Last evening as I was taking my walk I noticed the first snow flurries of the season falling here in Rochester. But to our west, lake effect snow (when cold air passes over the warm Great Lakes, it creates a train of snow) blowing off Lake Erie in the high winds began dumping snow over Buffalo all the way to the western parts of Rochester.
Lake effect often occurs in narrow bands. Where it isn't occuring, it could easily be sunny and no clouds in the snow. But where it does occur, and keeps occuring, it can dump huge amounts of snow in blizzard like conditions. And that is precisely what has been happening in Buffalo all the way to Orleans county just to the west of Rochester.
And because the leaves are still on the trees here, that has caused a major disaster as snow-laden trees collapse on power lines and utilities. More than 300,000 people throughout western NY are now without power and because of the considerable damage done all over, it could be days before power is restored. Water service has also been interrupted in areas due to the loss of power.
States of emergency are in effect in many areas across our region with complete travel bans in effect. The NYS thruway has been closed at Henrietta, New York west. Henrietta is a southern suburb of Rochester. This means thousands and thousands of unknowing travellers who use the Thruway to shuttle across the state are now essentially stuck here in Rochester, unable to proceed on that route to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Canada and other points westward. Many of them are piling up at area mall parking lots figuring out where to go next.
In 100 years, Buffalo has never had a snowstorm this early in the season, and if the leaves weren't on the trees, it probably would not have been a big deal.
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