Snowstorm Hits Buffalo Area

People in Buffalo, N.Y., were stranded in offices, supermarkets, hospitals and restaurants Monday night as a fierce snowstorm stranded highway travelers. The Cleveland area may be next.

A 65-mile section of the New York State Thruway was closed this morning between Buffalo and Rochester because of blowing snow. State police and National Guardsmen used snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles to reach snowbound highway travelers.
The city was caught by surprise Monday when the storm clogged streets in time for the evening rush hour.
More than 2 feet of snow fell Monday, the third-highest total for any 24-hour period on record in a city that is known for the "lake effect" snowstorms that blow the length of Lake Erie.
Lake-effect snows continue to stream off the Great Lakes today. Yesterday's heavy squalls have shifted south of Buffalo and has driven some heavy snow squalls into the Cleveland, Ohio, area. According to The Weather Channel, locally heavy snowfall will persist today over the eastern upper peninsula of Michigan and southwestern lower Michigan, as well as northeastern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, and parts of western and Upstate New York.