A Lake Effect Snow Advisory is in place through 10 am Friday for Southern Erie, Wyoming, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties.
Forecasters say three-to-five inches of lake snow will fall the south of the city late Thursday into Friday. By early evening Thursday, moderate to heavy lake snow was creating hazardous driving conditions on the Thruway between Silver Creek and the Pennsylvania state line. Two accidents were reported on the eastbound Thruway during the height of the snow.
A snowfall that began in the metro Buffalo region during Thursday morning's commute dropped a couple of inches at the airport weather station before tapering off before noon. Shoppers heading out to area malls and shopping centers were met with snow-covered roads and slippery driving conditions. But by early afternoon, road crews, with help from a sunny sky, cleared most roads of the accumulated snow.
Snow was expected to re-develop in the metro region early Friday morning, accumulating up to two inches before tapering off.
By Saturday, partly sunny skies and temperatures in the lower 40s are in the forecast. But colder temperatures will return early next week.
Earlier Thursday, the National Weather Service canceled its flood warning along Tonawanda Creek after water levels near Rapids dipped below the flood stage of 12 feet.
"We haven't seen something like this in quite awhile. There's no doubt that was very significant stage. It was a little over 15 feet," Meteorologist Tom Paone said.
The Tonawanda Creek, according to Paone, can be troublesome since "it tends to rise slowly and also falls very slowly It has a very wide flood plain."
With several roads in the vicinity of the Tonawanda Creek still clogged by water and ice, sheriff's deputies are urging motorists to respect traffic barriers. Several vehicles have become stuck along the closed roads. In those cases, tow trucks were called in to help while motorists were issued tickets.