Posted in Buffalo November 14, 2018 by Lea Monroe

It’s Impossible To Forget The Year Buffalo Saw Its Largest Snowfall Ever

Now that Buffalo has officially started to see snow, we can’t help but think about all of the previous years where we saw the city blanketed in white. Going down in history as one of the snowiest seasons that the country ever witnessed, it doesn’t feel like that long ago when the Queen City saw more than 199 inches of snow hit us in the winter of 1976 to 1977.

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As people who have grown up in Western New York, we are no strangers to dealing with the true meaning of winter — becoming all too familiar with things like lake effect snowstorms, blizzards, and all that comes with this unforgiving season.

But beginning in the winter of 1976, things were headed on a more drastic path than they normally would've been — with Lake Erie completely freezing over much earlier in the year than it usually does.

After Lake Erie had frozen over and we began to see one of the country's snowiest seasons, the frozen surface became the ultimate storage unit for all of Western New York's snow.

So when a historic storm began to make its way towards the Queen City on January 28th, 1977, things quickly took a dangerous turn.

While the storm came in and quickly piled on inches of snow to the area, it was the storm's grand winds that swept in all of the snow that had been accumulating all winter long on Lake Erie that resulted in such tragedy.

Bringing the snowiest season right to the front doors of those living in Buffalo, streets all throughout the area and closest to Lake Erie quickly became impassable and filled with abandoned cars.

In total, it was said that more than 10,000 cars were abandoned in Buffalo during the storm, with at least 2,000 cars lined up on Main Street.

Resulting in the loss of more than 20 lives and breaking all sorts of records, Buffalo has never quite seen a winter as we did between 1976 and 1977.

Do you remember where you were when this storm hit in 1977? To reminisce on other memorable storms, read about The Massive Snow Storm That Took Buffalo By Surprise 12 Years Ago!