Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Ahead of the significant winter weather that's expected to take place in the region later this week, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was joined by a number of other local officials to provide an update on preparations ahead of the incoming storm.
"There is a major storm that is approaching, which in fact, will be the first snowfall of the year for the Metro Buffalo region," said Poloncarz at the start of Tuesday's press briefing. "Myself and others were just on a conference call with Judy Levan of the National Weather Service, and it is quite indicative of what we are facing. The call was such that while it is not certain the amount of snow that will be received, it is certain that a significant amount of snowfall, measured in feet, will occur."
Poloncarz says the storm that's set to affect Erie County this week with start late Thursday night, around midnight between Thursday and Friday, in which there may be an all day snow, with snow at a rate of two inches or more per-hour for Friday in the Buffalo Metro region.
"This will be a significant snowfall," he said. "One foot of snow, we can handle that with no problem. Two feet, we can handle that. When you start getting above two feet, then you're looking at significant issues and delays that can happen with regards to the removal of snow in our communities."
While this storm is set to potentially bring several feet of snow this week and into the weekend, Poloncarz believes it is not expected to be as severe as what was seen nearly eight years ago to the day with the "Snowvember" storm of 2014. According to projection from the National Weather Service, Poloncarz anticipates this storm to bring with it a 20-mile band of substantial snowfall, as compared to the "Snowvember" storm that saw a 10-mile band of substantial snow totals.
According to the latest weather models, this storm will not quite be a whole week's event.
"It is expected that we'll see some snowfall starting in Southern Erie County, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus [Counties] tomorrow, Wednesday evening through Thursday morning, and then it'll stop," Poloncarz said. "It'll look like, 'Oh, there's nothing that's going on. We were told expect 4-5 hours of nothing.' But then it's going to pick up in the late evening hours on Thursday, midnight Friday, and it's going to - as was told to me by Judy Levan, let me just get the exact words - it will hit with a vengeance starting late Thursday night, Friday morning".
To combat the expected snowfall in the coming days, the county has 37 plows ready to go to battle the winter conditions once this storm takes hold of the area. Poloncarz says efforts are also ongoing to coordinate with partners in city and town government to plow roads. Poloncarz is confident the county is prepared as best as they can be for this upcoming snowstorm, but still says it will be a significant snow event.
With snowstorms in Erie County being named after local craft brews, Poloncarz says this storm will be known as "That IPA", which is originally from Community Beer Works.
In addition, the county is going to have a fun contest period that will allow local residents to be able to name plows in the its fleet of snow plows.
"Starting now, you can go to our website at Erie.gov/NameAPlow, and you can submit a name for naming one of our snow plows," Poloncarz explained. "We have a great fleet of snow busters, drift busters, and we want to put names on the side of them. So this is a little fun thing for the community. You have until Nov. 30 to submit your suggestions. We are going to name every one of the plows in our fleet, and the first one to come up with a name that is actually put on our fleet in the long run will have an opportunity to actually get a picture with their plow, as well as a small token of appreciation from Erie County."
Hear more from Tuesday's press conference available in the player below:
