December 1-3 LES event

[LakeEffectKing]

I'll say **** .

[CNY Mike]

I'm going Five: Shutdown of the thruway for eighteen hours, over 40" of snow in locations, and total shutdown of the area for two days.

[kulaginman]

Yep, five stars IMO. This was arguably the third most disruptive lake effect snow event of the last decade in the Buffalo metro area...behind the obvious "October Surprise" in 2006 and probably the "Gridlock Storm" in November 2000...although the latter had a much larger impact in the immediate vicinity of downtown Buffalo than this recent event.

[Buffalo Bumble]

I'm tempted to vote 3 flakes b/c I got the lake effect shaft job of the century at my house (zilch at my house; 6 inches 1/2-mile down the road; 12" another mile; 20"+ one more mile). But I have to go with 5 flakes b/c of 30"+ accumulations in a heavily populated area, travel bans, thruway closure, etc.

[LakeEffectKing]

I'm tempted to vote 3 flakes b/c I got the lake effect shaft job of the century at my house (zilch at my house; 6 inches 1/2-mile down the road; 12" another mile; 20"+ one more mile). But I have to go with 5 flakes b/c of 30"+ accumulations in a heavily populated area, travel bans, thruway closure, etc.

Ouch!!!

Posters above make great points about the impact....I was thinking more about the fact that it would have been incredibly more impactful if it was 15-20 miles further north.....would that be a "six flaker"??? But the Thruway being shut down just may peg this as 5 flakes....I'll concede to the 5 flake votes....

[BuffaloWeather]

Easy 5. Top 5 of this decade are

1.) October Surprise

2.) 2001 7 feet in 4 days

3.) 2000 Thanksgiving storm

4.) December 2010

5.) hmm?

[Chris L]

For those of you who were around the area in December 1995,

which ranks better? This or December 1995?

[BuffaloWeather]

For those of you who were around the area in December 1995,

which ranks better? This or December 1995?

I would say the 1995 as it hit the city and airport with 38 inches in only a 24 hour period. These snowfall rates were not as intense as those. Also 1995 storm covered a broader area with more people. Information on that storm is at below link.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/buf/respap2.htm