Lake Affect Snow Machine

We chose to live where we do.....Western NY. No better place to be. But there is more to our weather than some of you will understand. We are located just above the Lake Erie snow belt, and just below the Lake Ontario belt. As such, we live in God's Country.

Y'all are hearing about the storm today. It even was shown on Fox News. I looked out my window today and saw sunshine and blue skies.

Many of my friends moved south when we all retired at the same time. Hear about the 2 hurricanes that hit Florida this year? They heard too. I'm not sure where they are living now, but it ain't in their cozy waterfront mansions.

My son drank the cool aid and moved to TN. Last year a tornado hit their house.

I Will admit that we get bad weather too. Last Summer's storm was devastating. My pool and patio was badly damaged, and insurance will not cover it...

I hear ya...I wouldn't leave. Thought about moving out there myself, but the family ties are too strong. Your salmon and steelhead fishing is to die for...love the Great Lakes...but I'll have to settle for Lake Champlain.
 
No worries. We chose to spend our vacation dollars elsewhere.

I got a buddy that moved to Florida 10 years ago. He just loves to bust on me about the NY snow and tempt.

Now get even in the real hot parts of the year as he realy does not like serious hot weather and as he is a cheap Charlie hates to pay for all the AC he uses. Also for the most part where I live getting milder winters and less snow.-:D
 
I had an aunt that lived in Oswego (about halfway between Watertown and Rochester) all he adult life and I remember as a child getting pictures from her (she was my Mom's sister) of the lake effect snow they got some years. One picture in particular from sometime in the 1970's still sticks in my mind, of her husband knee deep on the roof of their house shoveling the snow off to lighten the load on the roof. He was throwing it straight out from the roof edge, as the drifts in the yard were as high as the house.
 
I had an aunt that lived in Oswego (about halfway between Watertown and Rochester) all he adult life and I remember as a child getting pictures from her (she was my Mom's sister) of the lake effect snow they got some years. One picture in particular from sometime in the 1970's still sticks in my mind, of her husband knee deep on the roof of their house shoveling the snow off to lighten the load on the roof. He was throwing it straight out from the roof edge, as the drifts in the yard were as high as the house.

I worked at a couple nuclear plants there. You definitely could get some serious snow! As the lakes are not freezing over as much as they used to it begets more and heavier snow falls!:eek:
 
Unless you've been there, many people don't understand "Lake Effect" snow and how localized it can be.

My son's FIL lives in GA. He saw the stories about Buffalo, NY and he texted me hoping that we were not snowed in too bad. I told him we are 20 miles north and all I could see was green grass, sunshine and blue skies.

I thanked him for his concern and hoped that they had recovered fully from the 2 hurricanes that hit FL this year. He said they were still working with the insurance companies.
 
I had an aunt that lived in Oswego (about halfway between Watertown and Rochester) all he adult life and I remember as a child getting pictures from her (she was my Mom's sister) of the lake effect snow they got some years. One picture in particular from sometime in the 1970's still sticks in my mind, of her husband knee deep on the roof of their house shoveling the snow off to lighten the load on the roof. He was throwing it straight out from the roof edge, as the drifts in the yard were as high as the house.

Oswego is one of those Syracuse region towns that get the snow off Lake Ontario. It never freezes so it can pile up. As mentioned by GypsmJim the localization is hard to comprehend. As a general rule but not always, if you're north of the NY State Thruway I90 you're above the heavy snow. We're supposed to get less than an inch this evening but it's coming down from Lake Michigan.
 
After college, I lived and worked in Cleveland through three winters. That was more than enough for me. Have never returned there since then, even for a visit. Was born and raised in southernmost Ohio on the river and winters there were mild. Snowfall was usually no more than a few inches, and many winters had no snowfall at all. There might have been a heavy snowfall every five years, but even then, nothing nearly like Cleveland. The last severe winter there was about 50 years ago. The Buffalo-49ers game in Buffalo tonight should be interesting. The Buffalo stadium has no dome. If I lived there and I had tickets, I would stay home and watch it on TV. Wife's hometown was Buffalo, and her feelings about Buffalo are the same as my feelings about Cleveland.

My grand-daughter is in her first year at Syracuse U. She is about to get her first taste of a real winter, after spending most of her life in Texas.
 
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I lived between Cleveland and Erie, PA from 1960 to 1977. I was the designated snow shoveler for most of those years, so I remember the lake effect snows vividly. When I went away to school about 40 miles from here, I was shocked to see that in the middle of December the ground was bare.
 
Travelling for my job for 45 years, I've been thru 2 hurricanes in FL. Once in TX I saw a tornado off in the distance. Last year our DIL in TN called after the tornado went thru their house and reported a freight train, like others have said. Afterwards their property was in shambles.

Working in Buffalo, NY for 45 years of my professional career I was only late for work twice. Those were the only days I had to snowblow before leaving. (and those days we only had RWD cars - only got AWD after retirement.)

We live outside of the snow belt. The worst snow we ever got was only a few years ago. Had about 4-5 feet in the driveway. I went into the basement to survey and found two 30-packs of Budweiser. No need to fret now.

