🇬🇧BRIT Reacts To FOOTAGE OF THE LAKE ERIE BLIZZARD STORM! *unbelievable

[@gotham61]

What's crazy about Lake Erie freezing over, is just how big it is. For those in the UK, Lake Erie is larger than Wales.

[@paulbattson834]

Lake Erie did not freeze over. That was the problem. Buffalo got 100 inches of snow. The death toll is now 42.

[@hectorsmommy1717]

What is even crazier is when the south shore of Lake Superior freezes enough that people can go to the Apostle Islands ice caves. On average, it happens about every 5 years although it hasn't happened since 2015

[@gotham61]

@@paulbattson834 Lake Erie does occasionally freeze over 100%. It happened in 1978, 1979, and 1996. Last year it got to about 90% ice coverage.

[@Cricket2731]

Lake Erie is actually small, as the Great Lakes go. It's the 2nd smallest of the Great Lakes.

[@gotham61]

@@Cricket2731 It's the 11th largest lake on Earth

[@andrelee7081]

I live in Buffalo NY and this storm was really intense. At the worst of it my windows were almost completely covered with snow, and what I could see was at most a few feet away. The wind was pretty bad as well, blowing these massive snowdrifts. For Brits, this meant snow was meters high in some places, burying lorries in the middle of the road. Temperatures were about -10-15 degrees Celsius, -25-30 with wind chill. Winds were as powerful as 120 kph at the height of it.

[@katiebeth8343]

The current death toll here in Buffalo and Erie County is 41. Most passed away outdoors. This video was taken after the storm and doesn't really show the devastation. The city was buried. Terrifying. Our city has experienced some major blows but very happy to report Damar Hamlin is improving. Awake and able to communicate in writing. According to doctors the first thing he asked "did we win". Great news for the Bills and the fans.

[@kabirconsiders]

RIP to those 41 people 😔

[@melissastapleton5384]

I’m so glad to hear he’s doing well. That was so scary, I was praying crazy hard for him 💕

[@fionnmaccumhaill3257]

@@kabirconsiders I saw a death toll of 70. I don't know why the discrepancies. Perhaps the liar number is just in that area (Buffalo) and the larger number is from that same storm across several states?

[@katiebeth8343]

@@fionnmaccumhaill3257 I can't speak for other areas but 41 is the number reported only in Erie County by our executive. Additional deaths would be outside of our county. On his Twitter page there is a breakdown of cause and how many perished from it. I was only speaking on behalf of my home and County. Many other areas were heavily impacted and most certainly had deaths related to it.

[@susieq9801]

Don't forget us across the river in Fort Erie, Ontario!!! The weather doesn't stop at the border.

[@Sparklegirl79]

Another thing you have to remember, is that Lake Erie has a surface area larger than that of Wales. And it's not even the largest of the lakes. In my area, we didn't get more than a few inches of snow, but the temperature dropped by 40 degrees in less than six hours, and the wind was absolutely brutal. The lake water itself was actually probably relatively warm, because it had been quite warm the couple of weeks beforehand, but that's also part of why the areas downwind of the lakes get so much snow, from the air picking up so much warm moisture as it crosses the lakes, then dumps it all as soon as it passes over the colder solid ground

[@thomasfarr7934]

We were in the blizzard close to Lake Michigan. This blizzard was huge, but I have weathered (pun intended) worse... My first child was born in the middle of a blizzard in 1977... We had temperatures around 0° Fahrenheit (32° is freezing) in Celsius that would be ... cold 🥶! In 1978 we had another blizzard that made our car dissappear. It was under a snow drift. And, if I hear "White Christmas" one more time...!

[@josephmorneau4339]

I grew up in this area, north of Syracuse, right next to Lake Ontario. The town I lived in averaged over 150 inches of snow per year. I was about eight years old when the blizzard of 1977/78 happened. It got so bad that the state closed Route 81 from Syracuse to the Canadian border, about 150 miles of highway, for a week. Snowfalls in that area are crazy because when air travels over the lakes it picks up a ton of moisture. But once it hits land the air is cooled down and thus can't hold as much moisture so it would just dump it in the areas east of the lake. When I was older I remember a Christmas weekend where we got about six feet of snow in 72 hours. It was fun as a kid.

[@deannadropping9719]

I was 8 in this blizzard, but lived in Michigan… the pictures from back then are unbelievable.. snow higher than the plows trying to dig everyone out! You are right, It was fun as a kid!

[@kdcbattlecreek]

Chicago got blasted that year. Everyone was let out of school, so all buses were packed. Back then they did a better job of keeping main roads open. I walked an hour through over 2 feet of snow. Our neighbors were all digging out and we had the best snow fights and 4 ft tall snowmen!

[@daricetaylor737]

There was a news report of a mechanic who got stranded in the blizzard and he went from house to house begging for someone to take him in. He offered the people $500 to let him stay and no one would let him in. He went to a local school and broke in knowing he would have shelter and food. Once he broke in, he went out and found 12 or 13 others who were also out stranded in cars and took them all in to the school. All of them safely rode out the storm. He left a note explaining why he broke in and apologized for damages. He saved more than a dozen people, half of them senior citizens! It was one crazy storm for sure!

[@meghanhause9435]

Plus, they clean up after themselves when they left and only took enough food to survive on.

[@robertfanion2815]

As someone from the North East US its tough to say if all this crazy weather is normal, the only thing normal about our weather up here is abnormality and randomness.

