Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - The nicer weather in Western New York is brightening up many spirits across the region, including seasonal business owners who are opening up shop for the first time in 2024.
Businesses like Mississippi Mudds in the City of Tonawanda welcomed back patrons this past weekend ahead of schedule, and are especially happy the warmer weather has entered the picture.
"At this time of year, I'm always excited to get open coming off the winter," said Tony Berrafato, owner of Mississippi Mudds with WBEN. "We're probably a couple of weeks ahead of our normal opening, usually the middle of March. And then every year, I just kind of keep an eye on the weather, and they were calling for this past weekend to be warmer and nice. The only thing they missed on was the sun, but other than that, it was OK, so we decided to open early."
Berrafato is appreciative of the people that walked through their doors this past opening weekend, and is thankful the sunny skies and close to 70 degrees weather will accompany them this early in the season.
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While Monday's forecast is a bonus for the entire region, Berrafato is pleased to see the long range forecast is looking optimistic to remain above average for quite some time.
"Listen, in Buffalo, if it's 50 and sunny, people are out and about, especially now," Berrafato said. "We're right across from Niawanda Park, which is a fantastic park. I'm looking out there right now, you've got people riding their bikes, people walking. I'm confident, I'll say, but once again, we're in Buffalo. We still could get a shot of some cold weather, which is fine."
While Berrafato decided to open the season a couple weeks sooner at Mississippi Mudds, he says he's likely to wait a little longer before he opens his other business down the road in Tonawanda, Old Man River.
"We will probably wait until the middle of April," he said. "We're a little different down there. We have seafood, the clam bar and smoked BBQ foods, and we do live music and beer and wine. We'll wait a little bit, because as we all know, the weather is going to turn a little bit back to normal during March. So we'll wait until mid-April on that."
With business now back open in Tonawanda, Berrafato will have about a month before the highly-anticipated Total Solar Eclipse passes through Western New York on Monday, April 8. While many businesses are expected to be closed on that Monday, Berrafato says he plans to be open.
"They expect a pretty big crowd down in this area to watch the [eclipse], according to the City of Tonawanda people. We're going to be open," he said. "We're not going to do anything different other than we'll probably open a little bit early, and we have the upper deck. I think it's gonna be so busy, we're gonna have to probably limit people from going on the upper deck, keep the numbers down, but we'll be open for business."