Buffalo Snow 2014

Date: 17 Nov 2014 to 19 Nov 2014
Location: Buffalo, New York

Maximum Snowfall: Lake Erie 65" (S. Cheektowaga); Lake Ontario 22" (Philadelphia) Duration: 48 hours +/-

This week in Buffalo the biggest 24 hour snowfall in the US occurred. Then it kept snowing. In some areas 84 inches of snow fell from Monday night to Thursday Afternoon. We average around 100 for the year.

It was caused by Lake Effect. Warm air is blown over the warm waters of Lake Erie. This causes the warm air o saturate with water from the lake. When the wet air goes over the cold land the relative humidity drops causing the water vapor to fall as snow. Normally the winds oscillate south to north to south again. This spreads the snow over a wide area usually in the Ski Country area south of Buffalo. In this case the 14 mile wide Lake Effect band did not move. It settled over South Buffalo (actually part of Buffalo) and south ward without moving. The snow fell at 2-4 inches per hour for 24 hours. Then slowed to 1-3 inches an hour until Wednesday night.

One of the effects of extreme temperature difference between the warm air and cold ground is lightening and thunder. A lot of thunder.

While writing this post there have been 10 confirmed storm deaths, 1 horse, 1 dog, 1 truck load of Doritos. At least 12 roofs have collapsed from the weight of the storm.

I have been essentially trapped on mt dead end street since Monday. It is physically impossible for me to get to the end of my street 1 house away. They didn't shovel their sidewalk except by their door. I may be able in the AM when the walking ban is lifted to try to see what progress is made in removing the snow. There are 189 pieces of snow removal equipment reported in South Buffalo.

Every storm in Buffalo is compared to the Blizzard of 1977. That is considered the worst. Until now.

Nature is not done with us. It will be 40 Friday and get up to 60 on Monday. With rain. The snow will melt and it will rain. 84 inches of snow will melt over 4 days while it rains.

Much of the Snow from the area known as South Buffalo was moved to the Buffalo Central Terminal. Over 30,000 tons.

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The epic November 17-19th 2014 lake effect event will be remembered as one of the most significant winter events in Buffalo’s snowy history. Over 5 feet of snow fell over areas just east of Buffalo, with mere inches a few miles away to the north. There were 14 fatalities with this storm, hundreds of major roof collapses and structural failures, 1000s of stranded motorists, and scattered food and gas shortages due to impassable roads. Numerous trees also gave way due to the weight of the snow, causing isolated power outages. While this storm was impressive on its own, a second lake effect event on Nov-19-20 dropped another 1-4 feet of snow over nearly the same area and compounded rescue and recovery efforts. Storm totals from the two storms peaked at nearly 7 feet, with many areas buried under 3-4 feet of dense snowpack by the end of the event.

The storm began Monday around 6PM evening (Nov 17) as a band of snow developed over the Buffalo Southtowns and quickly moved into the Northtowns with thunder and lightning. However, the band settled south fairly quickly...and by 9PM the band had moved mostly just south of the city and airport and locked in place as the 15-20 mile wide band centered on a line from Lackawanna and Hamburg ENE across West Seneca, Lancaster, and Alden. The northern edge of the lake effect band was so striking that many described it as a wall of snow. Snow rates on the northern edge easily exceeded 3 inches per hour with some snow rates near 6 inches per hour. By sunrise some areas had already exceeded 3 feet of snow. This occurred in under 12 hours. Meanwhile, the southern edge of the band was located along the Lake Erie shoreline in Chautauqua County to near the Southtowns, including Orchard Park, East Aurora, and east into Wyoming county including Attica where about a foot of snow had fallen by sunrise. Travel across the Southtowns was nearly impossible with most roads unplowed as plows, at least those that weren’t stuck, focused a few main roadways needed for emergency vehicles. The Thruway was was shut down from the PA border to Rochester, and other routes, including 190, 290, and 400 were also shutdown.

During Tuesday November 18, the snow band didn't budge, and by nightfall snow amounts from Lancaster to Southern Cheektowaga east to Alden had accumulated in excess of 4 to 5 feet by the end of the day. The wall of snow was still quite apparent with blue skies to the north and zero visibility on the other side. On Transit Road, there were only a few inches on the ground at Genesee Street, but several feet of snow at Walden Avenue less than 2 miles to the south. Winds gusted to 35 mph...and briefly gusted higher along the edges of the band...but in general winds created sub-blizzard conditions. There were still whiteout conditions however as snow continued to fall in excess of 3 inches per hour.

East of Lake Ontario, a lake band developed south of Watertown Monday night, then drifted north across the city and ENE to Harrisville. This band produced stronger winds than its Lake Erie counterpart, with gusts mostly in the 40-50 mph range with a peak gust to 55 mph at Watertown, producing blizzard conditions at times. By Tuesday night the band settled south over the Tug Hill Plateau, then quickly moved north Wednesday morning. Storm totals were highly variable, with snow amounts generally ranging between 1-2 feet in the hardest hit areas.

Snow Totals

Off Lake Erie...

65 inches... S. Cheektowaga

63 inches... Lancaster

60 inches... Gardenville

57 inches... West Seneca

51 inches... Elma

48 inches... Hamburg

6.2 inches... Buffalo airport

Off Lake Ontario...

22 inches... Philadelphia

16 inches... Redfield

16 inches... Beaver Falls

16 inches... Theresa

15 inches... Harrisville

Equipment Used

Andrew Cuomo ‏@NYGovCuomo Nov 19 463 plows, 81 front end loaders, 25 large snow blowers and 1,177 operators from across NY assisting with snow removal

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Michael Francis Harris
• Source: http://galleries.buffalonews.com/default.aspx?id=3312#/0
• Source: http://www.weather.gov/buf/lake1415_stormb.html