[@hbic3]

THIS is NOT normal for Buffalo. Blizzards happen every so often, but not like this. This was BIG, add it to the rare 6-7 feet we had just gotten a month earlier and the 3 feet we got a week before. We're tired

[@gerwerken]

Home insurance does cover weather events but there can be exceptions. Generally flooding isn’t covered without a separate flood insurance policy. I live in North Florida and we had 3 days of hard freeze over this Christmas break and neighbors even had pipes burst from freezing. This week we have had 80 degree (26 C temps).

[@KathrynKufar]

Born and bred in Buffalo and now living in a suburb northeast of Buffalo, snow is simply a way of life. However, I haven't seen anything like this since '77. Five feet of snow against our front door, three to four foot drifts in our driveway. No way to leave your home even if you wanted to do so. The 65 mph winds created drifts that were amazing! We literally could not see out our windows because of whiteout conditions. I must say that in conditions like this, people really pull together, check on one another, help each other clear out. So sad about those who died - this is not a common thing. We're quite used to handling winter weather. By the way, the next week Mother Nature dropped spring weather on us and the snow is gone - right down to pavement.

[@beesnestna9544]

Just to add a little perspective, Lake Erie is almost as long as England's widest point along the channel, and all of the UK could fit inside all of the great lakes. These aren't your average lakes here. They're more like baby-oceans.😄 The cold front that prompted this storm came out of Siberia and down into the USA & Canada. The cold weather even affected many of the southern states. Early on Christmas morning, where I live in PA, the temperature dipped down to -3°F (-19.4°C) with a windchill of -16°F (--26.6°C). Many parts of the USA were even colder. Every winter where I live, I can expect typical temperature ranges from 5°F (-15°C) to 39°F (3.8°C). Strangely enough, right now we're experiencing warmer than normal temperatures in the 40°F to 50°F range (4°C to 10°C), though I'm certain it won't last. Peace.🕊

[@shmoopa6595]

I live between Buffalo and Niagra Falls. Had about 3 ft last week and couldn't see the house across the street for about 2 days. pretty nuts, even for us! Had spring-like weather this week, so much is melted

[@ravensshadow2179]

I live in Buffalo, for 36 hours looking outside was like looking into glass of milk. If you watch the weather map it was a Cat 3 Hurricane sitting over the Great lakes just dumping wind and snow into Buffalo. I have a 6 'litte over 2 meters fence and the drift was to the top of it. For us it's normal to get a lot of snow fast, I remember getting 6' in one day and 9' over a week. Over inch a hour is when it starts to become a problem.

[@michellemo7552]

I'm in Chicago and luckily we missed the hardest parts of the storm. It was about 3 inches of snow which is nothing really. Roads stayed pretty clear. However it was insanely windy and bitterly cold. In Fahrenheit, it was -27 with windchill and ibwas out shoveling in it to clear elderly neighbors walkways and driveways.

[@dklapec]

Was watching on the 23rd Dec as we were flying DC to Denver to Hawaii...seemed like worse

[@Megan-ir3ze]

Yeah it was nuts. I’m in ga and our windchill got down to -8

[@chijason6630]

The high temperature on December 23 in Chicago was -1 F (-18 C), but the windchill was less than -31 F (-35 C). Even though we didn't get much snow, the wind was intense, and created ground blizzard conditions in open areas due to the blowing snow. The temperature warmed up over the next week, and reached 57 F (14 C) on December 29, creating a 90 F degree apparent temperature difference in under a week!

[@michellemo7552]

@@chijason6630 I stopped checking the windchill once I was able to stay in after shoveling...didn't realize it had been even colder than what I was out in. That temperature swing was a doozy though.

[@zm8500]

And with that… here is his movie review of “Day After Tomorrow”… with the film “2012” to follow.😁

[@knash97]

On December 23 here in Indiana, the temperature was -5 ⁰F with a -42 ⁰F windchill (-20.6 ⁰C with a -41.1 ⁰c windchill). The highest sustanted wind speed was 40 mph (64.4 kph), the highest gust speed was 57 mph (91.7 kph). The worst part of this storm, for Indiana at least, was the extreme cold and the accompanying extreme windchill not so much the snow. Then here a few days ago, Dec 29 and 30, it was raining and about 55 ⁰F (12.8 ⁰C).

[@dochubbell]

P.S. Most farms used coal oil or propane to heat their homes. That ment you made sure your tanks were fulled in the fall at the start of cold weather, (or a little before). You also insulated your water pipes leading to the house and heated your well pumps. We boxed our well pump in, insulated the insides and used a simple light bulb to give off enough heat to keep things from freezing up. Ergo, we were prepaired for the worst in keeping warm. As a kid I slept in an unheated second story bedroom with tons of covers and a jar of hot water wrapped in a towell to warm our feet. lol Had single pane windows and would often see snow on the inside window ledge and floor. There was no monkey farting around on such winter mornings... you moved fast and took your cloths for the day down stairs and changed in the bathroom. lol Don't miss that kind of weather and glad I live further south to where the winters are not so severe.

[@justinethridge9157]

For my family the storm was no big deal. I prepared for the worst. And luckily had over a week worth of Christmas food. After feeding 9 people that is. I also spent days burning firewood I had bought for worst case. Instead it was just used to set the mood. I'll never go back to not owning a fireplace.

