Gary Wiepert AP
Driven by the Lake Effect, a massive snow storm dumped up to 60 inches of snow on some parts of Western New York, killing at least five and paralyzing an area used to huge snow totals.
In a press conference Wednesday morning, Mark Poloncarz, Erie County's executive, said plows were out on the road trying to dig out the city of Buffalo and its surroundings. A new storm was moving across the area but was "only expected" to bring three-to-five inches of snow.
"That is a nice respite," Poloncarz said.
The Buffalo News reports the snow developed when unseasonably cold air crashed into the relatively warm waters of Lake Erie. Check out the visual:
The paper explains:
"Dave Zaff of the National Weather Service in Buffalo said there's no meteorological term for the phenomenon that created that strikingly pronounced wall of clouds and churned out the unbelievable amount of snow.
"'Whiteout to blue sky in a very, very short distance,' he said.
"It's not unheard of when it comes to lake-effect storms. But the snow totals? They may be for the history books.
"'This will be a historic event,' Zaff said. 'Absolutely. It is a historic event.'"
