Buffalo's October Snowstorm

For Buffalo, October 13th marks the third anniversary of the “Friday the thirteenth” storm. Lake effect snow is not uncommon in October, but when measuring 1-2 feet of snow you can bet records will be shattered. Unfortunately area trees still had leaves and this heavy, sloppy snow had an extremely high water content (2-3” of liquid). This produced widespread destruction of trees and power lines. Almost one million people lost power at the height of the storm in the Niagara Frontier. Ingredients for this storm included bitterly cold air that generated tremendous amounts of vertical lift. Remember, the lake water temperature was still in the 60s and this created huge amounts of instability over Lake Erie. It should be noted that this heavy snow extended into portions of Genesee and Orleans Counties as well.