Blizzard Of 1977 Essay

For those Buffalonians who are old enough to remember it, the Blizzard of 1977 is a memory that has been seared into their consciousness. January 28th 1977, began as a normal day for the city of Buffalo, but by twelve noon the wind picked up, snow began to fall, and visibility became dangerously limited. As the wind began to intensify out of the west and sweep across the frozen wasteland of Lake Erie, it carried with it the lightly packed snow that had blanketed the frozen lake. An event of historical proportions was beginning to unfold in rapid time right in front of people’s eyes. Accumulating more and more snow as the wind moved eastward, the wind was carrying so much snow that it created white out conditions in the city and surrounding area. Meteorologist David Zaff observed the scene, “the heavy sustained winds ‘took all the snow off the lake and dumped it onto the Greater Buffalo area, from St. Catharines all the way to Buffalo.’” Hurricane force winds that created subarctic wind chills, and large amounts of snowfall coupled with unusually cold temperatures, culminated to create the proverbial perfect storm. The statistics speak to how horrible the storm really was. In the end it resulted in 300

With actual temperatures plummeting to negative seven, and the wind chill bringing it down to -50 to -60 degrees, the dangers brought with the storm had grown beyond snow drifts and zero visibility. The devastating effects-both in terms of temperature and snow accumulation-brought on by the Blizzard of 1977 were enough for President Jimmy Carter to declare all of Western New York a federal disaster area. According to the National Weather Service, this was the first time in the history of the United States that a snowstorm had been declared a federal