Weather History for February 29

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Western New York Weather History

FEBRUARY 29

1984

An intense low pressure system which developed over the Central Plains brought over two feet of snow and strong gusty winds to western New York. The first statement issued by the National Weather Service released during the afternoon of Sunday February 26th headlined more wintry weather headed for western New York. Early Monday morning..February 27th ..a Winter Storm Watch was posted for all of western and central New York. Later that afternoon the Watch was upgraded to a Warning. Snow began falling at the Buffalo Airport about 5:30pm on the 27th and before ending on the 29th, 28.3 inches had fallen. Reports received from throughout western New York ranged from one to three feet. The Niagara Falls-North Tonawanda areas being the hardest hit. Travel was almost completely stopped. A State of Emergency was declared in Niagara county prohibiting all travel. Virtually all area schools and businesses were closed on the 28th and 29th. Buffalo International Airport was closed for 36 hours as crews were unable to keep runways clear for safe landings and takeoffs. Northwest winds averaging about 20 miles an hour and gusts about 35 mph caused blowing and drifting snow reducing visibilities to near zero at times. Eight deaths were attributed to the storm including the death of two sisters due to carbon monoxide poisoning when their car became stranded in a snowbank. A number of records were broken by the storm including...the maximum snowfall in a 24 hour period for the month of February: 19.4 inches fell from Monday evening through Tuesday evening. The old record of 16.1 inches set Feb. 10th and 11th, 1910 was easily surpassed. It was the 5th largest 24 hour snowfall total for Buffalo. Snowfall of 4.2 inches on the 27th tied the record for maximum snowfall for that date and snowfall of 18.4 inches and 5.7 inches on the 28th and 29th, respectively, set new records for those dates. Melted snow of 1.74 inches set the record for maximum precipitation ever recorded on February 28th.

1992

Low pressure moved across Southern Ontario to the Canadian Maritimes. The fast moving low brought heavy snow to the Eastern Lake Ontario Counties. Snowfall amounts ranged from 6 to 9 inches. In addition to the snowfall, strong winds reduced visibilities in blowing and drifting snow.