Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, and Governor Kathy Hochul hold a storm press briefing (December 26, 2022)

At least 27 people have died in Erie County following a winter storm that paralyzed a good portion of Western New York over the Christmas Holiday weekend.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz confirmed via Twitter of the 27 people who have died that 3 of the deaths were from an EMS Delay, 14 were from exposure, 3 were from shoveling or snow blowing cardiac events; 4 were from no heat; and 3 were those found in a vehicle. He said unfortunately he expects the number of deaths to still increase.

Poloncarz said driving bans remain in effect for Buffalo and Lackawanna with the rest of Erie County under a travel advisory.

The New York State Thruway remains closed from the Pennsylvania line to Exit 46 in Henrietta. The Thruway Authority was expecting to provide an update this morning on that situation.

The National Weather Service in Buffalo said the four-day storm total at the Buffalo Airport was 50 inches of snow. The storm, which had blizzard conditions, left hundreds of motorists stranded and 100,000 without power over the weekend.

President Joe Biden has approved a request by Governor Kathy Hochul for a federal declaration of emergency for Erie and Genesee Counties. The Emergency Declaration will provide immediate federal assistance to impacted counties to support ongoing response and recovery operations.

Hochul also deployed an additional 220 National Guard soldiers to the Western New York region, bringing the total of deployments to approximately 430.

The declaration came Monday afternoon – ahead of the extreme winter storm that was expected to bring as much as two feet of snowfall and high winds to several regions of the state. The Governor also directed non-essential state employees impacted by the winter storm to stay home from work on Tuesday without having to charge accruals.

As a result of the declaration, all public schools and colleges in Chautauqua County are closed for Tuesday.

The governor said that New Yorkers should exercise caution, avoid unnecessary travel and pay close attention to winter storm advisories as the day progresses.

Chautauqua County remains under a Winter Storm Warning until 8 p.m. Wednesday, with 2-4 inches of snow expected for Tuesday, another 1-3 inches is expected for Tuesday night, and 1-2 inches could fall on Wednesday.

According to the National Weather Service, anywhere between 12 to 24 inches of snow is anticipated in the Western New York, Finger Lakes, and Central New York regions through Wednesday night. The heaviest snow accumulations are expected in the south and east of the Capital Region, the Mohawk Valley, and the Mid-Hudson Valley region.

The impact of the state of emergency will be felt most in the New York City metro area, where MTA express subway service will be suspended after the rush hour Tuesday. Above-ground service on the subway has already been suspended, starting at 4 a.m. Tuesday. The storm was expected to dump 1 to 2 feet of snow on the New York City metro area with wind gusts of up to 55 mph.

The storm isn’t just impacting New York State, but most of the states in the Northeast United States, where it has prompted flight cancellations, school closures and warnings to stay off the roads.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

The weather service’s office near Philadelphia called the storm “life-threatening” and warned people to “shelter in place.” Coastal flood warnings were in effect from Massachusetts to Delaware.

JAMESTOWN – Despite the challenges and justified criticism, the snow plowing and removal efforts by city road crews this past weekend deserve to be recognized.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi (upper right) addressed the city’s snow plowing and removal efforts during the Dec. 12, 2016 work session of the Jamestown City Council.

That’s the message from Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi, who addressed the city’s recent snow removal efforts during Monday Night’s Jamestown City Council work session.

The mayor thanked residents for their patience and cooperation as the city worked to remove an estimated 42 inches of snow that fell on the area the past four days.

“There are very few older, densely developed urban areas that could deal with a storm even like what we had to deal with,” Teresi said. “It was steady, it was heavy, it was constant and just about any other place that I know of probably would have been paralyzed and shut down.”

The mayor also complimented the Department of Public Works (DPW) for its effort to try and keep up with the lake effect snow, which fell at times at a rate of 2 to 3 inches an hour for several hours straight.

As a result of the snowfall, Jamestown Public Schools was closed both Friday and Monday and dozens of accidents took place throughout Southern Chautauqua County, including Jamestown.