[@kitskivich]

Like the UK, the weather in the US is constantly changing. Five to seven days after the crazy storm Buffalo was enjoying 13 degree Celcius weather. They still had mountains of snow which the warmer weather helped to melt.

[@stevekenilworth]

uk gets plenty locking patterns, just like the start our winter where we locked in bitter cold. our weather depends on many things, jet for starters plus shape jet can be altered by solar winds, and solar cycles, plus 3rd la nina in a row too that effects global weather patterns but never seen quadruple La Niña in the historical record. but could be evolving into an El Niño , The Gulf Stream affects the climate in Britain by bringing warm water from the Caribbean to North West Europe. also The huge amount of water injected by the cataclysmic Hunga Tonga volcanic ... increased the amount of water in the stratosphere by 10% that sure going to have effects like Water in atmosphere from Tonga eruption may weaken ozone layer.

[@SabreNation1]

I live in Buffalo, and the huge amounts of snow are pretty normal for us. We'll get 2 feet in a single storm pretty regularly. This one dropped about 3 feet. The biggest problem with this one was the wind. It was extremely windy, which knocked down power lines and left people with no power. No power often means no heat. Power couldn't be restored because even the big work trucks were getting stuck in the snow. Emergency services couldn't respond because ambulances and fire trucks got stuck, too. We're fully back to normal now and we were within 2-3 days of the storm. Thankfully it warmed up pretty quickly after this storm so most of the snow was gone by the following weekend.

[@melissastapleton5384]

My pipes froze and burst for the first time ever, and I live in Arkansas! It was crazy cold for Arkansas. We didn’t have water for 7 days, including Christmas Day. All of the plumbers were crazy busy because of all the frozen pipes. Fortunately my mom had a plumber friend who worked me in. I was so, so thankful for that. But we all survived so I’m thankful for that too. ❤

[@kabirconsiders]

Omg, have you had them repaired?

[@wolfecanada6726]

Easy way to insulate copper pipes. Use a foam pool noodle, slice it lengthwise, wrap around pipe.

[@melissastapleton5384]

@@wolfecanada6726 we tried looking for pool noodles but couldn’t find any. I’ll be stocking up on them this summer though! 😁

[@melissastapleton5384]

@@kabirconsiders yes, thank goodness!

[@SherriLyle80s]

@@melissastapleton5384 Dollar Tree has them year-round

[@bryangettel4060]

Those snow drifts that collect leeward of the tree lines in farm country are incredibly fun if you have a snowmobile.

[@drakeringholz794]

The weather has been ridiculous this year here in Indiana. We didn’t have it as bad as a lot of other parts of the country but it was still the coldest I have ever seen in my entire life. With the wind chill it was -32° F (-35° C) and just less than a week later it was about 65° F (18° C) and raining a ton

[@benschroeder4036]

Indiana, got to love it. The funny part is now we've come to expect those swings. Those icicles formed from spray from the lake freezing on contact with whatever they landed on. We in Indiana just made sure not to go outside. It was way worse in New York.

[@ktkacer1039]

Ditto for Central Ohio! Tho today we're back to freezing. (Thursday 5th/Jan).

[@thesaltnation5570]

Im from Pennsylvania it gets bad here with snow 😅

[@Lisa_88888]

I live in the Buffalo area and experienced the blizzard. It was bad, but what this video doesn’t tell you is that a couple of days after the blizzard, the weather warmed and now, all the snowed that I had piled all over my property is gone. But the wind and the snow started the Friday before Christmas and it didn’t stop snowing until Monday morning. I couldn’t get out any of my doors due to the snow drifts against them. I had to use my garage door to go outside to start the cleanup. Also, it doesn’t mention that we had another storm the week before Thanksgiving that dropped 4 feet of snow on us that live in Buffalo and the suburbs. So far this year, we have had an entire winter season of snowfall and we are only halfway through our snow season.

[@grobinson7507]

We have a cottage in Hurley Wisconsin. In the winter time easily 3-5 feet of snow will fall over night. We are very close to Lake Superior.

[@kabirconsiders]

I’ve never seen that much snow in real life before. Crazy!

[@chrissknits]

When you said it must be so cold, like minus 5 or minus 10, I burst out laughing. Try minus 30 or minus 35!

[@tedjespersen6672]

I live up in Edmonton, Canada. We were one of the first hit with this arctic cold front. We didn't see anywhere near the debastation that the great lakes area did but we hit temps as low as -48 celsius.

[@ktkacer1039]

damn. that's like -55.4°F

[@tjk200081]

I live in Michigan, & my family hasn't had our Christmas yet, because we had an intense blizzard going on from Dec. 23rd through Christmas with Sub-Zero temps (Actual temp. was -5°F, but the wind chill made it feel like it was -20°F), & last week didn't work for my family to have Christmas. So my is having it this weekend. The weather was going NUTS! Thankfully all that snow melted. We were running out of room to put snow somewhere, when we were shoveling. My neighbors were gone in Chicago, when the side room over their little porch collapsed Christmas night due to all the snow. I had to send a Facebook message to them, to let them know. After seeing what happened to our neighbors, I made my husband clear the snow off our roof the next morning. 😮😮😮

[@ViolentKisses87]

Home insurance covers weather events. Flood insurance is separate to lessen cost in non flood prone areas by mortgage, which absolutely require it even in mild flood risk zones.

