NEW YORK — Buffalo and western New York are facing several feet of snow from a “crippling” and “paralyzing” storm this week, the National Weather Service said.
Bands of heavy snow pouring off Lake Erie and Lake Ontario continued to swirl over the region Thursday afternoon, the NWS said. The precipitation started as wintry mix of snow, rain and hail late Wednesday before it transformed into an all out snow-storm overnight — marking a fierce and frigid start to what forecasters predict will be a record-breaking, multi-day weather event.
Snowfall is expected to continue throughout the day Thursday, with the Buffalo and Watertown metro areas forecast to bear the brunt of the storm. Its intensity will be fueled by lakes Ontario and Erie, with some parts of Erie County getting up to an inch of snow an hour as temperatures drop from the 30s to the 20s and other areas getting as many as three inches hourly.
