Buffalo, New York. What a city. The Queen City. Home to Shark Girl, Mighty Taco, nasally accents, great parades, Buffalo wings, and... terrible, crazy, no good, very bad weather.
Everyone knows Buffalo winters have got it bad, and by "winter", Buffalo is talking about any day between September and next May. Winter can happen at any given day of the year, but it can also, well, not happen, as we oddly experienced this past winter season. The point here is in Buffalo, anything can happen.
Let's throw it back about 40 years to one of the nation's most well-known blizzards; the Blizzard of '77. Memorable for it's INSANE 70 mph winds, the snowstorm hit the queen city at the end of January that year. There were a total of 29 deaths and seven counties were actually declared as national disaster areas. Thankfully, this tragedy was the only major storm with the same fatalities for Western New York up through the rest of the century.
Even more thanks can be given to Perry's for bringing one good thing out of the blizzard; in 2012, they released "Zero Visibility Ice Cream" in honor of Buffalo's severe weather, which of course featured a coconut rum flavor. If you missed this treat, worry not, because there is rumor of a rerelease of the Buffalonian delicacy in 2017 to celebrate the blizzard's 40th anniversary.
Now to lake storm Aphid...or what's better known as "The October Surprise." On October 12, 2006, 400 thousand Buffalonians woke up to no power. After taking a look outside that morning, you'd understand why "surprise" is an accurate word to describe the storm.
With no warning, snow, thunder, lightning, and wind all hit the north towns of the city, bringing down power lines, wrecking houses, and throwing trees every which way, resulting in maximum damage and EVERYTHING to be closed. For an entire week, people were without power, stores and schools were closed, and even today, ten years later, damage is still being repaired. Who else remembers still stepping over tree trunks and branches while trick or treating that year?
The most recent of the biggest severe storms you might remember is the 2014 Blizzard, that hit us literally like a wall in mid-November. Snow drifts up to 30 feet collapsed rooftops, stranded people in cars on the highways for hours, and killed a total of 13 people. In just two November days, more snow accumulated than the average that falls in the area over the entire season.
Even being considered worse than the Blizzard of '77, Buffalonians still found innovative ways to cope with being barricaded into their neighborhoods, and for some even their homes.
Like this homemade refrigerator!
As for some more weird Buffalo weather, we can take a look at this past 2015-2016 winter season. Buffalo's supposed to be known for the snow, right? Then...where did it go? The record for the latest measurable snowfall in WNY was broken on December 19th with a whopping 0.1" of snow. This is compared to an average of 22" for the day, and the latest snowfall by two weeks since 1899. The good weather continued throughout the winter months, but somehow has left us with trails of snow in between 60+ degree days in mid-April.
Moral of the story is...yes, Buffalo has crazy weather. It drops us surprises every year with a different story, whether it be a way-too-early winter storm, or a Christmas season in shorts. The weather is unpredictable and anything can happen, so let's take a quick life lesson from our grand city and remember...
Anything is possible if you just believe.
