How much does snow reduce solar production in Onondaga County?

Less than most people expect. A pitched array here sees roughly 22 to 50 days a season with enough cover to stop production — the glass is slick and the array runs warmer than the shingles around it. Cloud cover through November and December costs more production than snow cover does. What snow really drives is the structural spec: design ground snow load here is 50 to 70 psf, and racking must be engineered and stamped for it.

What is the seasonal production curve in Onondaga County?

Jul is the strongest month and Dec the weakest, by roughly 4.4 to one. December through February combined account for about 10% of annual output — roughly one month's worth of production spread across three months. A proposal that shows a smooth, near-flat monthly production curve for this county is not modeling this climate.

Is Onondaga County too far north or too cloudy for solar?

No, but the honest framing is that the climate sets the ceiling and the electricity rate sets the value. A 10 kW array here produces roughly 11,500 kWh a year. That is real output — the question is what a kWh is worth where you live, which is a rate question rather than a weather one.

How does lake-effect snow affect solar in Onondaga County?

Moderate exposure from Lake Ontario, with local enhancement off the Finger Lakes themselves. Microclimate variation here is larger than the county-level averages suggest. A lakeside address and a ridge address ten miles apart can differ by 40 inches of snow a year.

Does cold weather help or hurt solar panels in Onondaga County?

Cold helps efficiency — panels produce more per unit of sunlight at low temperature, which is why a clear February day can outperform a hazy July one on a per-hour basis. What hurts is daylight hours and cloud cover, and this climate is short on both between November and February. The two effects do not cancel out; the daylight loss dominates.

Central New York · Finger Lakes

Onondaga County weather and solar

What the climate here actually does to a solar array — production by season, the structural spec the snow load forces, and the roof decisions that follow from both.

The climate

Finger Lakes

The lake-and-ridge country from Canandaigua east to Skaneateles, plus the Syracuse approaches. Deep lakes moderate temperature and create their own microclimates; the ridges between them are windier and snowier than the lake shores.

Specific yield

1,080–1,220 kWh / kW-DC / yr

A 10 kW array averages about 11,500 kWh a year here.

Modeled NREL PVWatts v8 · verified Jan 2026

Mean annual snowfall

70–130 inches

Moderate lake-effect exposure from Lake Ontario, with local enhancement off the Finger Lakes themselves.

Modeled NOAA/NWS seasonal snowfall records · verified Jan 2026

Design ground snow load

50–70 psf

Racking and structural review are engineered to this figure. Ask which number your proposal used.

Filed ASCE 7 ground snow load data · verified Jan 2026

Winter quarter share

10% of annual

December, January, and February combined.

Derived NREL PVWatts v8 · verified Jan 2026

Days with snow on the array

22–50 per season

Far fewer than days with snow on the ground — panels shed.

Observed GridReady quote and bill review sample · verified Jan 2026

Seasonality

Production month by month on a 10 kW array

Jul outproduces Dec by roughly 4.4 to one here. This is the shape a real proposal should show you — if yours is a gentle wave, it is not modeling Onondaga County.

368

Jan

437

Feb

839

Mar

1,175

Apr

1,399

May

1,455

Jun

1,511

Jul

1,399

Aug

1,175

Sep

895

Oct

504

Nov

345

Dec

kWh per month from a 10 kW-DC array at the midpoint of the Finger Lakes yield band. Bar height is relative to the peak month.

Show the arithmetic

10 kW × 1,150 kWh/kW/yr (midpoint of the Finger Lakes band) = 11,500 kWh a year, distributed on a northern-temperate seasonal curve anchored so December through February sums to 10% of the total.

A modeled shape, not a measurement of your roof. Orientation, pitch, and shading move individual months more than they move the annual total.

