The Daily Bulletin Archive

Jason Franklin, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service's Buffalo Forecast Office, will discuss the week of November 17–21, 2014, which will be remembered as one of the most significant winter events in Buffalo's snowy history, on Tuesday, November 17, at 7:00 p.m. in Classroom Building A209. Composed of two closely spaced but separate crippling lake effect snow events, this weather phenomenon left some areas with nearly 7 feet of snow while other locales just to the north measured only a few inches. The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Buffalo (NWS BUF) successfully forecast this epic event using a combination of local, regional, and national expertise and research.

Franklin's presentation will highlight the guidance and expertise that went into forecasting this event: local records combined with online analogs, climatic ensembles, locally developed climatology, high-resolution local and national models, and locally generated tools. The presentation will also look into three factors that accentuated the dramatic difference in snowfall over such a short distance: (1) the sharp gradient in snowfall as observed in the reflectivity from the Buffalo WSR-88D radar on the northern edge of the lake effect snow band, (2) the nearly stationary position of the band for almost 24 hours, and (3) very intense snowfall rates of 3 to 5 inches per hour.

This presentation is part of the WNY Chapter of the American Meteorological Society’s fall 2015 seminar series, hosted by the Buffalo State Geography and Planning Department's meteorology and climatology program.