002-2003 in Watertown. While the cold was very persistent, there were only a few short windows of extreme cold, most notably during the last week of January and for a three day stretch during the second week in February.”

The consistent cold temperatures did allow for some winter opportunities.

The organizers of the Mayville Winterfest said this year’s ice castle was their biggest ever. It was helped because the lake froze so early and the ice blocks pulled out stayed cold throughout construction.

Snowmobilers benefited as well, since the snow that fell didn’t melt away as quickly.

There was actually less snow that fell than a year ago.

In Chautauqua County, there were five official snow spotter locations for the National Weather Service for the 2025-26 winter – Cassadaga, Dunkirk, Jamestown, Portland and Silver Creek. In addition, the state Department of Transportation measures snow at its Mayville station, although the numbers are not recorded by the National Weather Service.

Of those six communities, Cassadaga had the most recorded with 171.5 inches; followed by Mayville with 155 inches; Silver Creek with 106.3 inches; Jamestown with 104 inches; Dunkirk with 72.8 inches; and Portland with 66.2 inches.

Those numbers are actually down for most communities from last year. For the 2024-25 winter, Cassadaga received 216.5 inches, Mayville had 175 inches, Silver Creek had 122.5 inches, and Dunkirk had 104 inches. The exception was Jamestown which only had 93.9 inches of snow in 2024-25. Portland did not have a full report from that year.

There were a few communities that reported more snow than Cassadaga this past winter.

In Cattaraugus County, Perrysburg had 190.6 inches while the village of Cattaraugus had 204.9 inches of snow.

In Erie County, Colden had 201.6 inches of snow, while Springville had 211.2 inches.

The top location recorded by a National Weather Service snow spotter was in Highmarket, NY in Lewiston County with 253.6 inches.