SYRACUSE - After an unusually warm December and a mostly snow-free January, Chris Sachel knew it was only a matter of time before nature claimed its payback.
On Sunday, winter showed up with a vengeance in upstate New York as intense lake effect squalls roared off Lake Ontario, dumping up to four feet of snow on communities along eastern Lake Ontario over the last two days. Those squalls continued Tuesday and forecasters said they will likely keep coming through early next week before the weather pattern changes.
“It's one of our typical winter storms,” said Sachel, who owns Mimi's Drive-In Restaurant just north of Fulton and remembers several years ago when his city received seven feet of snow over a 48-hour period.
“We got off cheap in December and January. I knew we'd have to pay up somewhere down the line for all that nice weather,” Sachel said.
Dozens of school districts in western and central New York - including Buffalo and Rochester - closed for a second day because of snow and dangerous wind chill. Travel advisories were posted in the counties of Oswego, Jefferson and Oneida. In Oswego, officials declared a snow emergency, banning all nonessential travel so plows could clear the roads.
“It's been a mild winter so we knew it was coming sooner or later,” said Oswego Mayor Randy Bateman. “All we can do at this point is wait it out until Mother Nature is done kicking us.”
Snow fell at a rate of one to two inches per hour at times as the lake effect band stalled overnight over southern Oswego County and northern Oneida County. The band was projected to shift north into Jefferson and Lewis counties later Tuesday. But forecasters said the area could receive an additional six to 12 inches Tuesday before that happened.
With arctic air continuing to pour into the region, the cold and blustery weather was expected to linger for the next several days and produce more lake effect squalls for New York's snowbelt, where annual snowfall averages more than 20 feet.
Areas near Fulton and Oswego had already seen three to four feet of snow since the squalls began on Sunday. Some of the heaviest snow fell in Scriba, which reported 45 inches over a 24-hour span. Parish received 34 inches in that same time.
The city of Fulton got seven inches of snow over two hours Monday night. At one point, city crews stopped plowing for a short time because the snow was falling too fast.
On Tuesday morning, troopers also closed a section of Interstate 81 for an hour between Central Square and Parish to remove cars and tractor-trailers that went off the road in zero visibility.
“I live about four miles down the road, it took me about 50 minutes to an hour to get here. It's just another beautiful day in snow country,” said Gus Maunder of Parish.
Oswego County Sheriff Reuel Todd said there were “hundreds” of cars reported off the road.
“The roads are treacherous. It's hazardous trying to get the roads plowed and the people out. There's a lot of snow out there, and when the wind blows there's a whiteout and they can't plow,” Todd said.
Todd said motorists were heeding the travel advisory - for the most part.
“A lot of people didn't go to work today. But the minute it starts to clear up a little bit, you get the gawkers come out to see what's going on. And there's a lot of them. They've lived here forever, they think they know the snow, and then they end up in the ditch,” the sheriff said.
Just 30 miles to the south, in Syracuse, the sun was shining, although the wind chill made it feel like five below zero.
The stiff wind and blowing snow forced Sharell Love to duck into a downtown mall for a little relief.
“It's cold. It stinks. It's awful,” Love said as she took a break from searching for an apartment. “I moved back here for this? I wish I was in Georgia.”
In Buffalo, National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Hitchcock said ice has begun to form on Lake Erie, but not enough yet to diminish the threat of lake-effect snow - the unpredictable snow that forms when cold air passes over the warm waters of the wide-open lake. If the deep freeze continues as forecast, that could change.
“It looks like we're in an extended cold period so I do think that the ice cover will increase fairly rapidly later this week into the following week. It can go fairly quick since Lake Erie is so shallow.”
On Tuesday, bands of lake-driven snow passed across Buffalo and its suburbs. The southbound lanes on the South Grand Island Bridge between Niagara Falls and Buffalo were briefly closed at midmorning due to multiple accidents, according to the New York State Thruway Authority.
“It's one of our typical winter storms,” said Sachel, who owns Mimi's Drive-In Restaurant just north of Fulton and remembers several years ago when his city received seven feet of snow over a 48-hour period.
“We got off cheap in December and January. I knew we'd have to pay up somewhere down the line for all that nice weather,” Sachel said.
Dozens of school districts in western and central New York - including Buffalo and Rochester - closed for a second day because of snow and dangerous wind chill. Travel advisories were posted in the counties of Oswego, Jefferson and Oneida. In Oswego, officials declared a snow emergency, banning all nonessential travel so plows could clear the roads.
“It's been a mild winter so we knew it was coming sooner or later,” said Oswego Mayor Randy Bateman. “All we can do at this point is wait it out until Mother Nature is done kicking us.”
Snow fell at a rate of one to two inches per hour at times as the lake effect band stalled overnight over southern Oswego County and northern Oneida County. The band was projected to shift north into Jefferson and Lewis counties later Tuesday. But forecasters said the area could receive an additional six to 12 inches Tuesday before that happened.
With arctic air continuing to pour into the region, the cold and blustery weather was expected to linger for the next several days and produce more lake effect squalls for New York's snowbelt, where annual snowfall averages more than 20 feet.
Areas near Fulton and Oswego had already seen three to four feet of snow since the squalls began on Sunday. Some of the heaviest snow fell in Scriba, which reported 45 inches over a 24-hour span. Parish received 34 inches in that same time.
The city of Fulton got seven inches of snow over two hours Monday night. At one point, city crews stopped plowing for a short time because the snow was falling too fast.
On Tuesday morning, troopers also closed a section of Interstate 81 for an hour between Central Square and Parish to remove cars and tractor-trailers that went off the road in zero visibility.
“I live about four miles down the road, it took me about 50 minutes to an hour to get here. It's just another beautiful day in snow country,” said Gus Maunder of Parish.
Oswego County Sheriff Reuel Todd said there were “hundreds” of cars reported off the road.
“The roads are treacherous. It's hazardous trying to get the roads plowed and the people out. There's a lot of snow out there, and when the wind blows there's a whiteout and they can't plow,” Todd said.
Todd said motorists were heeding the travel advisory - for the most part.
“A lot of people didn't go to work today. But the minute it starts to clear up a little bit, you get the gawkers come out to see what's going on. And there's a lot of them. They've lived here forever, they think they know the snow, and then they end up in the ditch,” the sheriff said.
Just 30 miles to the south, in Syracuse, the sun was shining, although the wind chill made it feel like five below zero.
The stiff wind and blowing snow forced Sharell Love to duck into a downtown mall for a little relief.
“It's cold. It stinks. It's awful,” Love said as she took a break from searching for an apartment. “I moved back here for this? I wish I was in Georgia.”
In Buffalo, National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Hitchcock said ice has begun to form on Lake Erie, but not enough yet to diminish the threat of lake-effect snow - the unpredictable snow that forms when cold air passes over the warm waters of the wide-open lake. If the deep freeze continues as forecast, that could change.
“It looks like we're in an extended cold period so I do think that the ice cover will increase fairly rapidly later this week into the following week. It can go fairly quick since Lake Erie is so shallow.”
On Tuesday, bands of lake-driven snow passed across Buffalo and its suburbs. The southbound lanes on the South Grand Island Bridge between Niagara Falls and Buffalo were briefly closed at midmorning due to multiple accidents, according to the New York State Thruway Authority.