Buffalo Weather, good description? (New York, Lancaster: place to live, gardening, airport)

[bls5555]

Buffalo has the sunniest and driest summers of any major city in the Northeast, but still has enough rain to keep vegetation green and lush.[21] Summers are marked by plentiful sunshine and moderate humidity and temperature. It receives, on average, over 65% of possible sunshine in June, July and August. Obscured by the notoriety of Buffalo's winter snow is the fact that Buffalo benefits from other lake effects such as the cooling southwest breezes off Lake Erie in summer that gently temper the warmest days. As a result, the Buffalo station of the National Weather Service has never recorded an official temperature greater than 99 degrees F.[citation needed] Rainfall is moderate but typically occurs at night. The stabilizing effect of Lake Erie continues to inhibit thunderstorms and enhance sunshine in the immediate Buffalo area through most of July. August usually has more showers and is hotter and more humid as the warmer lake loses its temperature-stabilizing influence.

Buffalo has a reputation for snowy winters. The region experiences a fairly humid, continental-type climate, but with a definite maritime flavor due to strong modification from the Great Lakes. The transitional seasons are very brief in Buffalo and Western New York.

Winters in Western New York are generally cold and snowy, but are changeable and include frequent thaws and rain as well. Winters can also be quite long in Western New York, usually spanning from mid-November to early April. Snow covers the ground more often than not from late December into early March, but periods of bare ground are not uncommon. Over half of the annual snowfall comes from the lake effect process and is very localized. Lake effect snow occurs when cold air crosses the relatively warm lake waters and becomes saturated, creating clouds and precipitation downwind. Due to the prevailing winds, areas south of Buffalo receive much more lake effect snow than locations to the north. The lake snow machine starts as early as mid-October, peaks in December, then virtually shuts down after Lake Erie freezes in mid to late January. The most well-known snowstorm in Buffalo's history, the Blizzard of '77, was not a lake effect snowstorm in Buffalo in the normal sense of that term (Lake Erie was frozen over at the time), but instead resulted from a combination of high winds and snow previously accumulated both on land and on frozen Lake Erie. Snow does not typically impair the city's operation, but did cause significant damage as with the October 2006 storm.

That is the wikipedia climate description.

Specifically Im interested in the Winter description.

Does the south side really get more than the north? A significant and noticeable difference? Also, it says something about snow stopping when Lake Erie freezes in January. How true is this?

[cheese9988]

That is pretty accurate. Buffalo receives a good amount of snow from late Dec to early March. Snow is possible in fall and spring during the ups and downs. The difference with Buffalo is that there seems to be a little more wind with the snow.

The summers are excellent, especially compared to the southern US. The temperature is mild and with the breeze coming from the lake, you have the perfect summer blend.

The two lakes, Ontario and Erie take awhile to cool and heat up. During the summer they need to heat up and help to stabilize the weather until around Aug when it reaches the maximum temperature. In the fall they need to cool down. Some would say it slows the seasons down a bit, the lakes can make both winter and summer seem longer than they actually are.

[UpstaterInBklyn]

That Wikipedia Description is basically a copy-and-paste from the National Weather Service's description of the climate in Buffalo, so I'd consider it authoritative. Here is the NWS link:

Buffalo Climate Info

To the OP - the questions you are asking about relate to Lake Effect Snow. As the climate description indicated, lake effect snow is very localized, usually occurring in bands off the lake that are less than 5 miles wide. This can cause blizzard-like conditions in one location, with nearby areas having no snow whatsoever. The good news is that because the narrowness of the snow bands, lake effect almost never effects the entire region at once. However the snow bands can move on a north-south axis over the course of a day.

It is true that the area south of the city, ("the Southtowns"), gets more snow that northern areas. This is due to the prevailing westerly direction of the wind. A West wind causes lake effect snow to fall over the rural and exurban areas well south of the city. The city gets lake effect snow only when the conditions are right and the wind comes from a Southwesterly direction. Depending on the precise wind direction, the lake effect band can be located over the southern suburbs, the city itself or the northern burbs.

[mikesuicide]

I would only add that some of the northern suburbs tend to get hit hard as well

[Dockwalliper]

The lake effect snow bands will hit the southtowns more than the northern burbs but the north will get hit when the winds off the lake come from the south west or directly from the north off lake Ontario. Once the lakes freeze the winds can't suck up water and WNY will only get general snowfall.

[BuffaloTransplant]

It is seldom that we get "whomped" where I live, south of Clarence with half the land in Lancaster and half in Alden. [We are basically east of the airport, so maybe that is why they put the airport where it is....] While we get blizzard ( '77 was terrible here, but that was rare -- it blew the snow off the frozen lake, it was not was Lake Effect; and we did get 2 feet in the October Surprise, we generally get reasonbable amount. For some geological reason, the snow generally splits north of the Thruway and south of our towns. Snow yes; terrible, no. The summer was long and very nice this year except for the hailstorms[ very unusual] and gardening was a pleasure [ only had to water potted plants, not the garden]; now the trees are turning great colors and will for at least a month. I don't find spring and fall "short". It is nice in summer; by the lake seems less humid than inland like we are. I love it here; it is a nice place to live