storm

Well, folks. I'm ready and willing. We shall soon find out if I'm able. We've gathered the morning news for you. Now, there's nothing left to do but brave the commute. I'm leaving from Rochester and heading to Batavia in search of life on the streets, off the streets and in the shops. Check back later for full photo coverage of the journey. In the meantime, if you've got photos, video, stories to tell or whatever related to the storms of the past few days, please send them our way. We would love to share.

The Thruway between Rochester and the Pennsylvania border has been re-opened. Nevertheless, conditions are nasty. Expect snow, ice and blowing snow. If you do have to drive this stretch, please do so with caution.

Thanks to Brian Odachowski for getting us this photo over the weekend. This was taken on Main Street in Batavia during Friday's storm, which already seems like a pleasant memory compared with the frigid winds and whiteouts of this morning. You can't quite make it out in this scaled-down version, but this truck here is hauling snow pushers. Is that irony?

Lake Effect Snow is coming.

The predicted storm is significant enough for the National Weather Service to issue the ominous warning that travel between 1 p.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday may be impossible.

Meanwhile, the late Saturday, Sunday morning weather "watch" has been downgraded to an advisory.  That's small comfort compared to the dire language of the NWS warning:

SNOW WILL DEVELOP FROM WEST TO EAST ACROSS THE REGION LATE TONIGHT... WITH THE STEADIEST SNOWFALL EXPECTED SUNDAY MORNING INTO THE EARLY AFTERNOON. THE SNOW SUNDAY AFTERNOON WILL BECOME LAKE ENHANCED AND BE ACCOMPANIED BY STRONG SOUTHWEST WINDS... WHICH COULD GUST WELL OVER 40 MPH. THIS WILL PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WITH FREQUENT WHITEOUTS. THERE COULD EVEN BE SOME MINOR WIND DAMAGE.

and

A DOUBLE BARRELED LOW STRETCHING FROM THE UPPER GREAT LAKES TO THE OHIO VALLEY SATURDAY EVENING WILL GRADUALLY WORK ACROSS OUR REGION BEGINNING AFTER 3 OR 4 AM IN THE WEST AND ABOUT DAYBREAK FOR THE EASTERN LAKE ONTARIO COUNTIES. THIS WILL RESULT IN ANOTHER ROUND OF ACCUMULATING SNOW FOR THE ENTIRE REGION WITH THE HEAVIEST AMOUNTS ACROSS THE EASTERN LAKE ONTARIO COUNTIES.

BY FAR THOUGH... THE BIGGEST IMPACT FROM THIS SYSTEM WILL BE STRONG WINDS ON THE BACK SIDE OF THIS LOW. ANY SNOW THAT DOES FALL WILL BE BLOWN AROUND WITH SIGNIFICANT DRIFTING... CAUSING FREQUENT WHITEOUTS. THE WORST AREAS WILL BE EAST OF THE LAKES WHERE LOCALIZED BLIZZARD CONDITIONS CAN BE EXPECTED.

My hope: Things clear up enough by Monday afternoon for my wife's flight from California to safely arrive at ROC.

Be safe, stay warm and pray for the safety of those people who have no choice but to brave the elements on our behalf.

 Five-year old Andrew and two-year old Kate Ricupito didn't mind the storm Western New York was hit with today.

Here are the two youngsters enjoying some good old fashioned sledding at Centennial Park in Batavia.

Yeah, that's right... thunder snow. But more on that in a minute. It looks like this storm will hang on throughout the afternoon bringing more of the same, according to the National Weather Service out of Buffalo. Here's what the most recent weather statement has to say on the matter:

The steady moderate to heavy snow that was falling across the Niagara frontier will continue through the remainder of the afternoon... Expect snowfall rates to generally be around one inch per hour. There may be a brief period of heavier snow and thunder as a squall line develops and moves through the region between about 4:00 and 5:00pm. Snowfall for the remainder of the afternoon will be between 3 and 5 inches.

That's right, folks: thunder snow. For those of us south of the Thruway, it seems we'll see the weirdest of the weather, although the snow showers themselves "will be more scattered in nature." That almost sounds like relief, but...

Breaks of snow (will be) followed by brief heavy snowfall and possible thunder. Snowfall amounts will be highly variable this afternoon, with some locations receiving a quick 2 to 4 inches, while other locations receive less.

Winds, too, will be kicking along, gusting between 15 and 25 mph, causing blowing and drifting snow. Travel conditions will remain "hazardous" for the rest of the day. So stay off the road, if you can.

Here's how things look on the radar right now. Visit the Weather Channel online to get up-to-date radar views. From that site, you can see that the tip of the storm has just passed by Erie, Pennsylvania.

 I am surprised that in my 4-5 hours of driving I didn't find any cars off the road. But I did manage to find somebody that parked on Main St. Batavia that is probably going to have a difficult time getting out.

UPDATE (by Howard): Interesting, the Daily picked up on the same shot.

Try as they might, the city snowplows are having a difficult time keeping the roads clear. If you are driving on Main St. Batavia, it isn't too bad. But pretty much every side street gets filled with snow minutes after the plows have been through.

