Every year, around this time, I hear the common phrase – “You should be used to the cold – you grew up in Buffalo.” Partially true, but as I have been trying to explain to people for years – Growing up in the Buffalo area does not equal being buried in snow 8 out of the 12 months of the year. There are a lot of misconceptions about the weather up there.
Here is a map of NY State, that also shows the position of Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Buffalo, NY is in the Northern part of Erie County.
Most of the snow in the winter in this area occurs from “Lake Effect” snow that comes in off of Lake Erie. Lake effect snow does not mean we are in a frozen no-man’s land tundra, but rather is produced in the winter when cold dry winds move across the large, warmer lake water, picking up water vapor which freezes Lake effect of extremely cold air over still warm water in early winter can produce thundersnow (which is kinda awesome BTW), snow showers accompanied by lightning and thunder.
Does Buffalo really get the most snow in NY State? Does Buffalo really get the most snow in the contiguous 48 states (except mountain areas)?
In a quick answer, NO!
Lake effect snows east of Lake Ontario are the ones that frequently set the daily records for snowfall in the United States. Syracuse, New York is directly south of there receives significant lake effect snow from Lake Ontario. In fact, Syracuse receives so much snowfall it is often considered the “snowiest” large city in America. Syracuse has frequently won the “Golden Snowball” award which is a contest between 5 cities in Central New York – Western New York – Upstate New York. The contest is based on which city receives the most snowfall for the snow season. The larger city’s that compete are Albany, Buffalo, Binghamton, Rochester, and Syracuse. A trophy along with a cash prize is awarded to the winning city every year. Although it usually does get its fair share of snow each year, Buffalo ranks 3rd among these 5 cities for Normal Season’s Average Snowfall with a season average of 96 inches. Syracuse is Number 1 with 116 inches. Although this is the ranking for these larger cities, there are many areas in NY state which receive even more snow.
Lake Erie produces a similar effect for a zone stretching from the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, OH to Erie, PA to just south of Buffalo, NY. Lake Erie has the distinction of being the only great lake to completely freeze during the winter as a result of being very shallow, although this does not happen every winter (even though we pray pretty darn hard for it). Once frozen, the resulting ice cover ends the barrage of the freak snow storms for the winter, hence also ending lake effect squalls.
Here is a list of the Top snowiest US Cities from the National Climatic Data Center:
So why do people think Buffalo is so snowy? A couple of reasons come to mind…
- There is a misconception about New York state winters because of some of the most publicized storms. It may be snowy in spots, but there are snowier places. The misconception started with what we Western NYer call “The Blizzard of ’77″ when Buffalo was hit with an impressive storm that flashed lightning and rolled thunder while dumping a only 12 inches of snow on the city. It wasn’t the snow itself that made history, but rather winds that gusted nearly to hurricane force. Following what started as an innocent snowstorm and ended as a national and even international news story, a large East Coast newspaper incorrectly referred to Buffalo as the “snow capital” of the USA. Subsequent notable snow events, such as the record 38 inches of snow that fell there in 24 hours in December 1995 and the seven feet of snow that buried Buffalo over a five-day period beginning Christmas Eve 2001, and the most recent Friday the 13th Storm in October 2006 have fueled this misconception. But, last winter, the Baltimore area received more snow than Buffalo for the entire season, even thought that is NOT the norm around here.
- The infamous “snow belt” SOUTH of Buffalo tends to get hit with a LOT of snow in short periods of time due to the Lake Effect snow. However, most of the major snow doesn’t reach up to the city of Buffalo. Many people refer to many of the smaller cities and suburbs that surround the City of Buffalo as being Buffalo, mainly because these smaller areas do not have the name recognition. Honestly, would you know where a storm was geographically if you heard it was in Hamburg, NY? What about East Aurora, NY? Nope – probably not (unless you were familiar with the area) so many news outlets refer to them as Buffalo – even though they are anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes South. Similar things happen here locally as well. If you live in Catonsville, and are talking to someone not familiar with the area, do you say Catonsville – or do you say Baltimore?
Needless to say, I think that this past winter in Baltimore proved more than anything – it ALL depends 
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