Buffalo Bumble

I’m still traumatized by the weather last April and first half of May when the thermometer was stuck between 33 and 43 degrees, the sun never shined, and it seemed to snow frequently (and stick!) during peak hearing hours. So even after this phenomenal stretch, when I see low 50’s and shower chances in the forecast , I think that’s pretty nice spring weather...

If you head that far north I think somewhere like Saranac Lake or Lake Placid with good elevation would be a better spot. Malone isn’t exactly a snowy place, downsloping off the Dacks probably limits their totals.

Wicked squall with that line. About 5 minutes of blinding rain and wind. Looks like another one fired up right behind it. Calm winds here now with frequent lightning.

Is this lake enhanced?? Didn’t think the air mass change was that cold, plus lake is frigid. Seems to be hung up though, heavy rain here for 30 minutes with lots of lightning. Radar looks like a lake effect rain band.

Pounding snow here. I haven’t looked at anything all day. What’s this about?

Same here. Snow storming out right now.

Had some fun in the Lake Erie band today. Drove down Center Road from East Aurora to Sprague Brook between 1:30 and 2:30. For those not familiar with the area Center Road runs from central Erie County to near the southern boundary of the county. Snow was dumping most of the way, heaviest around Colden and Glenwood. Easy 3-4”/ hour, just huge flakes. Lightened up a bit at Sprague Brook during a 2-hour snowshoe, then cranked up big time as we were leaving around 4. Average 3 foot depths throughout the park. Pic below is from the hike. Just epic winter conditions.

Chase off to a great start...Maple Rd, East Aurora, 2”/. Nice white plastering here.

Incredible. What was the forecast for those areas? I know they had a LE warning, thought forecast totals were only 8-12” though. Not many places in the country can bust so spectacularly awesome where 8-12” turns into 30”+.

Yeah I get that but how much did ice cover limit this particular event? Sounds like rates were 3-4”/hour. How much higher would you realistically get? Maybe ice cover helped this in some ways with convergence or something? Just spitballing here...Thinking we would have had 5-7”/hour rates with no ice cover seems unrealistic.

With the northeast end of the lake wide open and the fetch primarily running right over the open water, does it matter that the rest of the lake is frozen? Not like the rest of the lake was “contributing” much to the lake effect. Either that or the ice is thin enough where fetch is passing over to allow for uplift which then gets supercharged when it hits the open water. Anyway, fascinating stuff! I’m heading south soon to chase.

Certainly looks like it on radar. Interesting looking wide band too, guessing lots of synoptic juice in there getting enhanced by the upslope.

The title of this thread gets more ironic every time I look at it...

Light snow has started here in the BUF area. Some nice appetizer flakes in advance of the main course tonight. Topping a foot of snow from synoptic systems in BUF is no easy thing, let's see how this sucker plays out over the next 18 hours!

Catching up on this thread after 4 hours away while driving is darkly hilarious. “20 inches for everyone”! “I’m done”! “It’s over”! Oh the drama.