What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- We are looking at the potential for a\u00a0La Ni\u00f1a, which generally means wetter than average conditions<\/li>\n
- \u00a0Just because Lake Erie has warmer water, doesn’t mean we will be walloped. There are mulitple factors<\/li>\n
- Area- snowplow companies have gotten larger equipment due to the rise in foot-plus storms\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Snowblowers and snowplows getting tune-ups are often part of the sounds of fall, especially for professional snow-clearers like Connor Kolb and his team at WNY Snow Removal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe original November storm in 2014, that was our first year in business,\u201d Kolb smiled. \u201cSo it’s kind of trial by fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
That might be an understatement. Since then, they\u2019ve upgraded a few times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe seem to be getting more and more frequent snows that are exceeding at least a foot,\u201d Kolb said. \u201cSo there’s been some changes and stuff that we’ve had to do over the years, investing in different equipment and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kolb is not playing into the whole “the lake is warm, here comes the snow” thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take it with a grain of salt, right?\u201d Kolb smiled. \u201cAt any point, we could get hammered with snow.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one understands that better than Spectrum News 1 Chief Meteorologist Chris Gilson.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody wants to look at doom and gloom,\u201d Gilson said. \u201cBut just because something is happening doesn’t guarantee that we’ll have a really active winter season.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Lake_effect_snow_cloud_noaa_Buffalo.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA lake effect band coming off of Lake Erie into Buffalo. (NOAA)<\/p>\n
Gilson says Buffalo could see above-average snow totals \u2014 around 95 inches plus.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we are looking at the potential for a\u00a0La Ni\u00f1a, which generally means wetter than average conditions,\u201d Gilson explained.<\/p>\n
He says there\u2019s a possibility of near normal or slightly above average in other parts of upstate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year is looking like a weak La Ni\u00f1a at best,\u201d Gilson said. “There’s even some indications that maybe it could be neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, Albany is looking at around 60 inches, Rochester, 90 inches and 115 to 120 inches in Syracuse. There are so many variables. One of them, of course, is Lake Erie and its water temperature and cold air.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wind flow of the colder air over the warmer lakes, that creates the instability, the warm air rises, that forms the clouds, eventually that forms the snow,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
There is no magic number. Gilson says wind direction, speed and distance all play a role. He notes the lake is cooling down. And if you really aren\u2019t buying his expertise, maybe this will change your mind. This Floridian newcomer isn\u2019t hustling to get ready.<\/p>\n
So is he prepared for his first winter here?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I still need to buy winter clothes,” Gilson laughed.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Kolb will continue to monitor the forecast and fine-tune his equipment for if and when that white stuff falls.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd at this point, we, if you prepare for the worst, you’ll be ready,\u201d Kolb said.<\/p>\n
An important note about those sticks at the end of driveways in your neighborhood: they aren\u2019t for sword fighting. Snow plow companies color them accordingly and use them as markers to find their clients. It’s a friendly request that they be left alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 The question this time of year around the water cooler, grocery store aisle, in classrooms…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":369293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[40737,5229,36748,23597,17546,17544,17549,17543,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,879,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284,36749],"class_list":{"0":"post-369292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-albany-capital-region","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-app-weather-stories","11":"tag-breanna-fuss","12":"tag-buffalo","13":"tag-capital-region","14":"tag-central-ny","15":"tag-hudson-valley","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-new-york-state","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newyork","21":"tag-newyorkcity","22":"tag-ny","23":"tag-nyc","24":"tag-rochester","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa","31":"tag-vod","32":"tag-weather-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115525748972915223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}