Parts of snow-battered N.Y. get a break from the weather
Winter storm threatens state’s single-day snowfall record
NEW YORK — Parts of New York finally caught a break Sunday after a storm spent days dumping a potentially record-setting amount of snow on cities and towns east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
Many businesses in the hardest-hit areas remained closed, but highways reopened and travel bans in many areas were lifted, though bands of lake-effect snow were expected to bring up to 2 feet by this morning in some parts of the state that were largely spared in earlier rounds.
“This has been a historic storm. Without a doubt, this is one for the record books,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a briefing Sunday.
Snow began falling Thursday in towns south of Buffalo. By Saturday, the National Weather Service recorded 72 inches in Natural Bridge, a hamlet near Watertown off the eastern end of Lake Ontario.
Similar multiday storms have brought bigger snowfall totals, but the ferocity of the storm on Friday could break the state’s record for most snowfall in a 24 hour period: the 50 inches that fell on Camden, N.Y., on Feb. 1, 1966.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Alumbaugh, who is based in Buffalo, said it was too early to say whether any of this year’s snowfalls exceeded that record.
Hochul is asking for a federal disaster declaration for the affected areas, which would potentially unlock some aid. She said teams were checking on residents of mobile home parks in areas that got enough snow to potentially crumple roofs.
Hochul, a Democrat and Buffalo native, declared a state of emergency for 11 counties, including some adjacent to Lake Ontario on New York’s northern border with Canada.
“As someone who’s from Buffalo and has lived in upstate my entire life, we’ve seen a lot of snow,” Hochul said. “But when you hit 80 to 85 inches over the course of, you know, just a coupleof-day snow event, everywhere from Natural Bridge up in the North Country to Orchard Park, that is one to tell your grandkids about.”
The storm, which dumped up to 5 inches per hour at times, left the biggest overall total in Orchard Park, a suburb southeast of Buffalo — exactly 80 inches, or more than 6 1/2 feet. Although the weather service has not determined if the storm broke any statewide records, county officials believe snow totals will exceed the storm of 1966, when 50 inches fell on Oneida County in a day. Unconfirmed reports on Saturday suggested more than that amount fell in Orchard Park Friday.
The more recent snowfall has been powdery and easier to clear, but expected wind gusts could create drifts that limit visibility. Crews are also struggling to break through densely packed snow and ice beneath the surface.
Due to the heavy snowfall, a Sunday football game between the Buffalo Bills’ and Cleveland Browns was moved to Detroit.
New York is no stranger to dramatic lake-effect snow, which is caused by cool air picking up moisture from the warmer water, then releasing it in bands of windblown snow over land.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said during a news conference Sunday morning that much of the region had already been wcleared of snow and that a driving ban on some of the worst-hit roads could be lifted within two days. He said the county has become much more nimble in dealing with weather events, noting that after a similar storm in 2014 many county roads were closed for a week.
“At this point eight years ago, we were just basically finishing up with the snow, and we really hadn’t gotten to recovery efforts and cleanup efforts yet,” Poloncarz said. “And here we are, eight years later, with having had more snowfall in a shorter time period in most of the areas that were affected, and we are much better along.”
The storm was blamed for killing two people “as a result of snow-blowing, snow-shoveling issues,” Poloncarz said, urging residents to be careful when clearing driveways and encouraging them to check on neighbors. There were 280 people rescued in the area, and some 1,600 without power. Five buildings collapsed under the weight of snow, the weather service said.
This month’s storm is at least the worst in the state since November 2014, when some communities south of Buffalo were hit with 7 feet of snow over the course of three days, collapsing roofs and trapping drivers on a stretch of the New York State Thruway.