During the autumn and early winter season, when the wind is from the right direction and the normally placid waters of Lake Erie are not yet frozen, the lake seems to rise up in a hurricane of snow, burying the City of Buffalo.
Buffalo is a city that knows snow, and knows how to handle it when it falls in great quantities. But the city had gone through the entire month of November 2001 without any snow, the very first time in history that had occurred.
They would make up for lost time in a hurry on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as 25.2 inches of snow fell in just 24 hours – good enough to rank the Yuletide storm in third place on the rankings of 24 hour snowfalls for the city.
The new record would fall just two days later when 29.6 inches of snow fell between 7pm on the 26th and 7pm on the 27th. 82.3 inches of snow would fall during a five day period, almost as much as the city normally receives in an entire winter season. The fact that the snow occurred during a holiday week made it more enjoyable than it would had it occurred in a week when schools were open and many people had to work.