The mayor acknowledged the city has received complaints that were brought forward regarding side streets that had little to no attention during the weekend. As a result, some commuters were unable to make it to work on Monday morning, due to their vehicles being stuck. The mayor said the city DPW is already making adjustments so that it can better deal with clearing and removal on side streets during future storms.

“It’s a real specialty and it’s not perfect. We seek to improve and will continue to improve, but the kudos needs to go to our staff and to the general public,” Teresi said. “Number one, for their patience; number two, dealing with sidewalks, which is an area that needs a lot more attention; and number three, we’ve seen a lot of good gestures here in the community of people helping their neighbors out. We have a high percentage of elderly folks and disabled folks in this community and it’s really positive, encouraging, and inspiring to see people out there help others.”

Teresi added that given the numerous challenges that come with the various streets and landscape in Jamestown, city road crews do a remarkable job.

“Jamestowners know how to deal with this type of snow and it is different than dealing in rural areas and suburban areas, where you do not have the congestion of streets, narrow streets, hills, brick roads, density of parked cars, and the level of traffic,” Teresi noted.

The mayor also requested that residents continue to follow alternate parking and dig out fire hydrants if one is in front of your home and is buried in snow.

According to the warning, the locations that will be impacted include Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Wyoming, and Southern Erie Counties, with the greatest amount of snow expected to fall across the higher terrain of the Chautauqua Ridge.

Forecasts show that accumulations of 4 to 6 inches are expected for Thursday during the day with another 6 to 12 inches possible for Thursday night into Friday morning. For Friday, another 4 to 8 inches could fall during the day and 3 to 5 inches could also fall Friday night into Saturday morning. The total snow accumulations for the 48-hour period could be as much as 2 feet, if not more, in the most persistent lake snow areas.

Motorist should realize that heavy lake effect snow and areas of blowing snow will lead to significant accumulations of snow on area roadways and very poor visibility at times, resulting in hazardous to nearly impossible travel conditions within the most intense portion of the snow bands.

Motorists who must travel are advised to be prepared for severe winter driving conditions with near zero visibility and deep snow cover on the roads. This includes the New York State Thruway between the Pennsylvania State Line and Hamburg, along with the western-most portion of I-86.

Also motorists need to remember that with lake effect snow, the weather can vary from locally heavy snow in narrow bands to clear skies just a few miles away. If you will be traveling across the region, be prepared for rapid changes in road and visibility conditions. Motorists should also carry an emergency kit in their vehicle in the event they get stuck or stranded.

The national Weather service had a lake effect snow warning on Friday, saying that as much as 10-18 inches could fall between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning. However, only about 4 to 5 inches of snow covered the ground by Monday morning.

Still, the weather did cause some problems with several traffic accidents reported throughout the region. Some trees in the area also still had their leaves, causing the heavy snow to accumulate on branches and eventually snapping them – leading to trees falling on homes as well as disrupting electricity and cable service in some isolated areas.

The area will get a reprieve from further winter weather for the remainder of the week. The forecast for the rest of this week is calling for little additional snow, with temperatures rising to above freezing by Wednesday and on into Thanksgiving Day, as well as Black Friday.

More than a foot of wet snow blanketed Jamestown, with the worst of the weather arriving just as morning commuters were on their way to work. City road crews had a hard time keeping up with clearing the snow from the main roads, let alone the city side streets, causing frustration for residents who were unable to move their vehicle and as a result, get to their destination.

Jamestown Public Works director Jeff Lehman told WRFA Tuesday afternoon that his department was aware the storm was coming, but due to the timing, combined with a limited workforce and vehicles, it was difficult to keep up.

“This is probably the worst storm we’ve had to deal with in the past three years, partially because of the timing. Anytime a storm hits early in the morning, like this one did, we get behind on it because of the morning rush hour and other things,” Lehman said. “We don’t really have additional employees to call in, so what we do is hold the ones from the previous shift over and do a 12-hour shift.”