I'm not sure if it is good news or bad news, but it just came over the scanner that there is sleet starting to mix with the snow. This will limit the amount of blowing snow, but is going to potentially make it more slippery and make the snow that you have to shovel more heavy. 

DO NOT DRIVE ON COLLEGE ROAD TODAY!

I cannot stress this enough. I figured I would take the trip and attempt to get a photo of the college from the road. I couldn't go any faster than 5-10 miles per hour and literally couldn't see anything.

When I got close enough to the school, there was nothing but white. So I took a photo of my car in the middle of the road. Or, at least I think it was the middle.

When Eric Herrmann's shift ended at Graham Manufacturing, he called his wife Heather for a ride home. The problem was, the family vehicle was trapped in the driveway and was not going to move.

Unable to get a ride, Herrmann decided to take the walk to his Clinton Street home. I noticed what looked like a snowman walking, so I stopped and took his photo for The Batavian. And of course, I gave him a ride home so the poor guy didn't freeze to death.

Update at 2:13pm: Route 77 (Alleghany Road) is still closed off in the Corfu area.

Emergency crews will temporarily close down Route 77 (Alleghany Road) north of the Thruway to clear a tractor trailer that was in an accident there, according to the Genesee County sheriff's dispatchers. Crews need to be able to get in and get out with the tractor trailer. The road should be opened back up shortly after the vehicle is removed. 

View Larger Map

Nothing stops the United States postal service.

Even with massive amounts of snow, the mail is still on its way. I would guess that some carriers might be a little behind schedule because of the conditions, but they are out there.

 As you drive around, all over the place, you are going to see a lot of people out there shoveling their driveway in an attempt to either get their car out, or fight off the massive amounts that will be on the ground within hours.

Here we see June Weinert of Walnut St. trying to get the snow cleared out so she can get her car out of the driveway.

This gentleman's name is Martin Cross and he's trying to stay ahead of the snow fall in his Law St. driveway.

WBTA has posted an MP3 audio interview with Tom Nizoil, chief meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Buffalo.  He says snow is falling at a rate of one- to-two inches per hour and that traffic conditions will remain treacherous throughout the day.

We received the following notice of closures at the United Memorial Medical Center:

"Due to today’s severe winter weather the following outpatient services of United Memorial will be closed today:

• Batavia Family Care

• Tountas Family Care

• Tonawanda Seneca Family Care

• Byron Family Care

• The Corporate Health Center

• All services at the Jerome Center including laboratory and medical imaging

• Pembroke Diagnostic Center

• LeRoy Diagnostic Center

• Cardiac Rehab Services, EKG, Echo and Stress Testing"

Rochester's Democrat & Chronicle has posted a Google map studded with camera icons that each represent a traffic camera posted around the city of Rochester. Each camera refreshes the picture every few minutes. This is a useful service for folks commuting in and out of the city this morning and afternoon. Although, in the next hour or two, I imagine every camera will be showing about the same thing: white, and conditions around the city and on the roads back to Batavia should be about the same: crummy.

Oh yeah: Don't forget to check out our post from earlier this morning with a pair of live updating cameras posted at the Thruway interchanges with Route I-90 in Le Roy and Pembroke.

It is almost 8:30 a.m. and I am awake, which is a very rare thing.

The first somewhat heavy snow is starting to come down, so I'm going to go grab my camera and head out in a few minutes. My goals for today are to find out what is going on around town and update everybody on The Batavian.

Wish me luck and check back often for updates.

As the satellite image above shows, a large storm system is moving into Western New York. You can follow the progress of the storm on Weather.com,

WBTA reports that all schools in Genesee County have already announced they are closed today in anticipation of heavy snow and gusting winds.

The National Weather Service reissued its winter storm warning at 3 a.m., with an upgraded prediction of up to 10 inches of snow. Snow could fall from one to two inches an hour during the morning hours, and the heaviest snow fall could be accompanied by thunder. The warning is in effect from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.  While the morning and afternoon storm might dump as much as 10 inches of snow on the region, the evening snow showers could add another three inches.

We encourage you to be safe today.  You can post your own storm updates and information on The Batavian.  Of course, we'll be covering conditions throughout the day. You can also turn into WBTA for storm news updates. We imagine the Daily News will also offer updates.

UPDATE 8:20 a.m.:  The current radar map shows snow falling on the entire region, but we haven't heard yet of a single flak falling.  Have you seen any snow yet?

UPDATE: 8:39 a.m.: Below are web cam images from the I-90 Pembroke Interchange and the I-90 LeRoy Interchange. It looks like the first one shows snow and the second one does. Well, I managed to surprise myself -- thought I was grabing still images from the web cam, but actually the images are refreshing right on our page. As I look now, at 8:46 a.m., big flakes can be seen on the LeRoy cam.

But look at this image from Alden

So, we keep hearing warnings: Lots of snow heading our way.

First, we encourage you to be safe, but if you do happen to stick your head outside and snap a picture, post it to The Batavian.  Or video. Or tell your storm-related story on the site. Let your Genessee County neighbors know how the storm is affecting your part of the community.