Springville, N.Y. (WBEN) - Winter weather conditions Monday night and into early Tuesday morning forced the closure of Route 219, as snowfall rates caused some treacherous travel conditions for areas like North Boston, Colden, Hamburg and Orchard Park.
Conditions finally cleared up enough for crews to make roadways across Erie County passable for drivers, and allowing for Route 219 to reopen shortly before 10 a.m.
"We drove up on the 219, it was a little hard-packed in some areas when the snow was falling, but once you got past that, pretty much the Town of Boston, you're down pretty much the bare pavement," said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz during a press briefing on Tuesday in the Village of Springville in Southern Erie County. "What we're reminding everybody is, it's winter in Buffalo and Western New York, we get storms. This is not a storm that's dumping seven feet of snow on the ground. It's dumping 2-to-3 feet of snow on the ground, which is still a lot, but it's not something that is impossible to handle."
As of Tuesday afternoon, all of Erie County is under a travel advisory, as residents are advised to remain home if there is no need to be out on the roadways. Only the Town of Brant and Village of Farnham in Southern Erie County are under a travel ban.
"The projections are, as we've seen, just even driving through it, 2-to-3 inches more of snow per-hour," Poloncarz noted. "It's possible the City of Buffalo could get upwards of a foot or more in the time period between when it entered the city to tomorrow, when which the band is supposed to stop."
Poloncarz says Erie County Department of Public Works plows were out all night, clearing out roadways as best as possible given the amount of snow that fell, especially in the Southtowns, overnight.
"The county is on two 12-hour shifts: From noon-to-midnight, midnight-to-noon. We have drivers going out in all hours. So the county roads were in pretty good shape this morning, the state roads are in pretty good shape," he said. "Some of the town roads and subdivisions may not have been in as good a shape as people would like, but in general, the community is in pretty good condition."
Another factor to take note of with this latest round of lake effect snow is the cold temperatures associated with an arctic airmass that has moved into the region. The good news, though, is winds have died down from the overnight hours, not making conditions even worse with the wind chill.
"That is a key, because the wind was the big problem last night. When there were 35 mile per-hour wind gusts, it was blowing this very dry snow all over the place. It made [for] difficult driving conditions, not just because of the amount of snow that was falling, but because of the blinding snow from the white outs," Poloncarz said.
Poloncarz is thankful the region is not dealing with the strong winds to pair with the cold air temperatures.
"No. 1, we don't have the extreme wind chills that we potentially could have, and No. 2, conditions are passable with regards to driving," he said. "You can see down the road, it is not white out conditions where you can't see past the hood of your vehicle. That's a good sign, and let's hope it continues like that."
Poloncarz acknowledged Tuesday that most schools that closed for the day kept students and staff home primarily because of the cold. He assumes that there may be another day of closures on Wednesday, but that will be a decision left up to the school districts.
"They will be in consultation with us, we'll be giving them information, and they will make the call themselves. We are expecting the bitter cold temperatures to continue, at least, through tomorrow," Poloncarz said.
Because Lake Erie is freezing over right now with the help of the colder temperatures over the last several days, Poloncarz is hopeful this is going to be the end of lake effect snow storms after this round of snow.
"Hopefully this is the last 24 hours we'll be dealing with lake effect snow for this year. Let's keep our fingers crossed that that's the case," Poloncarz said. "Let's hope that the temperatures warm up a little bit. There's a lot of great fresh powder that fell, and I know the ski resorts are really looking forward to people coming out, and we certainly want people to go out to the ski resorts or go out to one of our great Erie County Parks, where everything's free."