Buffalo snow: More than 6 feet of snow blankets western New York

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A dangerous lake-effect snowstorm blanketed western New York with more than 6 feet of snow by early Saturday, with more expected over the weekend.

>> Read more trending news

Update 11:15 a.m. EST Nov. 19: According to the National Weather Service, Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, reported 77 inches by early Saturday, according to The Associated Press. About 80 miles northeast, the town of Natural Bridge, near the Fort Drum Army base, reported just under 6 feet, the news organization reported.

Original report: Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, registered 66 inches of snow by 7 p.m. EST, The Buffalo News reported. According to the National Weather Service, Southwest Blasdell recorded 65 inches of the white stuff by 8:26 p.m., while Northern Hamburg reported 61 inches.

The town of Natural Bridge, just east of Watertown, recorded 70.9 inches Saturday morning, CNN reported. Watertown has had 57.4 inches of snow over the last two days.

The storm was blamed for the deaths of two people who went into cardiac arrest, Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz told The New York Times.

“We send our deepest sympathies and remind all that this snow is very heavy and dangerous,” Poloncarz said in a tweet on Friday afternoon. “Please continue to avoid shoveling this very heavy, wet snow -- and use caution and avoid overexertion if you must shovel today.”

Lake-effect snow vs. blizzards, what’s the difference?

Scott Fleetwood of West Seneca captured video of lightning outside his home throughout the night, along with snow burning the pumpkins on his porch, according to The Associated Press.

“The sky is white. Everything’s white. The only thing you can see really is the house across the street,” Fleetwood told the news organization. “My tiki bar is now an igloo.”

Roads and highways were closed around the region on Friday afternoon, including commercial traffic on parts of the New York State Thruway, the newspaper reported.

On Saturday, travel was banned in all of Buffalo as of 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, WIVB-TV reported. Several travel bans in northern and southern parts of Erie County were downgraded to travel advisories at 8 a.m., according to the television station.

“It’s Saturday. There’s absolutely no reason to be out there today,” Dan Neaverth Jr., Homeland Security Commissioner for Erie County, told CNN.

“When the snow is falling between 3 to 4, 5 inches an hour, you can’t beat it,” Buffalo Byron Brown said at a news conference on Friday. “You are going to get stuck.”

Browns-Bills game moved from Buffalo to Detroit due to snowstorm

Winter weather alerts remain in effect for more than 6 million people across six Great Lakes states on Saturday, including Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service.

On Thursday, the NFL announced it would move the Buffalo Bills’ Sunday home game against the Cleveland Browns from the team’s stadium in Orchard Park to Detroit’s Ford Field.

The National Weather Service in Cleveland issued a lake-effect snow warning from 10 p.m. Saturday to 10 p.m. Sunday for Erie and Crawford counties in northwestern Pennsylvania, the Erie Times-News reported. Wind gusts could approach 45 mph near the shore of Lake Erie, the newspaper reported.

1 of 15