You may have heard the words "October surprise" during an election season, but it's also used to describe a lake effect snowstorm that impacted parts of Western New York 20 years ago today. The National Weather Service in Buffalo says a localized, intense, and early season lake effect snowstorm hit the Buffalo area on October 13, 2006, dumping upwards of two feet of heavy, wet snow from a narrow lake effect band that developed over the warm waters of Lake Erie over a 24-hour period. That remains a record for the month of October. The storm created devastating impacts due to the amount of foliage on the trees, as well as power outages and crippling travel, impacting nearly one million people. While that lake effect band did not directly impact Chautauqua County, it did result in the closure of a 105-mile stretch of I-90 between Dunkirk and Rochester.
Click here for full details of the October Surprise storm of 2006.
Photo via the National Weather Service