[@poolplayergus]

I remember the 1977 blizzard they referenced in the video. It was 7 years old. We got over 2 feet of snow when it started raining and then quickly froze. I was able to walk on top of the snow because of the thick layer of ice.

[@TheRyansLion]

That same cold front gave us -24°F temps here in Denver, Colorado. Not a lot of snow though

[@bierce716]

In case you don't know how big Lake Erie is, it's 10% larger than the country of Wales. Surface area 9,910 sq mi (25,667 km2

[@isaacdrost15]

I was actually anchored on Lake Erie during that storm on my ship and we had winds of 80+ at times. Actually had to drop both anchors

[@murieljames4022]

Yes, home insurance does cover a lot of homeowners in these instances.

[@briewong379]

I'm from Southern California, and I've never been anywhere colder on this Earth than Buffalo, NY, in the winter. I went there for filming several years ago. It was 1 of the years that Lake Eerie COMPLETELY froze over. It was insane. We were able to get clearance to drive snowmobiles several miles out onto the frozen lake to film. It was soooooo cold. The artic winds blowing down from Canada, pick up speed, and drop significantly in temperature by the time it hits the Buffalo side of the lake. Scotland in mid-January was warm by comparison. The chill factor was so bad that my eyes hurt even with goggles on. But it was unearthly beautiful and surreal. The footage was incredible. As far as those surfers go. The Great Lakes surfers are some of the weirder ones out there. They're Super committed to surfing and usually only have 1-2 foot waves to surf. So, for them, those are EPIC swells, and not even death is going to stop them from possibly the largest surf they've ever seen.

[@amlowery64]

I live about 50 miles south of the lake in Ohio. We had 3 or 4 days of high winds, sustained winds of 35-40 mph with 60-70 mph gusts. Thankfully, we only got a couple of inches of snow, but temperatures reached -5 Fahrenheit for days. The winds on the lake were so strong that it actually moved the water out of the western end of the lake to the east (which caused the flooding). By New Year's Eve, we reached temperatures at or above 60 Fahrenheit and days of rain. Welcome to Ohio.

[@lorianne7031]

I'm north, along the Lake Erie shore. We couldn't do our normal Christmas Eve from east of Cleveland to west of Cleveland because the wind was blowing Lake Erie up onto the highway. Sheet of ice. Nonstop snowing and blowing. At least we had electricity and heat!

[@Cricket2731]

I'm from Toledo. Thankfully, Toledo is in a storm shadow. The only time we get really nasty weather is when we get a nor'easter. Folks around here *still* talk about the Blizzard of '78!

[@bobd2659]

The seiche was about 17 - 20 feet, about 10% of Lake Erie's depth. Even in some of the more massive thunderstorm systems of the past few years, I don't think it's been that high...

[@SBUBandit]

What's really crazy is this whole season has been insane in the Buffalo area. They already had a storm that dropped 6 feet 5 inches two weeks before Thanksgiving, and another storm just a couple weeks before this one.

[@hbic3]

6-7 feet.

[@Foreign780]

i live here and it all melted in a week i walked outside after and it was just cars on the streets trees fallen it was a mess and i just sat there looking at 7 feet of snow and abandoned cars and half covered up houses never in my life has a blizzard felt like a hurricane to me and i live in buffalo so that's saying something people were being resued on my street in the middle of the storm seeking shelter

[@bintheredonethat]

Been in extreme conditions similar to this in Colorado. Big difference though is the intensity of the moisture laden wind coming off those lakes. That really kicks it up several notches. I've been to Buffalo, NY, in the summer, thankfully.

[@Trenton-om9qs]

I live in Ohio around 45 miles south of lake Erie but it got cold here. We had 45mph gusts and it was -8 degrees and with windchill it was -35. A lot of people don't understand how bad it gets here in the North during the winter months. But funny enough even though it was -35 last week it has been beautiful the last few days with temperatures in the mid 50s. Ohio has bipolar weather

[@cemarz]

I'm a half hour south of Cleveland. One day the temperature was 7C (45 Fahrenheit). I went out the next morning not knowing what had come in. Not knowing that the temp had dropped to -37 C (-35 Fahrenheit) with the wind chill. There was only an inch of snow on the ground but it was blowing around like giant mountains of rolling tumbleweed. It looked like a blizzard, zero visibility when they wind was going. And because the lake does wacky things to the wind here it was also swirling around in great circles. When my car stopped the snow would rise up and around it like a wall, it honestly felt like being inside of a tornado. About a minute and a half outside without gloves completely froze fingers. Serious could not move them. Maybe the most extreme temperature drop I've seen around here. 40 or 50 degree Fahrenheit drops from day to night aren't too odd. But that was something else. It's that rapid temperature drop that really does you in.

[@karlburkhardt9902]

My kid came home for Christmas. He lives just outside of Rochester NY near Lake Ontario. Just to give an example of snow total difference from this storm. Orchard Park NY recieved 77 inches and Pitsford NY recieved 1.3 inches. They are about 45 minutes to an hour away by car.

[@hollykinslow5193]

Here in Nashville, we had 8 degree Temps and wind chill was -20!!! We had mostly ice and some snow, but even the cold was brutal. My prayers are for those in the North who were hit so hard.

[@LostintheTangle]

Oh, you poor things. Brrr! At least here in South Dakota we're used to it. It's so much harder if you're in the south.

[@hollykinslow5193]

@@LostintheTangle you are soooo right! Lol we have no idea! We don't have the right clothes, or know how to drive in such weather!

