Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN/AP) - Parts of New York finally caught a break Sunday after a storm spent days dumping a potentially record-setting amount of snow on the southtowns and South Buffalo.
Many businesses in the hardest-hit areas remained closed, highways reopened, travel bans in many areas were lifted and numerous school districts made the decision to close again Monday.
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"This has been a historic storm. Without a doubt, this is one for the record books," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a briefing Sunday.
Snow began falling Thursday in towns south of Buffalo. By Saturday, the National Weather Service recorded 77 inches in Orchard Park.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told WBEN the snowfall broke the state's record for most snowfall in a 24 hour period: the 50 inches that fell on Camden, New York, on Feb. 1, 1966.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Alumbaugh, who is based in Buffalo, said it was too early to say whether any of this year's snowfalls exceeded that record.
Whatever the meteorologists determine, the snowfall was historic and taxed municipal snow removal crews as well as homeowners' abilities to remove mountains of snow from their driveways and walks.
Hochul is asking for a federal disaster declaration for the affected areas, which would potentially unlock some aid. She said teams were checking on residents of mobile home parks in areas that got enough snow to potentially crumple roofs.
Due to the heavy snowfall, the Buffalo Bills' and Cleveland Browns game was moved to Detroit.
New York is no stranger to dramatic lake-effect snow, which is caused by cool air picking up moisture from the warmer water, then releasing it in bands of windblown snow over land.
This month's storm is at least the worst in the state since November 2014, when some communities south of Buffalo were hit with 7 feet (2 meters) of snow over the course of three days, collapsing roofs and trapping drivers on a stretch of the New York State Thruway.
