10/13/06 NOW: Buffalo, NY

[HAltschule]

As of early this morning, Buffalo, NY has seen its earliest lake effect snow storm on record. Snowfall amounts are also crushing previous records. 1-2 FEET has fallen across the Buffalo Metro Area and there are over 250,000 customers without power. The foliage has been VERY slow to change this year and most leaves are still on the trees. Tree limbs and power lines have been falling in many locations. Wind speeds of 30+ MPH will be common today so more damage is expected.

PS: The NYS Thruway and all secondary roadways are closed in much of Western New York.

This is a wild weather situation for so early in the season. I wonder if there will be really neat photo opportunities with the snow and colorful leaves still on the trees? If anyone has pics, please post.

 

[John Farley]

CNN has posted both video and a photo gallery. The main story is at:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/10/13/ny.snow.ap/index.html

The boxes in the left margin contain links to the video and to the photo gallery.

They are now reporting 350,000 customers without power.

 

[HAltschule]

Live Streaming of the local news at www.wgrz.com

 

[B Ozanne]

Check out this photo on the wgrz website. Plane tipped off the ground due to heavy snow:

http://www.wgrz.com/imagepool/images/061013142848_wgrzsnowplane.jpg

 

[HAltschule]

To perhaps put the severity of the damage in perspective, this statement comes off of this evenings AFD from Buffalo:

"18 OF 21 WEATHER SERVICE PERSONNEL ARE WITHOUT POWER...MANY WHO HAVE REPORTED SEVERE TREE DAMAGE."