Lake Effect Machine

In the past few days, Upstate New York has made appearances on the Today Show, Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and NBC Nightly News. The reason? Six straight days of lake effect snow (so far, more today and this weekend), dumping several feet of snow and an estimated 100 inches of fresh snow in Oswego and Oswego County. Local schools are closed for at least the second time this week; I think it's possible much of Oswego County was closed yesterday too (they were last night), but I never checked. JOY. I LOVE UPSTATE NEW YORK!

Buffalo and Erie County tend to get most of the publicity for lots of snow. They get lake effect too, and have the misfortune to sometimes get hit with lake effect from Lake Ontario AND Lake Erie, but they really have nothing (on a day to day basis) on CNY. The winter I lived in Buffalo was a PICNIC compared to here. To be fair, though, the wind can be far more bitter in Buffalo, and maybe that's worse than the snow. Upstate cities compete for the "Golden Snowball" for most snow every year. Sigh.

To get some perspective, we live currently in "Central New York." We get lots and lots of snow, approximately 120 inches a year, courtesy of Lake Ontario. Oswego County is slightly to the north and gets much more snow (obviously). Not only are they lucky enough to live in the lake effect area, that part of the state also has the delightful name, "Snow Belt."

You can see where this is going.

We're moving INTO THE "SNOW BELT."

This was the description of the town we're heading toward on a TV station's website:

When the snow stopped in X Thursday afternoon, homeowners took advantage of the break to dig out. But now, they're preparing for more, and stocking up for a weekend of more lake effect.

Unless you're living in it or there to see it yourself, it's hard to comprehend just how much snow the Village of X has received. Thursday, they got a break from the flurries for a while and they used that time to catch up on digging out. For some it was the first time in a few days they'd been out of their homes and one of the first stops was the grocery store.

The “Big M” is X's only grocery store. The manager says they re-stocked everything Thursday morning and don't anticipate running out of any of the necessities throughout the weekend.

Buffalo and Erie County tend to get most of the publicity for lots of snow. They get lake effect too, and have the misfortune to sometimes get hit with lake effect from Lake Ontario AND Lake Erie, but they really have nothing (on a day to day basis) on CNY. The winter I lived in Buffalo was a PICNIC compared to here. To be fair, though, the wind can be far more bitter in Buffalo, and maybe that's worse than the snow. Upstate cities compete for the "Golden Snowball" for most snow every year. I think we know who's taking home the trophy this year. Sigh.