Just before the busy Thanksgiving holiday week, snowfall of more than 6 feet in western New York state pushed local authorities to further restrict road movement and airlines to cancel flights in the Buffalo area on Saturday.
About 70 troops of the National Guard were sent by New York Governor Kathy Hochul to assist with snow removal in the most severely affected areas of Erie County.
In Orchard Park, New York, the location of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills home stadium, Erie County, which has borne the brunt of the snowfall, recorded totals of 77 inches.
More than a month before winter officially begins, squalls started to pour in from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario on Thursday, causing the region to experience its first significant snowstorm of the year.
The National Weather Service predicts that the situation may last until Monday morning.
At Buffalo Niagara International Airport, where numerous flights were cancelled on Saturday due to the nearly three feet of snow that had accumulated there, On Saturday morning, Buffalo, the second-largest city in New York, was once again subject to a travel ban.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN, “This has been a very unpredictable storm with the snow bands moving, back and forth, north to south. The snow has come down very fast, very wet, very heavy.”
The National Weather Service said on Saturday that Buffalo had a daily snowfall record of more than 16 inches, breaking the previous record of 7.6 inches set in 2014.
(with inputs from agencies)
