A Cold and Snowy Buffalo, New York Winter: 2009 Making Buffalonians All the More Heartier

Being born and raised as a Western New Yorker I have heard people complain about every kind of weather imaginable. In the summer people complain that it is too hot or too rainy. In the winter people talk about how they cannot wait until summer. Western New Yorkers are used to temperature and precipitation extremes. A couple years ago we had a snow storm in early October that closed schools, places of employment, and knocked the power out for days, In response some Western New Yorkers put their snow tires on October 1st rather than November. Western New Yorkers know how to prepare for and brave bad weather, That being said, this winter has pushed many Western New Yorkers to their limits.

The weather in Buffalo, New York has been exceptionally bad this year, The local channel 7 weather man stated a few days ago that this year has been the 18th coldest winter in well over 100 years of documentation. If you live in Western New York you know that this means it has been extremely cold.

The snow keeps falling and the plows keep plowing. The main roads are decent a lot of the time but because it takes so much time and so many trucks to keep them clean the side streets are often terrible, I live in a suburb of Buffalo, New York and I think this is one of the snowiest winters I have ever experienced. Some evenings my husband has to shovel for over an hour just to get the car in the driveway. I myself choose to park on the street as I cannot seem to pull into the driveway without getting stuck this year no matter how much he shovels. Our toddler son is going stir crazy from being cooped up in the house. We want to bundle him up and take him sledding but with wind chills below zero it is not really safe for a little guy. Our car is even suffering. My husband got stuck on a patch of ice and a snow bank not too long ago and in his attempts to get it unstuck he somehow managed to break the power stearing, Countless times my son and I have watched out the window on a very snowy day and seen people stuck in their driveways or on the side of the road and trying desperately to get out,

Yes, even for rugged Western New Yorkers this has been a tough winter. We are all just waiting for spring and summer when we will be much more comfortable, Until there is a heat wave that is.