Buffalo Blizzard 2022 Lake Effect Snow Buries Buffalo New York

Snowfall of up to 77 inches (196 cm) was reported in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Partly across the state, the town of Natural Bridge, near the Fort Drum Army base, reported just under 6 feet (1.8 meters). Snowfall in some places ranks among the highest ever recorded in the region, rivaling the impressive amounts that fell during similar storms in 2014 and 1945. The snowfall totals, which began accumulating Thursday night in some places, “will be historic not only for any time of year but for any part of the country,” National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Pereira said at the headquarters NWS offices at the College. Park, Maryland. The lake-effect storm, driven by cold air picking up moisture from warmer lakes, created narrow bands of snow that dumped snow on some communities while leaving towns a short drive away relatively unscathed. It wreaked havoc on some roads, as trucks taking smaller roads to avoid closures on parts of an interstate in the area ended up in a massive gridlock that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz described on social media as a “tractor-trailer show day . “ It also wreaked havoc on the wedding plans of Robert Junge and Maria Szeglowski, who had chosen this day for their wedding after getting engaged exactly one year ago. Their reception venue was cancelled, rescheduled for next week. The musician they hired for their church ceremony also didn’t make it, along with more than half of their expected 180 guests. But they were determined, using one of two limousines they rented to take the bride to the church, with Junge driving himself. “Nothing would stop me from marrying her, no matter what,” Junge, 35, of North Tonawanda, New York, told The Associated Press. On the bright side, he said, the snow “will make for some beautiful pictures.” Snow forced the National Football League to move Sunday’s game between the Bills and Cleveland Browns to Detroit. Partial sunshine and a break from the snow came to some of the harshest areas south of downtown Buffalo on Saturday as snow bands shifted north. Forecasters predicted several inches could fall Saturday night into Sunday, though Pereira said it was likely to affect different areas in the region rather than pushing totals too high in areas where the heaviest snow had already fallen. Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed about 70 National Guard members to help clear snow in some of the hardest-hit areas. Poloncarz tweeted that two people in the Buffalo area died “related to cardiac events related to exertion while shoveling/snow plowing.” Lake Effect has also dumped up to 2 feet (0.6 m) of snow in some Michigan communities south of Lake Superior and east of Lake Michigan. A snow plow driver in Hamlet, Indiana was killed Friday when his plow skidded off the pavement and overturned, according to the Stark County Sheriff’s Department. Hamlet is about 30 miles (48 km) from Lake Michigan. Buffalo has experience with dramatic lake-effect snowstorms, few worse than the one that hit in November 2014. This epic storm dumped 7 feet (2 meters) of snow on some communities in three days, collapsed roofs and trapped drivers in more than 100 vehicles on a lakeside section of the New York State Thruway.

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