All that snow settled to about 3 feet in a few days and the blower made mincemeat out of it. A week later it was 36 degrees and I washed the car in the driveway.

Life is what you make of it. Whatever weather turns you off........simply live elsewhere and make due of THAT scenario.
 
DWALT the game tonight will not be impacted. But parts of the stands will still be snow filled. My buddy has 3 season tickets. He sold them a few weeks ago for almost $800. Today seats are selling for 60 bucks lol. There is a new $2M stadium being built right next to existing stadium. It too will not be a dome. Dumbest thing ever !!!!!!!
 
DWALT the game tonight will not be impacted. But parts of the stands will still be snow filled. My buddy has 3 season tickets. He sold them a few weeks ago for almost $800. Today seats are selling for 60 bucks lol. There is a new $2M stadium being built right next to existing stadium. It too will not be a dome. Dumbest thing ever !!!!!!!
From what I can see, the snow is covering the yard markers right now. They are trying to clear the lines.
 
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Lol, yes I would like to retract that statement! All day they were reporting 1" over course of game. The experts were wrong again. My stepson is at the game. I hate snow games. It gives inferior teams a better chance to win.
 
In January 1978 my wife was a senior at Ohio State University (Before "The" was imposed!) The blizzard of '78 hit in the middle of the night. The two sorority sisters from Buffalo seized everyone's car keys to prevent senseless damage. A few days later, the snowplow came to clear their parking lot. The parked cars were buried in 4' and 5' snow drifts. The girls from Buffalo just cleared enough snow to get into the cars. Their experience allowed them to just drive the cars through the deep snow, allowing the plow to do an excellent job of clearing the snow!

I believe that Buffalo had 17' drifts from that same storm.

Ivan
 
DWALT the game tonight will not be impacted. But parts of the stands will still be snow filled. My buddy has 3 season tickets. He sold them a few weeks ago for almost $800. Today seats are selling for 60 bucks lol. There is a new $2M stadium being built right next to existing stadium. It too will not be a dome. Dumbest thing ever !!!!!!!

The game is awesome to watch. They have to sweep the yard lines about every twenty minutes and it looks like fog in the stadium because it's snowing so hard. But the stands are packed.

Go Bills!!
 
In January 1978 my wife was a senior at Ohio State University (Before "The" was imposed!) The blizzard of '78 hit in the middle of the night. The two sorority sisters from Buffalo seized everyone's car keys to prevent senseless damage. A few days later, the snowplow came to clear their parking lot. The parked cars were buried in 4' and 5' snow drifts. The girls from Buffalo just cleared enough snow to get into the cars. Their experience allowed them to just drive the cars through the deep snow, allowing the plow to do an excellent job of clearing the snow!

I believe that Buffalo had 17' drifts from that same storm.

Ivan

So far as I know, the "The" has always been emphasized as part of the name. I spent nearly 8 years there.

The record "Snow Bowl" was the Thanksgiving 1950 OSU-Michigan game in Columbus. It was unbelievable, played in a blizzard. There was several feet of snow on the field and the yard line markers were completely covered. Fans were building fires in the stands. OSU wanted to stop the game but Michigan refused. Michigan won, but I do not remember the score. see: Snow Bowl - November 25, 1950
 
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My older daughter went to UB, but transferred before she graduated. The main campus is in Amherst which is out to the Northeast of downtown and about 9-1/2 miles from the lakeshore. Most years the campus area doesn't get the same lake effect the areas closer to downtown and south of downtown get, mainly because the prevailing winds coming off the lake come from the west and northwest but have to blow to the northeast in the direction of campus for it to get lake effect snow. But boy, when it does.... The campus was designed so you could get to all the buildings when the snow was deep, and the walkways are roped for something to hang onto.
 
In January 1978 my wife was a senior at Ohio State University (Before "The" was imposed!) The blizzard of '78 hit in the middle of the night. The two sorority sisters from Buffalo seized everyone's car keys to prevent senseless damage. A few days later, the snowplow came to clear their parking lot. The parked cars were buried in 4' and 5' snow drifts. The girls from Buffalo just cleared enough snow to get into the cars. Their experience allowed them to just drive the cars through the deep snow, allowing the plow to do an excellent job of clearing the snow!

I believe that Buffalo had 17' drifts from that same storm.

Ivan

That was an interesting chain of events. Actually, it only snowed a couple of inches. It was not lake effect, since the lake was almost completely frozen over.

The problem was the high winds. It blew the snow off Lake Erie and made it airborne. The wind caused the drifts.

The house next door to me had a drift up to the second floor window. The pattern between my house and detached garage caused NO drift. In fact it blew my driveway clean. Never had to lift a shovel that week.

My company was celebrating its 50th anniversary that year and was closed for 3 days. It was the first time in its history that it was closed.

The "rest of the story" is that a few years later they moved to North Carolina and the first year there the home office had to close FIVE days due to Winter weather. (we that chose to stay behind laughed and cheered.....LOL)
 
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