Lake Affect Snow

I never knew there was a difference between snow and S*N*O*W until I moved here in 2006. Regular snow is just snow but Lake Affect snow can turn into S*N*O*W!

S*N*O*W is a soft, fluffy snow. We had a type of snow in Indiana that was soft and fluffy. It always reminded me of angels emptying boxes of Ivory Snow over the world. If it had smelled like Ivory Snow I would have known that angels actually have to wash their robes and wings!

Here in New York, where S*N*O*W happens, it is called Lake Affect Snow. It comes right off of Lake Erie and starts out looking like light flakes whose only damage will be wetting down the front windshield of your car.

"HA," I say!


The stuff comes in on "cat paws" as the poem goes, and then rears it's ugly head, roars like a lion and dumps whatever it can find in the atmosphere on us.



When you look at this map, you will see a peninsula sticking out into the Niagara River. (It is almost directly above the "p" in peninsula. There is a thin, red line going to what looks like a circle right below the peninsula. Well, that thin red line is the Erie Canal. So, if you can imagine where the canal empties into the Niagara River, that is where I live. (Contrary to popular belief, the Erie Canal no longer goes from "Albany to Buffalo." Young Street, in Tonawanda, was the part of the canal that lead form Tonawanda to Buffalo. It has been filled in for YEARS. SO I guess the song needs to be rewritten.


This picture comes from October 12, 2006. This was the radar for our Ice Storm in October the first winter I lived in Western New York. It was unreal looking out our front door. It reminded me of the hoar frosts (is that the correct spelling?) that we had in Indiana... but on STEROIDS, with a bunch of snow on the ground. The only positive for the 4 days we were without power was the fact that it was October and it wasn't exceptionally cold ... PLUS ... Gene's brother, Rick, came over and showed us how to hook the generator up to the furnace. Se we went back and forth between heat and generating power to the refrigerator. We never did hook up the TV. It was actually nice to listen to the radio on the portable boom box that was still in the basement. When the power finally came on, we had just gotten used to no TV.


When I left upstairs we were getting that dainty, little snow that is just wet enough to make one turn on their windshield wiper. I just wonder what will happen during the Lake Affect Snow Warning we have in effect from 3:00 pm to 3:00 am. It is now 4:56 pm. Time will only tell.


Western New York Snow Bunny~
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