REDFIELD, N.Y. (AP) – A historic snowfall of more than 11 feet is nothing to get excited about in this hardy upstate New York village that thrives on snowmobilers and cross-country skiers.

“It’s snow. We get a lot of it. So what?” said Allan Babcock, a lifelong resident who owns Shar’s Country Diner, a popular eatery in this village of 650 people.

“It’s nice to have all the attention – it’s certainly good for business,” echoed Patti Patterson, who runs the Redfield Hotel, located across the road from the Salmon River Reservoir, about 35 miles north of Syracuse.

“Really, though, what’s the fuss. Six feet of snow here is nothing,” Patterson said.

But this isn’t six feet.

Unofficially, there’s 11 feet, four inches left behind by intense lake-effect squalls that pounded communities along eastern Lake Ontario for nine straight days, before finally winding down Sunday. Governor Spitzer declared a state disaster emergency in Oswego County because of the heavy snow.

If accurate, Redfield’s total would break the state record of ten feet, seven 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 National Weather Service official will travel to Redfield Monday to try to verify the total, he said.

The highest confirmed snowfall was in Parish, where 115 inches had been recorded as of 8 a.m. Sunday. Mexico had 103 inches, North Osceola had 99 and Scriba 94. The city of Oswego had 85 inches.

The persistent snow bands that have wracked the county for a week were expected to finally end Monday.

“We have a sharp front coming in Monday that’s going to kick all this out. We may get one more burst of snow. But then it’s over. Finally, some mercy,” Mr. McLaughlin said.

However, the forecaster noted that a coastal winter storm expected midweek could bring another 6 to 12 inches to areas of upstate New York.

As the bands shifted north into Jefferson County most of Sunday, local residents continued recovering from the heavy snow. Roads were mostly cleared as workers turned their attention to removing the snow and trimming down 10- and 12-foot-high snowbanks that continued to make driving dangerous.

Mr. Patterson had two friends up on her roof shoveling. Earlier, she watched about 30 volunteer firefighters make quick work of removing the snow from the roof of their garage across the street.

The snow led to surreal scenes. One house appeared to be in a cocoon. Drifting snow in the front had swallowed the front door and blocked the windows.

“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 Thursday for a long weekend of snowmobiling.

Redfield, which sits on the southern edge of the Tug Hill Plateau, upstate’s snowbelt, receives an annual average of 270 inches – more than 22 feet.

Weather officials were uncertain whether Redfield’s current totals included snow from a storm a couple of days before the latest run.

Mr. McLaughlin said there also is a proper way to measure snow that requires taking readings about every six hours.

“Especially lake-effect. It can be light and fluffy. If you did hourly measurements, you might come up with 24 inches, when there’s really only 16 on the ground. It needs to be able to pack some,” he said.

Mr. McLaughlin noted that while eight- and 10-foot snowfalls sound amazing, because the snowpack has settled, it covers the ground only four to six feet deep.

Another caveat, McLaughlin said, is that about 12 years ago, the weather service created a new network of volunteer weather spotters to help gather measurements. About 150 spotters actively provide information to the Buffalo office, including one in Redfield, he said.

“For 50 years, we had three offices collecting information in that region. Now, we have them everywhere,” he said. “We know big snows like this have happened before, and probably often. We just don’t have a record of it.”