Can We Just Marvel At Buffalo. It's Turning Into A Tragedy

Screen grab from buffalowebcam.com as of 
Saturday afternoon shows things have scarcely
improved there since yesterday. 

UPDATE: 1 p.m. 12/25/22

I always hate to spread bad news on Christmas, but the Buffalo blizzard is turning into a tragedy.

The death toll has risen to seven, and I'm afraid that will go up as more people are found in stuck cars or buried in snow drifts along the streets.

The snow has finally tapered off in Buffalo, as the main snow band has shifted a little south of the city. 

WABC in New York reports that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said, "We know there are people who have been stuck in cars for more than two days."

If any of those cars ran out of gas, the people inside probably froze to death, is my sad guess. 

Emergency services could not go out and answer calls on Saturday because all the streets and roads were clogged by massive snow drifts.  Now that it's not snowing nearly as hard in Buffalo, crews are clearing main streets. The National Guard is arriving to help. 

Buffalo has now received 43 inches of snow from this snowstorm, with brought winds of up to 72 miles to the city. It appears the city was under full blizzard conditions for at least 37 hours. 

To qualify as a blizzard, a storm must have sustained winds or frequent gusts to at least 35 miles, very low visibility in falling or blowing snow, and these conditions must last at least three hours. 

Heavy snow is still falling downwind of Lake Ontario, as well. As of 1 p.m. Watertown, New York had been reporting heavy snow for five hours. 

The lake effect snow band from Lake Ontario is extending as far as the northern tip of Vermont today.  Jay Peak could receive three to six inches of snow out of this. Light snow and flurries are possible on valley floors in the Green Mountain State.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

As wild as the weather has been in Vermont and most of the rest of the nation lately, can we pause and look a little more closely at Buffalo, New York?  

I had predicted before the storm that Buffalo would be the worst-hit city, but I couldn't imagine it would get that bad. 

As of mid-afternoon Christmas Eve, Buffalo has endured 30 hours of zero or very close to zero visibility in snow and blowing snow.  In that mess, they had 16 consecutive hours of gusts to at least 50 mph, with a peak gust of 72 mph. 

After five or six hours this morning in which gusts "only" reached between 45 and 49 mph, winds are howling were howling at about 54 to 55 mph again this afternoon. 

At least three people have died in this blizzard. The storm is extremely life threatening and harrowing. and apocalyptic. 

People had to be rescued from cars even in the city's downtown since nobody could see or move. Many of these victims in and around Buffalo had been stranded in freezing cars overnight. Hundreds of those stranded who escaped or were rescued are hunkered down in businesses and strangers' homes, as they can't go anywhere else. 

Emergency vehicles can't respond to calls for help. All the roads are blocked, and the storm is too intense to clear the roads.  Those roads are also blocked by a multitude of stuck and abandoned cars.  Many people in Buffalo, including the mayor, were without electricity on Christmas Eve.

The Buffalo News reported Saturday that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told them that the cities and towns of Buffalo, Tonawanda, Kenmore, Amherst, Clarence, Lancaster, and Williamsville were without emergency services. He said roughly two thirds of police, fire and EMT vehicles in these areas were stuck in the snow and inoperable.

Video released by WXChasing on YouTube showed several emergency vehicles trapped in drifts, along with damaged utility poles and wires which nobody can fix until the storm subsides. 

It's obviously hard to measure the windblown snow in Buffalo, but at the official measuring site at the airport, they came up with 28.1 inches as of 1 p.m. today.. Video posted to YouTube by storm chaser Reed Timmer showed some parts of streets blown completely clear of snow with the drifts piled up feet deep against parked cars and buildings at the edge of the streets. 

Timmer's video also depicted the near zero visibility and the power of the winds and is a must see to get a glimpse of what it must have been like to be in Buffalo Friday night. 

Another one to two feet of snow is expected in and near Buffalo before the storm finally starts to subside early Christmas morning.

Buffalo suffered one other indignity on Friday. A seiche, which is when strong winds tilt a body of water, did just that to Lake Erie.  It caused a nearly 11-foot storm surge that flooded roads, houses and buildings amid the blizzard in Buffalo, and shoreline towns like Hamburg.

This will be the worst storm in Buffalo's history. Even worse than the famed Blizzard of 1977.

Buffalo will continue to be harassed by snow showers through Tuesday, with light accumulations. 

And let's not forget about the towns further north, downwind from towns along Lake Ontario. Watertown and nearby towns also have had full blizzard conditions since Friday morning.  I don't have updated snow totals for that region but I'm sure at least a couple feet have fallen. The blizzard warning area off of Lake Ontario can expect another two to four feet before the storm subsides on or just after Christmas.

After all this, Buffalo might face yet another challenge in about a week. Temperatures are expected to climb into the 50s, with the possibility of rain.  That could trigger flooding from all the snow melt.