Lake effect snows shifted into metro Buffalo during the morning commute causing difficult driving conditions.
The National Weather Service issued a special weather statement for Northern Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties Thursday morning indicating the moderate to heavy bands of lake effect snow will continue moving southward across much of the Niagara Frontier and parts of the Western Southern Tier through late Thursday morning.
The heaviest snow will fall form Route 104 southward to the state Thruway. Forecasters say driving will be impacted along the entire I-90 corridor through Western New York, that includes the city of Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
Snowfall rates could be over an inch per hour at times. The snow will create hazardous driving conditions and reduce visibility to a quarter mile or less at times through 11:30 a.m. Roads are snow covered and slick.
The lake snows brought traffic to a halt in metro Buffalo before 8 a.m. Thursday. It caused numbers accidents and major slow downs.
At the major intersection of Parkside Avenue at Amherst Street in north Buffalo traffic was at a standstill. It took several cycles of the light for traffic. Vehicles crawled up Parkside to the 198 and 33.
The snow fall also caused traffic to crawl along Amherst Street in both directions between Parkside and Nottingham Terrance. During the 8 a.m. hour Nottingham was backed up from Amherst Street to Delaware Avenue.
Drivers are encourage to slow down and allow extra time for travel Thursday.