Winter Storm — Niagara, New York

2022-01-16 to 2022-01-17 · Niagara, New York

Wider weather episode

Low pressure across the Carolinas rapidly intensified to 980 hPa as it tracked across eastern Pennsylvania and New York. This brought a deepening surface low track inland of the coast and the climatologically favored baroclinic zone along the periphery of the Gulf Stream. Other than the unusual track, it was a classic Nor'easter driven by a strong closed low across the southeast interacting with a longwave trough. Forcing for ascent was supported by strong differential vorticity advection ahead of the sharp mid-level closed low, impressive upper level coupled jet structure, and strongly diffluent flow aloft. A very strong southeasterly low level jet supported a strong warm conveyor belt, which resulted in a clearly defined deformation zone developing northwest of the storm early on January 17 and lingering over much of western New York with extreme snowfall rates for several hours.

Selected snowfall totals included 22 inches in Great Valley, 14 inches in Silver Creek, 15 inches on Boston, 20.6 inches at the Buffalo airport, 22 inches in Kenmore, 22.2 inches in Wyoming, 21 inches in Rushford, 17.8 inches in Bristol Harbor, 11 inches in Hamlin, 22 inches in Medina, 19.5 inches in Niagara Falls, 11.8 inches at the Rochester airport, 17 inches in Batavia, 12 inches in Dansville, 14.5 inches in Macedon, 12.1 inches in Redfield, 16 inches in Henderson, and 12.1 inches in Highmarket.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1003821. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.