Derived NREL PVWatts v8 · verified Jan 2026

Local weather

What the weather here specifically does

Microclimate variation here is larger than the county-level averages suggest. A lakeside address and a ridge address ten miles apart can differ by 40 inches of snow a year.
Slope orientation matters: east-facing valley walls lose morning sun in winter, west-facing ones lose the afternoon.
Syracuse, at the eastern end of this belt, is the snowiest large city in the United States. Do not let a regional average paper over that.

The roof

Consequences for the array itself

Hillside sites need a horizon shade profile, not a tree survey.
Wind exposure on ridge lots is a racking spec input.

The one question worth asking every installer here

“What ground snow load is this racking engineered for, and can I see the stamped calculation?” The right answer in Onondaga County is 50–70 psf. At this load, structural review is genuine engineering and some roofs will need reinforcement. That is a finding, not a sales objection.

Microclimates

Onondaga County is not one climate

County averages hide real variation. These are the other zones inside this county's boundary.

Elevation and distance from a lake move these numbers more than county boundaries do.
Zone	Snowfall	Snow load	Specific yield
Finger Lakes (primary)	70–130"	50–70 psf	1,080–1,220 kWh/kW
Tug Hill Plateau	150–250"	90–150 psf	980–1,120 kWh/kW

By location

Elevation across Onondaga County

Within a single county, elevation is usually the strongest predictor of how much snow a roof sees.

Place	Elevation	Climate zone	Guide
Skaneateles	870 ft	Finger Lakes	Costs & production
Syracuse	400 ft	Finger Lakes	Costs & production
Cicero	400 ft	Finger Lakes	Costs & production

Questions

Onondaga County climate FAQ

How much does snow reduce solar production in Onondaga County?: Less than most people expect. A pitched array here sees roughly 22 to 50 days a season with enough cover to stop production — the glass is slick and the array runs warmer than the shingles around it. Cloud cover through November and December costs more production than snow cover does. What snow really drives is the structural spec: design ground snow load here is 50 to 70 psf, and racking must be engineered and stamped for it.
What is the seasonal production curve in Onondaga County?: Jul is the strongest month and Dec the weakest, by roughly 4.4 to one. December through February combined account for about 10% of annual output — roughly one month's worth of production spread across three months. A proposal that shows a smooth, near-flat monthly production curve for this county is not modeling this climate.
Is Onondaga County too far north or too cloudy for solar?: No, but the honest framing is that the climate sets the ceiling and the electricity rate sets the value. A 10 kW array here produces roughly 11,500 kWh a year. That is real output — the question is what a kWh is worth where you live, which is a rate question rather than a weather one.
How does lake-effect snow affect solar in Onondaga County?: Moderate exposure from Lake Ontario, with local enhancement off the Finger Lakes themselves. Microclimate variation here is larger than the county-level averages suggest. A lakeside address and a ridge address ten miles apart can differ by 40 inches of snow a year.
Does cold weather help or hurt solar panels in Onondaga County?: Cold helps efficiency — panels produce more per unit of sunlight at low temperature, which is why a clear February day can outperform a hazy July one on a per-hour basis. What hurts is daylight hours and cloud cover, and this climate is short on both between November and February. The two effects do not cancel out; the daylight loss dominates.

Next step

Turn this into your own numbers

The climate sets what a roof can produce. Your rate sets what that production is worth, and your roof sets how much of the band you actually get.

Badge key:Filed — from a tariff, statute, or government datasetModeled — from a published model or datasetDerived — calculated by us from the inputs shownObserved — from proposals and bills readers send us

How this page is built

This is a generated page: the structure is shared across locations, the numbers are not. Every figure comes from the source cited beside it, with the date we last checked it. Nothing here is a quote, an appraisal, or tax advice, and none of it is specific to your roof.

Rates and incentive programs change. We re-verify utility tariffs and NYSERDA program status on a rolling schedule and stamp the date on each number rather than on the page, so you can see which specific figures are fresh. Full methodology · Program status tracker · About the Local Energy Playbook

Page content last reviewed April 2026.

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