Yeah agree...As I get older those big 20 inchers have gotten too big to handle, so I like the smaller storms if I had to choose. Now that being said, I certainly will never turn down a whopper if offered.
Our winters are very variable of course when it comes to snow...The decades though do tend to still average not to far from normal. Decadal snowfall from the 70's thru now range from an avg. of 26.2" in the 80's to 31.6" in the 2000's. The exception of course is the 2010's which have averaged 39.5" , not including this year. These are my SI figures...your results may vary.
^^^^ I remember that storm well...My wife and I had a meeting that we had to attend the next morning in Manhattan...Had to shovel out the car at 4am and drive a couple miles to catch the bus into the city.
The lake levels are high because of well above normal precip last couple of years.... I remember not too many years prior, the levels were very low and there was concern about that.
Euro really backed off the cold shot for end of week...went from mid 20's on Friday to low 40's, and lowest Temps from low teens to low 20's by Sat. am. Other models do still show the colder outlook however.