Possumblog

Well, it's all that global warming is what it is.

2 feet of snow falls on western N.Y.

By CAROLYN THOMPSON
The Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A rare early October snowstorm left parts of the Great Lakes and Midwest blanketed with 2 feet of snow Friday morning, prompting widespread blackouts, closing schools and halting traffic.

The snow downed scores of tree limbs and toppled power lines, leaving more than 220,000 customers without electricity in western New York.

By early Friday, 14 inches of snow had been recorded at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, with reports of 2 feet elsewhere, said Tom Paone, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The snowfall was expected to continue throughout the morning, he said.

On Thursday, 8.3 inches of heavy snow set the record for the "snowiest" October day in Buffalo in the 137-year history of the weather service, said meteorologist Tom Niziol. The previous record of 6 inches was set Oct. 31, 1917.

"This is an extremely rare event for this early in the season," Niziol said.

Detroit also set a record, its for the earliest measured snow. On Thursday, the city broke by one day the mark set on Oct. 13, 1909. [...]

Well, obviously, it's some kind of vast conspiracy to drive up heating oil prices. Or to tempt polar bears to migrate south to keep from drowning, where they will be loosed upon unsuspecting inner cities to prey on the homeless.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at October 13, 2006 10:44 AM