Mild weather had persisted in western New York and indeed all across the Great Lakes region well into December in 1945. With the end of World War II, it seemed like the nice autumn weather was allowing people to enjoy peace of mind and carefree mild days for the first time in years. Great Lake water temperatures were also on the warm side when compared against long-term seasonal averages. Then on December 15 time ran out. A bitter blast of artic air – the first of the season arrived and blasted that cold air across the warm lakes setting an intense lake effect snow event. The city of Buffalo, New York got pounded with more than 36” of snow and areas south of the city in what are known as the snowbelts had twice as much snow – some places upwards of 70” of the white stuff. The region had some removal equipment – but heavy snow removal equipment was still sparse as many of the trucks and earthmoving type equipment was in use in the war effort and still had not been returned to many cities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.