A huge low pressure system took
over North America and brought cold, arctic air down through Ontario
which interacted with the relatively warm waters of the Great
Lakes...The result - Total Chaos!
Lake effect rain & snow began
to fall along the Lake Erie shoreline and it just kept going at
incredible rates for almost 24 hours. A state of emergency was
declared in the region as 30-40 cm of wet snow came down onto
trees that still hadn't lost their leaves. This caused millions
of branches to break, causing widespread power outages, blocked
roads and general mayhem. I was there at the beginning of the
storm and saw almost every kind of weather imaginable in the span
of just a few hours. These snow squalls were so strong that they
were producing an incredible amount of thunder & lightning
along with heavy snow, grauple (small hail) and strong winds.
Steam rising from the Niagara River
at the Peace Bridge leading to Buffalo NY - Melting snow also
flooded sewer drains.
The beginning of the snow onslaught.
It lasted the entire afternoon and then through the overnight.
I returned to the area the next
morning to survey the damage caused by the overnight snow. The
entire region was without power, the QEW motorway was closed down
and a state of emergency had been declared. There were tree branches
downed everywhere and the winds along the lake were still gusting
to near hurricane strength. Buffalo got it even worse with 60
cm of snow in total.
A brave (& cold) windsurfer
at Crystal Beach. - Extreme snow weight brought down tree branches.
