It started as lake effect rain the morning of Oct. 12, 2006. The trees were still in full autumn foliage, Lake Erie was about 62 degrees — 2 degrees warmer than normal — but the surface temperature was 36.
By the next day, the most populated neighborhoods of Western New York had been blanketed with upwards of 2 feet of heavy, wet snow that knocked out power to some 1 million residents for as long as 13 days.
In the end, what was later dubbed the "October Surprise" had stranded hundreds of drivers, taken more than a dozen lives and caused more than $500 million in damage.
"Words cannot do justice to the astounding event which opened the 2006-07 season. Not only was it the earliest event by far (two weeks) of the over 120 in the 13-year record of our lake effect archive, but it was the most unique in regards to destruction of trees and power outages, directly because of its out-of-season factor," said the National Weather Service.
Snowfall totals greatly varied around the region. Here are some totals from the NWS:
- Depew 24 inches
- Alden-Milgrove 24 inches
- Cheektowaga (NWS) 22.6 inches
- Buffalo North 20 inches
- Buffalo Downtown 15 inches
- Buffalo South 10 inches
- Amherst 14-22 inches
- Clarence 16-22 inches
- Tonawanda 12-18 inches
- West Seneca 14 inches
- North Tonawanda 6-12 inches
- Hamburg 8-14 inches
- Orchard Park 8 inches
- Batavia 10 inches
- Medina 8 inches
- Lockport 6 -8 inches
- Grand Island 2 (N)-10 (S) inches
- Albion 5 inches
- Brockport 3 inches
- Niagara Falls 1 inch
