I’ll be driving to the Buffalo and Toronto areas next week through central PA and central to western NY. Is it true Buffalo has 11" of snow on the ground from this first blast of winter? What travel conditions should I expect? Pack a snow shovel and a bag of rock salt, I wager?
As I hear it, Buffalo got 40cm of snow and no effective way to dig themselves out, all the more so because the trees still bearing leaves held on to the snow and became too heavy to stay upright, resulting in streets being littered with branches and entire trees. Although most of the debris and blockages are probably in residential areas, and while temperatures will be on the rise a bit for the forseeable future, I wouldn’t expect easy passage, if not for the precipitation that’s still on the ground, then because of all the rerouted traffic. It’ll probably a bit easier going through the Niagara region, even though they got hit with some significant snowfall too, but the further towards The Big Smoke you get the more the snow will disappear.
We got a very light dusting in the GTA last night, enough that some people needed to unpack their scrapers in the morning. It should be gone by … well, now, actually. What’s left will be chilly (but not freezing) temperatures and rain over the weekend, so no big deal other than generally crappy weather.
And yes, this is exceedingly unusual – perhaps unprecedented – weather so early in October.
The Buffalo area usually doesn’t get hit with storms like this until mid-November and later. The US side of the border tends to get the brunt of lake effect storms.
Snow removal in the Buffalo area is usually outstanding, although there are usually problems clearing narrow streets in older city neighborhoods, where 24-hour on-street parking is allowed.
Road departments may be unprepared, but with warmer temperatures and some basic snow removal along major arterials, I’d expect to see the major highways passable by Saturday.
Unlike the South, people in Buffalo really know how to drive in the snow. Change lanes slowly, keep a good distance between vehicles, slow down at ALL traffic lights, be careful on ALL bridges and overpasses, and always ensure there’s an escape route should you slide out of control. If you have a license plate from a Southern state, other drivers will usually stay far away. (The exceptions: North Carolina and Florida, where other drivers will assume you’re from the diaspora, and home visiting family.)
If it snows in Pennsylvania, good luck. PennDOT is slow to clear snow from I-90 through the Erie area. IMHO, during the winter it’s the most dangerous stretch of I-90 along Lake Erie.
The thing about Lake Effect Snow (in Buffalo, the term deserves capitalization) is that it’s sudden. It comes in quickly and dumps a huge amount of snow in just a few hours. But Buffalo knows how to handle snow; they have plans, equipment, and experienced crews that can remove a huge amount of snow in a matter of hours. So the thing about Buffalo snow is that you’re okay a few hours before the storm and okay a few hours after the storm - just avoid driving during the storm itself.
My brother lives in Fort Erie which is just across the US/Canada border from Buffalo. They got hit BAD. People are using phrases like “the worst storm in living memory” there.
The whole grid got knocked out and the entire town is completely without electricity and is expected to be without power until around Tuesday (give or take a couple of days depending on location).
Since most of the trees still have all of their leaves, the shear weight of the snow has broken off thousands of branches which, in turn, have pulled down electrical lines all over town. Navigating the roads is a nightmare obstacle course of fallen trees and downed power lines. The QEW highway has been closed all day at Netherby Road and the Peace Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie is also closed.
All of this will likely be greatly improved by the start of next week but, until then, things could very well get worse. Freezing rain is forecast for tonight .
I went to school in Buffalo for 4 years. The drive to Toronto from Buffalo is relatively pain-free. The truckers make driving that route very good. They regulate the road nicely. If someone comes behind you, switch lanes, let them pass by. By the way, I live in Detroit. I’ve made the trek from Detroit to Buffalo via Canada about 15 times. Thems be my credentials.
As an aside, the craziest weather thing I saw was in Buffalo. It snowed 4 feet overnight. This was the day before school let out for Thanksgiving break. It was absolutely amazing. Late 70’s Cadillacs were completely buried under snow. The only way you’d know there was a car under it was because I saw the car there before and because the rear view mirror was poking out from under a snow patina. Officially, the visibility was 0.0 miles. If they dropped you off in a large open area, you’d probably have died. We played football in the freeway, as it was closed to traffic. Just, absolutely crazy. Every once in a while, Mother Nature decides to show us she can still control shit. And control she does.
Ot definitely *does * caress.
There’s also nothing here in Hamilton, ‘just aroung the corner’ of the lake. Any word about accumulation around Grimsby? Saint Catherines? Niagara Falls??
I suspect it might have just been a local eastward blast from lake Erie.
Heh. Here in the Rockies, we had 2 1/2 feet of snow a couple of weeks ago (It happened over about 3 days so it was no big deal). Yup, in September.
It was 4 years ago I think that Denver got hit real hard. They had to use those big ass snow blowers on the highway from Denver to the mountains to clean the road. Abandonded cars got their ass end chewed up pretty bad.
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