Amherst, NY is a reasonably-sized
suburb of Buffalo, NY, noted, among other things, as the location
of the S.U.N.Y.A.B., and as a town with a burdensome property
tax. Its location NE of Buffalo places it somewhat north of the
natural snow belt of lake-effect precipitation. Occasionally,
the prevailing winds will carry that wonderful white stuff to
the North of Buffalo, resulting in sizeable accumulations in the
Towns of Tonawanda and Amherst. Having lived in the former, and
visited often in the latter, I've enjoyed these wayward storms...
truly a spectacle of nature!
The photos on this page illustrate the effects of such a storm during a recent stay with family in Amherst.
If you look real close at the center left of this photo, you'll
see what at first would appear to be a multi-mailbox arrangement,
but it's not. It's a humanoid... retrieving mail from a somewhat
buried box of the normal variety! The tax base does provide for
snow-free streets, as can be partially seen from the photos above
and below.
It wasn't Kilimanjaro...
...but it was "ours", and we had to travel only 150
feet to climb it! This beautiful sunny day led to thoughts
of an early Spring.
The "Weather-maker" had other ideas, however....
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As dawn broke, there was an ominous look to the sky, and one didn't need a billion dollar weather forecast system to know what was headed our way! A routine check of bread, milk, and eggs was already underway... a habit fully ingrained in our consciousness from residing several states south of the Empire State.
The "storm", as it was, was a disappointment... bringing more rain than snow.
Batten down the hatches!! ...or better yet,
build an Ark!
The rain, however, was followed by a night and day of 40 mph
winds and a falling thermometer, resulting in......
....another landscape
form.
The wind-blown powder effectively covered the sullied mass of
"used" snow, giving us a delightfully fresh veneer in
the morning. It was through tired eyes that I took in this scene,
however.... the shrieking noise of the wind waking
me often throughout the night.
A hot cup of coffee and a fresh-baked roll was our youth-elixir
today, as we enjoyed the warmth of company (and furnace heat!).
The trees won't 'want' for moisture this Season!
Another day, another driveway cleaned, another commuter (our
hostess) returning home from the daily grind.
So ends the show-and-tell of the January 1999 snows in WNY State... 65 inches were recorded at the Buffalo NY weather station, a record of sorts -- especially for all of those commercial snow plow operators whose contracts specify an 80" limit for the entire season... I can hear the coins jingling all the way to the bank!
For a look at some snow scenes from the photo archives, see The WNY Blizzard of '77.
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