[@LostintheTangle]

@@hollykinslow5193 Yes! And on top of that, your area might not have the equipment they need to clean up the mess, I mean, it's a lot of money to pay for plows that might only be needed once every five years. Which makes it even harder to navigate roads.

[@hollykinslow5193]

@@LostintheTangle Oh gosh no! We have salt, but that's it. No plows included....Lol

[@alexanderschweinehunde167]

While shoveling snow out of my driveway I found a dead rabbit buried in the snow and completely frozen

[@1920Janice]

I am south of Detroit. We just got about 2 inches of blowing snow for 3 days with temperatures going down to 0 Fahrenheit or -18 Celsius. I am a widow and was supposed to go to my sister’s for Christmas Eve but it was just too cold to go outside for me. I stayed home alone with my dog. I did go out to my son’s house on Christmas Day. It was still bitter cold but the wind had slowed down some and he lives close by. Growing up, we had weather like this all the time and I loved it! I still love the snow but not when the temperatures are in the single digits!!😊

[@2dorfasis]

A point to consider when they're talking about the lake freezing. Lake Erie is a bit bigger than Wales (9,940 mi² vs 8,023 mi²). The largest lake in the UK is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland at 151.4 mi². Any lake that small in the northern states is certain to freeze over in the winter. Well, it would have been certain until the weather got so screwed up.

[@susieq9801]

The Great Lakes collectively are bigger than the entire UK. They create their own weather systems.

[@dklapec]

Lake Erie is very shallow and freezes (and melts) quicker. Lake Superior has enough water to fill all of the other Great Lakes, almost twice.

[@susieq9801]

@@dklapec - People from other countries have no concept of their size. I live in Fort Erie and much of this video is from Fort Erie. I recognized many homes.

[@2dorfasis]

@@dklapec It's shallow for one of the Great Lakes. It's still twice as deep (on average) as Lough Neagh.

[@ESUSAMEX]

The temperatures during this storm were -20 F or lower. Some places were -60F. South Florida, where it is normally 70 F on Christmas, was at 39F near me.

[@b.slocumb7763]

You need to watch Reed Timmer’s videos of the storm, he was out in the middle of it, and he does videos afterwards as well. He shows and explains what was happening as well.

[@meghanhause9435]

Yup, and the one time where his yelling is needed and you don't mind it, because of the constant wind that blowing all around him.

[@hbic3]

We are, for all intents and purposes, back to normal. Some schools and other business are still closed for repairs. But, you would never know we had that much snow. Keep in mind, too, that this came a month after a 6-7 foot snowfall, and a week after a 3 feet storm for many areas. This is UNUSUAL to have storms that produce *that* much snow, let alone so many, back to back in a month's time. I'm 49 and and only ever experienced 2 storms greater than 4 feet in my lifetime. Most big storms are 2-3.5 feet.

[@mrich998]

I live in south eastern Michigan, about an hour from Lake Erie. I'm thankful we were on the west side of the lake. We got crazy high winds, and the windchill was -20/-35 degrees F. Lasted a few days. We got some ice and maybe an inch or 2 of snow. My brother, who lives 4 hours north, got 39 inches of snow. Keep in mind that this was 2 weeks ago. yesterday it was 60 degrees.

[@sheherazahde5611]

Translating -20F is -29C Nearly three times as cold as he guessed!

[@nancystanton955]

We had a fire place with a brick oven attached in our kitchen. We also had four cast iron pot bellied stoves scattered around the house (living room and bathroom and pumphouse). Dad built a large wood house just outside the backdoor and stocked it to the rafters with fire logs and tinder. A generator gave us power for the fridge and only two lights at a time were allowed to be turned on and only after dark. We all slept in the living room on the floor in sleeping bags. I am so happy I moved to Maryland in 2005._We still get some snow but only 2-3 inches and it melts quickly. By the way, my family considers snow a four letter word and just say "the S word" instead.

[@victoriac4317]

I’m a couple hours away, closer to Toronto. But here it was about -25 with the windchill on Christmas Day.

[@TheLastGarou]

One of the really dangerous things about Lake Erie is that, for as big as it is (somewhat larger than Wales) it's actually very shallow. In fact, aside from where the shipping lanes have been dredged out to accommodate seagoing vessels, Lake Erie doesn't get much more than 15 feet (a little less than 5 meters) deep. That has some... dramatic effects on local weather conditions.

[@Cricket2731]

There's a deep area in Lake Erie--just N of Cleveland. The lake is about 200 feet deep there.

[@hbic3]

FALSE. The deepest spot in Lake Erie is 210 feet.

[@Cricket2731]

@@hbic3, I wasn't too far off! (Maybe 3 meters?)

[@TheLastGarou]

@@Cricket2731 Huh. Didn't know that. Maybe I'm remembering average depth? 🤔 Still. *Extremely* shallow for its size.

[@Cricket2731]

@@hbic3, so I was off by a few (10) feet. Big deal.

[@lhcat68]

The water temp in the lake was somewhere in the low 40s before the storm hit, which contributed to the lake effect storm on top of the overall system. The ice coatings on cars and buildings on the lake shore is a fairly common occurence. Once it all melts, usually there's not much serious damage, believe it or not. The Buffalo airport was delayed opening because the snow plow crews and police were busy rescuing stranded motorists first before clearing the runway. Temps were near 0F, but the next weekend we had temps in the 50s. Most of the snow was gone in a week. And we've joked before when driving in a near whiteout that it's like using the Force, just aim somewhere between the mailboxes and telephone poles and you'll pretty much be ok (but no, not in winds this severe).

