For roughly 16 hours on October 12 2006, the city of Buffalo, NY, was pounded by an unprecedented lake-effect snow event. An unusually cold air mass flowing over the warm waters of Lake Erie set up the small-scale, but severe event. The waters of Lake Erie were a mild 62 degrees, three degrees above normal for October 12. After the snow ended the morning of the 13th the final snowfall tally at the Buffalo airport was 22.6“. That amount of snow easily surpassed the previous all-time October record of 6“ set in 1909 and went down in history as the 7th greatest snowfall total ever in Buffalo. Other snowfall totals included 24“ at Depew and Alden, 22“ in Amherst, 15“ in Downtown Buffalo and 14“ in West Seneca. The heavy weight of the snow caused the worst tree damage in memory across the region, especially in the many historic parkways and parks in Buffalo. Almost a million residents lost power. Some people had to sit in the dark for as long as a week.

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

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