Lake-Effect Snow — Genesee, New York

2014-11-17 to 2014-11-19 · Genesee, New York

Wider weather episode

The epic November 17-19th 2014 lake effect event will be remembered as one of the most significant winter events in Buffalo's snowy history. Over 5 feet of snow fell over areas just east of Buffalo, with mere inches a few miles away to the north. There were 13 fatalities with this storm, hundreds of major roof collapses and structural failures, 1000s of stranded motorists, and scattered food and gas shortages due to impassable roads. Numerous trees also gave way due to the weight of the snow, causing isolated power outages. While this storm was impressive on its own, a second lake effect event on Nov-19-20 dropped another 1-4 feet of snow over nearly the same area and compounded rescue and recovery efforts.

The storm began Monday around 6 PM (Nov 17) as a band of snow developed over the Buffalo Southtowns and quickly moved into the Northtowns with thunder and lightning. The band settled south fairly quickly and by 9PM the band had moved mostly just south of the city and airport and locked in place as the 15 to 20 mile wide band centered on a line from Lackawanna and Hamburg across West Seneca, Lancaster, and Alden. The northern edge of the lake effect band was so striking that many described it as a wall of snow. Snow rates on the northern edge easily exceeded 3 inches per hour with some snow rates near 6 inches per hour. By sunrise some areas had already exceeded 3 feet of snow. Meanwhile, the southern edge of the band was located along the Lake Erie shoreline in Chautauqua County to near the Southtowns, including Orchard Park, East Aurora, and east into Wyoming County including Attica where about a foot of snow had fallen by sunrise. Travel across the Southtowns was nearly impossible with most roads unplowed as plows, at least those that weren't stuck, focused a few main roadways needed for emergency vehicles. The Thruway was shut down from the Pennsylvania border to Rochester, and other routes, including I-190, I-290, and Route 400 were also shutdown.

During Tuesday November 18, the snow band didn't budge, and by nightfall snow amounts from Lancaster to Southern Cheektowaga east to Alden had accumulated in excess of 4 to 5 feet. The wall of snow was still quite apparent with blue skies to the north and zero visibility on the other side. On Transit Road, there were only a few inches on the ground at Genesee Street, but several feet of snow at Walden Avenue less than 2 miles to the south. Winds gusted to 35 mph but in general winds created sub-blizzard conditions. There were still whiteout conditions however as snow continued to fall in excess of 3 inches per hour. The band began to waver a little to the south Tuesday night but overall continued in a slightly weaker state over the Southtowns. Finally, the band let up as it drifted to the north and weakened rapidly Wednesday morning.

Millions of dollars were lost as dairy farmers were forced to dump milk that could not be transported for processing. Eight indirect deaths were blamed on this storm.

Specific storm reports included: 65 inches in South Cheektowaga, 63 inches in Lancaster, 60 inches in Gardenville, 57 inches in West Seneca, 51 inches in Elma, 48 Inches in Hamburg, 42 inches in Lackawanna, 40 inches in Corfu, 36 inches in Darien, 28 inches in Attica, 24 inches in Wyoming, and 19 inches in Dunkirk.

This event combined with the lake effect snow event following the next couple of days qualified the area for a Federal Disaster Declaration.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 550167. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.