The National Weather Service in Buffalo is taking an unusually grave tone in its forecast, writing that the episode could be “paralyzing” and “crippling.” A 36-hour period of rapid accumulation, complete with thundersnow and near-blizzard conditions, is expected to ensue between Thursday and Saturday, with additional snows lingering through Sunday. The heaviest snow is anticipated late Thursday through Friday night.
“All the ingredients are in place for a major lake effect snowstorm,” wrote the National Weather Service in Buffalo in an online forecast discussion. Its impact scale for snowstorms classified the event at the highest possible level: “extreme.” Such events can lead to “extensive and widespread closures and disruptions to infrastructure,” the agency wrote….
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Heavy snow is expected to hold off in Buffalo until Thursday evening and until just after midnight in Watertown.
Complicating forecasts is the localized nature of lake-effect snow, which will fall in bands only a few miles wide. Like summertime thunderstorms, that means one community could be pounded while a nearby neighborhood remains untouched — except instead of by a downpour, by staggering amounts of snow.
Lake-effect snow warnings are in effect for the typically vulnerable snow belts downwind of the lakes, with winter weather advisories in surrounding counties. That’s because the snow band may meander north or south a few miles, and its fringe could deliver a couple inches of snow even into northwest Pennsylvania or extreme northeast Ohio, east of Cleveland.
Accumulations are expected to be around 2 to 4 feet within the city limits of Buffalo; however, amounts could reach 50 inches if the main snow band lingers, the Weather Service cautioned. Just 30 miles to the south, only 2 to 4 inches is likely….