[@erinchamberlain1315]

Kabir!!!! I love about two miles from lake Erie in an eastern suburb of Cleveland Ohio. We didn't get hit anywhere NEAR as hard but, we had snow, ice, and wind chill temperatures around 30 below zero fahrenheit with wind gusts up to sixty miles per hour. Many were without power for several days. Many people Christmas was postponed but most of us here were very, very lucky. Typically, the east side of Cleveland, where I am, is called the snow belt because we get lake effect snow totals well above a hundred feet per year. Crazy stuff ❤️

[@jeanine6328]

If the wind is steadily blowing, icicles will freeze with a curve like you saw in the video. They only go straight down with little no no or intermittent wind. Of course, I live in a warm state so my only experience is traveling for work to cold climates. People here can barely drive in the rain, let alone snow. It’s like their brains freeze up and the forget how to drive properly.

[@rafetizer]

On the western end of Lake Erie, over by Toledo, they had the "blizzard of '78". I wasn't quite born yet, but my parents said the snow was up to the roof. (single story house in the country) We don't really get lake effect snow on the west side, so winter's are hit and miss.

[@patrickhalbert6377]

My heart goes out to Buffalo. I live in West Michigan and we get a lot of lake effect snow, but Buffalo seems to get walloped every year. Where I live we only have to worry about one great lake. Buffalo has to worry about fronts steamrolling over two or more freshwater seas, causing what you see here.

[@2legit2quitNow]

I've never seen or heard flooding from a lake, it seems to always be a river rising over or the tides/waves from a tropical storm/hurricane along the coast, so to see this happen is crazy! Then to have all that ice and snow, it would definitely shutdown the whole town and cause fatalities

[@Cricket2731]

The western end of Toledo, Ohio, used to be a resort area. There was a big flood in '72 (?) that thoroughly inundated the Point Place area. The Army Corps of Engineers built a dike to keep the lake where it belongs. Some years later, the dike was reinforced--it's now some 2 stories tall.

[@jamiemoss3633]

These are not normal lakes. The great lakes hold 20% or so of the earth's surface water. People underestimate the Great lakes every year and drowned. 101 people died ast year by drowning. More than half those drownings were in Lake Michigan. The coast card also operates on these lakes.

[@TomGorham]

I lived along Lake Erie and delivered mail there for fourteen years. I remember trees looking like crystals.This happened quite often but we only missed one day of delivery. Neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom or night will stop the mail.I also live east of Cleveland, which we called the Snow Belt. We had fire places and a wood-burning stove.

[@laurenherda2415]

I live right on Lake Erie it can get so crazy in the winter, I love living here I'm right near downtown Cleveland too, the water can change in an instant when you're out on a boat too

[@potierney]

The Great Lakes constitute an inland sea connected to the Great Hudson Bay which reaches into the Arctic Circle.

[@SilvanaDil]

One of coastal California's few virtues these nowadays is the dry summers and snow free winters. We did have a couple of dry winters (which was bad), but this winter is a rainy one.

[@kimharding2246]

I really feel so bad about all the folks who had to deal with this. Prayers to the families who lost loved ones. Although in Central New Jersey didn’t get any snow, it got really cold over the Christmas weekend. Here it was 7° F (-14° C). Then it got warm like spring the following week. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@donnadubyak6504]

It was 60 degrees on new years in Pittsburgh, it was minus 34 with the wind a week earlier. I'm about 2 hours from lake Erie and we had hardly no snow, but it was cold.

[@amymcmillen9248]

Hey Kabir, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope your well. Loving the vids and content. Keep up the hard work, we are loving the output. Safe and Healthy 2023.

[@kabirconsiders]

Happy new year Amy 🥳

[@Magpiebard]

I'm about 40min from Lake Erie (OH) and it was BRUTAL here. It was only supposed to be a low of a "mere" -3 at the worst. But we hit -18 and with the windchill we hit -49. The whole thing was insane, and what made it worse? Last week it was 61. It's dropped back into 'normal' winter weather of 30day and 18 at night but good god it was rough and the constant jackknifing of weather is somehow even harder because everything thaws at once and then freezes solid again. Sheets of ice everywhere. I think I didn't sleep for 2 days because our woodstove needed to be fed constantly (gave up on using the oil furnace, it just couldn't keep up with the wind slamming into the house and freezing everything solid.) but we were able to stay inside and stay safe. So much luckier than so many others.

[@thesevendeadlysins578]

The USA has some crazy weather. I'm over here in Maryland and we were at 5F with very cold wind chill on Christmas Eve. That's the coldest we've had in a while.

[@lesliesnowdon8490]

I live on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and while we had a storm we only got around 5 cm of snow. The rain storms that followed quickly melted all of that and the ground is bare. The temperature has ranged from 0 to 11 degrees Celsius. We rarely get the storms here as bad as the US side of the lake. Makes for a more enjoyable winter lol.

[@pammcpherson4700]

I live in GA. We had some very low temps. It got to 9 degrees Fahrenheit but the wind chill was below zero. Very blessed my pipes didn't freeze but I did leave my bathroom faucet running for like a week. I will gladly pay the water bill, cheaper than a plumber. My heart goes out to Buffalo and other areas north. Crazy weather for sure. Our temps have gone back to normal. We had some pretty bad thunderstorms a few days ago with tornados in some areas.