Lehman said that another factor that made it difficult for crews, especially trying to clear narrow side streets, was vehicles that were parked on both sides of the road.

“We were kind of struggling all day with the alternate parking rule,” Lehman said. “Folks were not moving so we were getting cars on both sides of the road and we couldn’t get plows down through some of the narrower streets. That’s probably the biggest thing, so if residents can help their neighbors dig their cars out and get them moved over to the other side of the street, that would really help us out.”

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi also took to Facebook on Tuesday afternoon to thank city residents and motorists for their patience while crews worked to dig out from the storm:

Most of the schools in Chautauqua County are on winter break this week, so classes were not impacted by the storm. However, Jamestown Community College did have to cancel all classes at the Jamestown campus on Tuesday, and several other organizations also closed due to the wintry weather.

There isn’t expected to be any significant snowfall over the next several days and temperatures are actually expected to be above freezing by this Friday and the coming weekend. The milder weather conditions should allow city crews the opportunity to remove the snow, especially in areas of downtown that see significant pedestrian traffic.

Forecasters say the greatest snow amounts are expected just inland from Lake Erie along the Chautauqua Ridge, although some higher elevations more inland will also see significant total.

For the most persistent snow areas, we could see accumulations of 2 to 4 inches today, 3 to 5 inches tonight, and 3 to 6 inches Thursday.

Strong wind gusts will also result in blowing snow. The wind, combined with colder temperatures, will also result in a wind chill that is below zero.

Lake effect snow and blowing snow will result in very difficult travel at times with snow covered roads and greatly reduced visibility.

Several mid-Atlantic states, along with those in Appalachia, are bracing for severe weather starting Friday and continuing into the weekend.

PHILADELPHIA – A major winter storm that could create blizzards in some regions of the country is about to descend on the east coast, but it likely won’t make its presence felt here in Western New York.

The National Weather Service said in a statement Wednesday that 12 to 16 inches of snow could come down between Friday night and Sunday morning around the Interstate 95 corridor, affecting areas of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and maybe even parts of New York and lower New England.

Forecasters say residents in those areas should be prepared for strong winds, heavy, wet snow and power outages.

As a result of the storm warnings, people throughout the region are busy getting supplies as they prepare for blocked roads, power outages and canceled flights.

The storm isn’t expected to make its way as far inland as the great lakes. As a result, Chautauqua County is expected to see fairly mild winter weather conditions this coming weekend, compared to what we saw at the start of the week.

The major winter storm is expected to hit the Long Island, New York City and Mid-Hudson regions beginning later today. It’s expected to dump 4 inches of snow an hour and create zero visibility conditions. As a result, roads including the Thruway, I-84 and the Long Island Expressway, and public transit networks including the LIRR, PATH, Metro North Railroad, and MTA Subways and Buses may be closed ahead of the evening commute.

The Governor is urging commuters to work from home Monday if possible, or otherwise plan to leave work early Monday midday.

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the “potentially historic” storm in many areas in the region effective Monday at 1 p.m., as well as increased the snow accumulation and wind speed forecast. As of Sunday evening, the National Weather Service expects general snowfall from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet with local amounts in excess of 3 feet, and wind gusts that may reach up to 65 MPH. Snow may fall at a rate of up to 4 inches per hour and visibility may be reduced to zero.

Weather officials say the area can expect snow Thursday night through Saturday morning, with the most persistent snow bands located along the Chautauqua Ridge and northern Chautauqua County. The forecast is calling for 3 to 6 inches of snow for overnight, 4 to 8 inches during the day Friday, 4 to 8 inches Friday night, and 3 to 6 inches on Saturday.

Areas across Southern Chautauqua and Southern Cattaraugus Counties will likely see a total of a foot of snow or less from Thursday night through Saturday afternoon.

A complete forecast for the Jamestown area can be found at the National Weather Service website.