Severe weather hit communities across the Northeast on Wednesday morning, causing at least one fatal road accident and potentially bringing chaos to the morning commute.
Up to 40 inches of snow was expected overnight in parts of the Great Lakes and interior Northeast in the first significant lake effect snow event of the season.
The National Weather Service in Buffalo, New York said that visibility would be sharply reduced during Wednesday morning’s peak travel period with 1 to 2 inches of snow expected per hour. Buffalo police said a winter weather advisory was in place from 4 a.m and said “motorists should use caution.”
An NWS forecast early Wednesday said the areas most affected would be south and southeast of Lake Erie, before the snow then shifts north.
Police in Killington, Vermont, said a bus crashed into another vehicle on Tuesday afternoon, killing one driver. Mark J. Candon, 71, from Rutland, Vermont, was pronounced dead at the scene, a police statement said.
The driver of the bus, 82-year-old Gary E. Gilmore from North Clarendon, and an unnamed female passenger, were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Heavy snow reached Pennsylvania, with video from Greene Township late Tuesday showing 15.5 inches had fallen.
The lake effect is when cold air flows over the relatively warm and ice-free Great Lakes, creating clouds and eventually snowfalls downwind.
