USCG RS

2 hours ago, BuffaloWeather said:

14 people found outside…

 

I wonder how the County Exec is characterizing an EMS Delay, because that is opening the County up to a pretty significant lawsuit. Obviously, we do not have the facts surrounding it, but... I am surprised he would characterize it that way. 

@psv88 Sorry to hear about your inflatable. If it's any consolation, Harrows is running their normal post-Christmas deals and the one in Melville still has quite the selection of Inflatables left. 

11 minutes ago, Newman said:

In a La Nina year with a tendency for SE ridge/western trough no less. The background state has been set for years now, it seems we need to get lucky for a +PNA and -EPO pattern with high lat blocking. It can happen, but is becoming less and less frequent it seems at least. 

So I was pretty young during the 90s, but I remember when 3-6" was called for and Long Island ground to a halt. Perhaps we're heading into these doldrums again? To those who are older/more knowledgeable, are we beginning to repeat these types of patterns? 

@BuffaloWeatherWow & Great work. I hope you and the family and - everyone here from Buffalo and the surrounding region- are staying safe

1 hour ago, LibertyBell said:

There's also a lot of corruption going on in Buffalo in terms of infrastructure contracts they've been handing out....but that doesn't explain this tragedy, this was an extreme weather event for them.  The latest numbers I read were 40 dead from this storm and 17 of them in NY.

 

1 hour ago, LibertyBell said:

I remember there were people trapped in cars, buses and trains in NYC during the Boxing Day 2010 blizzard but not this kind of death toll (I don't remember what the death toll was but it was very low from what I recall?)

 

You had several factors 

1) Exceedingly strong winds. These winds crippled the power grid. This lead many to be without heat compounding a very dangerous situation

2) Extremely heavy snow w/ whiteout conditions leading to roads that immediately became impassible. The city went from 2 inches of rain to blinding snow in a very short period of time. Unprecedented. 

3) Bone chilling cold. We're not talking 25-30 degrees and heavy snow. We're talking single digits and exceedingly dangerous wind chills (Hurricane force winds) 

4) Emergency Response grinded to a halt. The snow was so bad that reportedly every fire truck in Buffalo was stranded. This was reportedly the first time in history that the Buffalo FD could not respond to calls. For several hours a complete stop on response was forced to be implemented. 

5) People being people and not realizing the danger. This led to people becoming stranded and/or injured. See point 4. 

6) Cars stranded became tombs. Running the heat lead to CO dangers while leaving it not running led to death by extreme cold. 

There are more factors, but these are the most glaring which I can see

Merry Christmas! 

11 hours ago, donsutherland1 said:

From the November 7-8, 2012 snowstorm following Sandy:

I remember that all too vividly. I do not think I slept more than 20-25 Hours total in that 14 day stretch...

10 hours ago, gravitylover said:

I spend a fair amount of time in the Buffalo metro area during the warm seasons and I find it to be a pretty vibrant, hip, youthful and economically strong zone. 5 years ago it wasn't as strong as it is now and people didn't seem to appreciate it like they do now. Other than a handful of isolated spots around the state the WNY region is more outdoorsy than the rest, it's the strongest bike market outside of the 5 Boros  and outdoor winter recreation is booming. If I was 20 years younger I'd strongly consider living there. 

Talk about worn out... 

That's funny. Wife and I are literally considering buffalo rn. 

10 hours ago, Dark Star said:

Sometime in 2023.  Talk of a coup in Russia could trigger the unmentionable, but may bring a hearty winter for all...

That is dark... Dark star. 

23 hours ago, Rmine1 said:

Too high

20 hours ago, MJO812 said:

Too low 

20 hours ago, Allsnow said:

Looks good 

I love snow and cold... But I wouldn't hate a mild winter for my heating bills sake... 

28 minutes ago, WestBabylonWeather said:

Nuclear power is a great alternative but big oil won’t allow it. I mean here on Long Island we had shoreham and it never even went online they squashed it 

And we still paid for it. 

Just now, Winterweatherlover said:

It came a little east but still not close for our region. 

You have to look at the H5 evolution rather than the Surface. At H5, there is a very large difference. If these changes continue, the Surface will look much different. 

Time will tell, but there are huge differences this run. 

2 minutes ago, Winterweatherlover said:

Not really seeing any major changes yet.  

S/W & PNA are night and day. 

Just look at the H5. That's a huge signal. Cannot really ask for more this far out. 

If that H5 continues to show for the next few runs, we will have alot of happy ppl here.

2 minutes ago, Franklin0529 said:

My apologies been a long day/night. Newborn twins at home

Congrats! 

2 hours ago, Rjay said:

Into the Lakes?

Yup. It's why I know DC to Maine is going to be buried. 

Anyone else without internet? Apparently over 75k customers in Suffolk County are down 

12 minutes ago, jm1220 said:

Three times I've maybe seen 4"/hr in person are 12/30/00 (the one real thundersnow event I've been in) and 1/26/11 in Long Beach, and I think 4/2/07 in State College PA in the very tail end of a lake effect band. And those were insane. I can't imagine higher than that. The Sierra Nevadas I'm sure see some ridiculous snow rates and obviously in this event for Buffalo (and Watertown off Ontario). Was amazing to follow through on all the videos. 

Some studies pegged the 50-60 dBz death band of Feb 2013 as high as 8-9 in/hr. While this has not been conclusively proven, I can tell you that responding in that was... Nuts. 

1 hour ago, canderson said:

I would assume what is falling at BUF now is the heaviest snow possible. Dear god I hope someone is on the ground recording. 

Actually, I think that record goes to Copenhagen, NY; 2 Dec 1966: 12 inches in one hour. 

Just now, wkd said:

Not insulated?  That would, in my mind, mean bare wires.

Essentially. Most have a little rubber draped around for weather proofing, however, the steel is very bare. 

Emergency Management POV: Clean your roofs when you can do so safely. This type of weight will collapse roofs. 

Likewise: remember service drops (electric inputs to house from the pole) are live and not insulated. Be very careful around them. 

1 hour ago, forkyfork said:

Certainly has my attention. 

https://www.ipsfocus.com/

Relatively Inexpensive and maintenance is easy. 

@forkyfork

4 minutes ago, OSUmetstud said:

Some of the Cat 5 landfall talk seems pretty silly. It may have been a cat 5 a few hours west of landfall in the western eyewall, but there was no evidence of it being a cat 5 at landfall that I saw. Michael actually had near 140 kt SFMR near landfall. At least one of the reasons they didn't upgrade operationally for Michael was that the SFMR does have a high bias in shallow water. 

I agree. Ian likely hit Cat 5 just prior LF, however, there was nothing at LF - in my opinion- to suggest he was a cat 5 at LF.