My Nominee For City Most Screwed By Upcoming Storm Is Buffalo, New York

I nominate Buffalo, New York as the American city
most in trouble by the giant storm now building in the U.S.

 This wide ranging, developing storm that we've been talking about for a few days now will hit so many dozens of cities in the United States.  

Which city is most screwed with this?

We can nominate plenty.  Maybe Bismarck, North Dakota, where the noon temperature there was minus 19 and they're expecting wind chills of around 55 below.

Or Minneapolis? They're right on the edge of a blizzard warning, and they're an airline hub.

I think Chicago is worse. They're a United Airlines hub plus a bigger city.  They'll have minor thawing early Thursday, followed by blinding blowing and drifting snows and crashing temperatures. With winds as high as 50 mph.

You can even make a great case for nominating Burlington, Vermont. This city could have 60 mph gusts, if not right in town then nearby.  Flooding is a risk from heavy rain, and the flash freeze later Friday afternoon makes me shudder.

But in this storm, I would give the nod for worst weather to Buffalo, New York.  They have all kinds of problems with this one. First, it will rain there into early Friday morning. Then Buffalo gets its own flash freeze, and snow will blow in.

The flat Lake Erie will encourage the west to southwest winds even ore than rougher terrain. Winds will surge to over 60 mph. 

Speaking of surge, something called a seiche will hit Lake Erie. As the powerful cold front crosses the lake and sets up the strong west to southwest winds, Lake Erie will slosh toward and into Buffalo.

Essentially the wind will make Lake Erie tilt, with the lower side of the tilt back toward Toledo, Ohio and the higher water at and around Buffalo.

This seiche could make Lake Erie water rise near Buffalo by as much as eleven feet, causing plenty of shoreline flooding and battering waves.

This same wind set up means a round of intense lake effect snow squalls. This area has already dealt with snow squalls that dumped a few feet of snow in a few days. But those squalls at least were accompanied by reasonably winds and temperatures that weren't super cold.

This time, those screaming 65 mph winds, heavy snow and plunging temperatures will lead to dangerous blizzard conditions in those squalls. 

The National Weather Service in Buffalo has been calling this a once in a generation storm. No kidding!

So, yeah, Buffalo is screwed.