5 feet of lake-effect snow buries New York, shuts down highways
The first outbreak of lake-effect snow of the season buried parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, prompting the National Guard to be deployed and resulting in the snowiest day in history for one well-known lakeside city.
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from the scene of ongoing heavy snow to the east of the Great Lakes on Dec. 2.
Meteorological winter got underway on Sunday, but wintry weather arrived several days prior in the Great Lakes amid a holiday weekend filled with travel-snarling whiteouts and feet of snow.
Bitterly cold air poured over the Great Lakes during the extended Thanksgiving weekend, setting off a multiday lake-effect snow event that unloaded feet of snow in New York, northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio. Heavy snow was also reported in Michigan and Indiana but not to the extent of areas downwind of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
Interstate 90 near Ripley, New York, turned into a parking lot on Friday as vehicles became stranded on the snow-clogged highway, with some people being stuck on the snowy roads overnight. A stretch of the highway was also shut down in Pennsylvania for a time due to heavy snow that accumulated too fast for plow trucks to handle.
Erie, Pennsylvania, had its snowiest day in city history on Friday when 22.6 inches buried the city. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro declared a disaster emergency in Erie County and deployed the state's National Guard.
Two areas were hit particularly hard by the lake effect, including a stripe from northeastern Ohio to western New York downing of Lake Erie and a region of upstate New York downwind of Lake Ontario.
While downtown Buffalo, New York, received little to no snow, areas just a few miles south of the city needed to use a yardstick to measure the accumulation.
Orchard Park, home of Buffalo's NFL team, was buried in 26.2 inches of snow. The team put out the call on social media for fans to come to the stadium before Sunday night's home game against San Francisco to help shovel the snow, and while people did show up to help clean up the snow-filled stadium, most of the stadium's seats were still buried by kickoff. Snow showers also moved through during the game, making for a wintry win as the team improved to 10-2 and clinched a playoff berth.
Fans volunteered in Orchard Park to remove snow from the Bills’ stadium for their home game on Sunday night.
In upstate New York, over 5 feet piled up since Thursday night, including 60 inches in Montague and 65.5 inches in Barnes Corners.
Despite the incredible accumulations over the holiday weekend, no deaths or significant injuries have been reported.
Residents will need to make haste with snow removal efforts as another burst of lake-effect snow is in the forecast for later this week.
Another surge of Arctic air will rush over the Great Lakes and Northeast during the second half of the week, triggering more rounds of lake-effect snow in the same areas just buried by feet of accumulation. High winds are also expected, which could make blowing and drifting snow a bigger concern than it was during the past weekend.
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