[@nomdeplume7537]

When i lived in Denver back in the mid-90s ... in '95 Steamboat Springs had 105 inches in January ALONE

[@toddgardner8449]

I grew up with Lake Erie as my backyard. We would put our Christmas tree on the curb just after Christmas and it would be collected sometime in April or May when the snow finally melted.

[@WHADATBOYNAMEIS]

i got stuck in it. right across the street from lake erie. -36 degrees 100km winds 40ft waves. made ur eyes water instantly. burned ur nostrils insta nosebleed. we had no power or water(pipes frozen) and had to spend xmas eve in a hotel with strangers lol 50 car pileup near me on the turnpike, u could only see about 2ft in front of u driving. my friend lives on an island in lake erie called “put-n-bay” and the planes couldnt run so he drove a snowmobile across the frozen lake to survive. it was gnarly

[@ThatShyGuyMatt]

Living along Lake erie (well about a mile away), its pretty common to see the frozen over houses from the water. Its pretty natural disaster free in this area with the exception of these people who live along the lake and deal with brutal water and snow. Though most of the snow tends to go far enough east into Buffalo where a TON of snow is usually dumped. A few feet of snow. By us we get maybe a 1-3 feet at most. Whats kind of funny (well not really) is that those who live directly along the lake, those affected the most, pay so much for those houses to have such a nice view. But come winter time, its dangerous instead. A few years ago a giant apartment complex along the lake had their pool cover somehow blow off. It was an Olympic size pool. During the blizzard the water blew out all along a row of cars, freezing them in two inches (5cm) of solid ice. Thus making it impossible to get into their cars or even more them as they were iced also to the ground.

[@GRIMRPR6942]

Now that you have seen what devastation snow/ice/wind can bring, check out the "Blizzard of 1978 & 1979" that hit the same areas. We lived in a suburb of Cleveland about a mile south of Lake Erie In 78 & 79 and the snow drifted so high and heavy that it reach the roof of the 2nd floor of our house. We had to go out the back door to get out of the house and we were able to walk over our 5 foot privacy fence to get to the front so we could start digging it out. Those were the worst winters i've ever been through.

[@Cameron5043]

I live in South Carolina, which is - roughly estimated - 2000 miles (3000 km) SOUTH of the Great Lakes area. We had no precipitation, but we had wind chills that dropped to -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees celsius) and wind gusts that went as high as 22 mph (35 kph). This equates to appallingly COLD in SC! 🥶 Even for me! The problem with this is that there are many homes and structures that are not built for this kind of cold weather, lacking insulation and heat sources that can keep up with the cold. We had power outages due to overloads and wind damage, that left many without heat. If you heat with electricity, the power bill is insanely exorbitant. I have a wood stove that I ran flat out all week and so managed quite well, plus I prefer colder temps to hot summer temperatures - for example, it's currently in the 30°s F (-1° C) and I don't have either the wood stove or my heat going at all. But I kept the fire built high the week of Christmas, you betcha! Holding all who went through this storm in those areas with the lake affect weather in my heart. I know, despite the impact of the frigid temperatures here, it was still nothing compared to what happened up there!

[@MeigetsuNoSeishin]

I'm not in the Erie area, but I am still in Northern PA. My brother and I worked during the two worst days of that storm here. We also have to walk to work and home again every day that we do. That storm was PAINFUL to walk in, and the sidewalks here were really dangerous to walk on for a week after the storm had left us. It got down to -3°F with a -21°F wind chill. I know someone that lives in upstate New York that said they got to around -5°F with -37°F wind chill. We only got about 5-6 inches of snow here, but the shipments of produce and such that we get at work, we work at one of the two local grocery stores, couldn't make it here for almost a week. They come from Buffalo, and hearing about just how bad it got there, it's no wonder. It was so cold, that our heating systems here in town, couldn't actually keep up. It didn't break necessarily, but it literally could not warm our house to above 55°F until a day or two after the storm. The storm also started out as Several hours of heavy rain before it started snowing, so we had an inch or two of Ice under all the snow that everyone had to fight against. Our walk to work is usually only about 10 minutes long, but because of just how Careful we had to be, it took closer to 20 minutes. I had to lead my brother, because he couldn't even see where he was going. He had to follow my feet and listen closely. It's also only the Second Winter he's actually been through since he was 10-11 years old. We moved to central Florida for 11 years, so he had very little experience with bad winter weather to prepare him for this.

[@donovanlindaman421]

I live in Iowa, near the capital of Des Moines, and we got between 4-6 inches of snow, but the worst thing was the temperature and winds. The Friday before Xmas the warmest it got was -7 in the afternoon, but as hard as the winds were blowing, it felt like -40.

[@LordLOC]

Buffalo NY got 1.3 meters of snow during the blizzard itself, but the next night got another foot + of snow which is about another half meter's worth. So yeah, a ton of snow.

[@susanhunter9196]

The most snow I've ever had to deal with was 4 and a half feet in 2010. I was living in Northern Virginia at the time. It was insane. My favorite kind of snow is an inch that melts by the afternoon. Too bad I live in Wisconsin now.🥶

[@susieq9801]

Hi Susan. Those photos were mostly from Fort Erie where I live. I recognize the houses @5:16 and 11:47. You're welcome to visit but bring a shovel.

