Threat of Flooding in Buffalo & a Look at Historic Great Lake Snow Storms in November. Oh.. Bills play in.. Detroit.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/snow-covered-buffalo-area-faces-risk-of-roof-collapses-flooding-1.2844367

Remember the other day when I said that after the snow finishes falling there would be a concern on flooding? Well, we are "there" now and they are very worried about flooding as the snow begins to melt. Mind you, at some point it will refreeze. This is not North Carolina ... it's going to stay cold for a long time and parts of Buffalo may be seeing white for most of winter. Or..depending on how much melts they could have winter floods that will rival spring floods.

Hard to know for sure until this continuing disaster plays out in real time.

Salient part of today's discussion from the NWS Buffalo Office

".SHORT TERM /SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT/...

THE FOCUS FOR THIS PERIOD REMAINS THE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT

WIDESPREAD FLOODING...AS MUCH WARMER TEMPERATURES AND RAINFALL PUSH

INTO THE REGION.

THE WATER STORED IN THE RECENTLY FALLEN LAKE EFFECT SNOW IS LIKELY

TO BE AT LEAST SEVERAL INCHES. AT THIS TIME...IT APPEARS THAT THE

GREATEST CONCERN FOR FLOODING WILL BE IN THE SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH

TUESDAY TIME FRAME. SUNDAY NIGHT WILL REMAIN MILD WITH LOWS

REMAINING WELL ABOVE FREEZING. BY MONDAY...SURFACE TEMPERATURES WILL

BE CLIMBING TOWARDS 60 DEGREES WHICH WITH DEWPOINTS IN THE MID TO

UPPER 40S AND SOUTHERLY WINDS SHOULD ALLOW FOR MUCH IF NOT ALL OF

THE SNOWPACK TO MELT.

THE HIGH LIQUID IN THE SNOWPACK COMBINED THE FALLING RAINFALL WILL

LIKELY LEAD TO FLOODING...BOTH URBAN AND AREAL AS WELL AS

SIGNIFICANT RISES ON LOCAL STREAM/CREEKS AND RIVERS. IT IS DIFFICULT

TO SAY AT THIS POINT HOW SIGNIFICANT THE FLOODING WILL BE WITH THE

EXACT AMOUNT OF WATER STORED IN THE SNOWPACK STILL AN UNKNOWN. ONCE

THIS IS ANSWERED...A BETTER IDEA OF THE SEVERITY OF THE FLOODING

WILL BE BETTER KNOWN."

As for the Buffalo Bills game... it has been moved to Detroit. Wondering if they are using the National Guard to air lift some of their players out of their homes... as a few have been stranded by the record snowfall. 

1. 

   This snow doesn't scare me...

   MARQUISE GOODWIN

   ·

   3 DAYS AGO

Yup.. Monday Night Football ... from Detroit.. 

See these things just don't happen down south.... like last year when everyone up north in places like Buffalo made fun of people in Atlanta and Raleigh.



I'm tired of hearing the term "unprecedented" when it comes to historic hurricanes and snow storms.

 A look around the Internet or your local old fashioned library will tell you snow storms in November are not that uncommon around the Great Lakes. This one has had record totals for some towns in Buffalo. Ironically, parts of Buffalo have no snow. It's a tale of two cities. Like when Hurricane Andrew hit Homestead with Category 5 winds and North Miami Beach basically got a strong tropical storm or Category 1 Hurricane.

In 1913 a storm blew in off the Great Lakes depositing bodies, ships no longer at sea and piles of snow onto many Great Lake cities...including Buffalo. And, after the snow there was a problem with flooding. Much like in California where fires set up the situation for mud slides later in the season. You cannot have that much snow this early in ..late Autumn and not have some of it melt creating localized flooding.

History repeats often especially in the world of weather. But, like Cabbage Patch dolls each is one is a little different.

In 1913 there was a storm known by the name "The White Hurricane" that slammed into the Great Lakes in the middle of November with the fury of a hurricane and a January blizzard.

http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/light/light-vessel.htm

The National Weather Service called it simple the "Great Lakes Storm of 1913"

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/stm_1913.php

A wild storm story for anyone who loves storm stories...

Here's a small sample of the intensity of that 1913 White Hurricane and the horrific stories of death. Reads more like a Halloween story than a Thanksgiving story.

Note that this storm has been compared to the Winter of 1978... and it's ferocious winter storms.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/downtown-waterfront/honoring-6-coast-guardsmen-lost-on-lake-erie-in-1913-white-hurricane-20131017


Then there was the storm that was made famous in song...

Good article... well done. Worth y'all reading it in depth...
If you aren't into reading, there is always the song...




Be well.. stay safe and remember it's only November...

Besos Bobbi

Ps http://www.wpxi.com/news/weather/buffalo-bills-players-react-new-york-snowstorm-pho/nh93h/
Hey everyone has priorities... for some it's music and for others it's football.