[@dklapec]

Lived through that too, MD near DC

[@susanhunter9196]

@Susie Q hope y'all have recovered! We don't get big snowstorms very often in Wisconsin. We just get a few inches at a time here but, it's here till spring. I was born and, raised in Alabama so had never had to deal with snow much. I'm pretty used to it now, still hate it though.😩

[@susanhunter9196]

@dklapec I was living in Winchester, VA. I'd never seen that much snow in my life and, I hope I never do again! We don't get nearly the amount of snow in Wisconsin that we used to get in Virginia. It just sticks around longer.

[@dklapec]

@@deebee2603 Because sometimes the winter is fun too...snowmobiles, skiing, ice fishing, deer hunting...my wife loves winter

[@williamtauriello1581]

I grew up in Buffalo and was driving a semi during the Blizzard of ‘77. I finally moved out 2 years later. Only been back twice since. I now live in Arizona, and don’t miss that cold white stuff one bit! 😎🌵👍👍

[@lisastevens682]

Yea... It's comparable to the winter of 77 and 78. Back then, I remember having to crawl on my hands and knees over several snow drifts that were as high as the house, just to get to the barn door to do my chores. We had a heater in the water tank and we still had to break ice for the horses! This winter seems worse because of all the snow and being stuck at the house. Being older with arthritis also makes me wonder how I ever handled it before? 🤔

[@debragonser745]

I live in the north west part of USA. Spokane Washington, back in the mid 1970, it was normal to open your door and seeing a wall of snow. We actually had our neighbors shovel to the door. When I was a little kid we slid of the roof of our two story house like a slide

[@brina4058]

I live in Central Ohio and we didn't get that much snow, but for us it started out as rain. With the rain the roads couldn't be pre-treated. I had to drive home from work and it was an adventure. Normally I drive about 70 mph on the freeway, that night I was doing 35 mph at most. The biggest concern in my area was flash freezing.

[@kevinwilson140]

I live in Michigan about 100 km from the coast of lake Michigan and we got about 8 inches of lake effect snow.

[@Danny_Mac_Author]

The 45-50 MPH winds blew for three days pushing the lake east. The storm surge pushed well up on land while the western shore saw the water move a quarter mile from the shoreline.

[@JMitch67]

We live on the Lake Michigan Lakeshore in West Michigan. We got about 14-16” of snow + blowing and drifting. Total whiteout conditions and temps were right around -15 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill. Winds gusted to around😂😂

[@jackhogston6119]

We caught the beginning of this storm system where I live in eastern Nebraska. Only a bit of snow for us, just enough to give us a white Christmas, but the cold was pretty bad, down to about -24 Celsius with wind chill down to -40, (which is the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit). Even colder to our north. Bear in mind, we are at a latitude well south of London!

[@mariewhite5510]

I live along lake Erie shoreline and the snow blowing because of the wind, was the worst. The ""feels like temperature"" was -27°F

[@pFoz]

Like water sloshing in a bathtub, the wind pushed the water from the west side of the lake to the east. And it's freshwater, so you get icing.

[@babyfry4775]

They got almost 7 feet of snow in parts of Buffalo. No one could even get out to help people. I read today that people helped birds that had become frozen to the ground in ice. They freed lots of them. They were stuck by their feet or wings or tails in the ice…just awful. You have to start shoveling off your roofs or the weight of the snow can cave them in. Crazy awful stuff. People have their power back on by now I think. Temperatures have gotten a bit warmer so that’s good.

[@kitiowa]

Where I am from in Iowa all lakes freeze over completely for the winter. It's always a pleasure when it gets to several inches thickness and you can go out on it.

[@kitiowa]

Also who is going to be dumb enough to drive out before the ice is thick enough for vehicles or too late in the season. On Clear Lake there is always one who has their truck go through the ice in a Winter.

[@rebeccaallen8756]

I live in northern Maine in the us and I lived through a similar storm in 1998. My family was without power and running water for over two months and I remember having to help my dad dig out of a second story window because the snow had blocked all the doors and windows on the first floor.

[@hisownfool1]

Don't forget that it snowed more than five feet in late November. Orchard Park, where the Bills play, got 80 inches. Then it got another meter during this storm. Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester compete to see who gets the most snow every winter, with Syracuse the usual winner. Not this year: Buffalo has already clinched the title.

[@sheherazahde5611]

It is funny that Kabir is amazed by icicles. Icicles are normal. We get icicles every winter. The amazing thing about those icicles is that they were at an angle because of the wind. Icicles usually hang straight down.

[@Jetz316]

It’s winter in upstate NY. We get snow. It just happened to be the right combination of atmospheric conditions. *I’ve finally got a roof guy coming on Friday to give me an estimate on fixing it.

[@gotham61]

Yesterday, it was 66F (19C) here in New York City. That's crazy for January.

[@paulfadeley3496]

Orchard Park New York here home of the Buffalo Bills, we had 80 mile an hour wind gusts and received just over 7 feet of snow in a 24 hour span!!!!!!!!

[@barbarae-b507]

This is one of the reasons that we carry candles and food, sleeping bags and blankets and snow suits in our cars. A lit candle and the window cracked open allows you to avoid freezing to death.

[@daniellehurrell6620]

I live in Ohio, right by Lake Erie, and yes, it was FRIGID around Christmas. ❄️❄️❄️