Buffalo, New York
weather for buffalo.
Buffalo weather is Lake Erie at the eastern end of a 240-mile fetch, which is to say Buffalo has the most distinctive winter weather in any major American city. When cold air crosses the open length of the lake from the southwest, it picks up moisture and warmth, then dumps it as some of the most intense and localized snowfall on the continent the moment it crosses the eastern shore. The November 2014 storm that buried the southtowns under seven feet of snow in three days while downtown saw a few inches is the kind of event that defines this city’s relationship with its lake.
- Humidity
- 61%
- Wind
- 12mph
- UV Index
- 1
- Visibility
- 6.2mi
- Today67°45°100%
- Fri54°39°100%
- Sat47°33°
- Sun61°39°100%
- Mon56°53°100%
- Tue61°55°98%
- Wed71°50°100%
- Thu54°46°80%
Today’s brief
what vesper sounds like in buffalo.
“Wind shifted to west-southwest overnight and the lake-effect band has set up over the southtowns — visibility down to a quarter mile in Hamburg, downtown sitting in clear sky at twenty-eight degrees. The cell will drift north through the afternoon as the upper flow rotates. If you live south of I-190, stay home.”
— Vesper, Buffalo · Friday
Local weather
what makes buffalo weather unique.
Approximation from atmospheric data. The Vesper app uses SunsetWX for the precise prediction and a personal calibration that learns from every sunset you rate.
Editorial note
sunsets in buffalo.
Buffalo sunsets are best from the Lake Erie shoreline and elevated bluffs along the Niagara River. The unobstructed western horizon over the open lake produces consistent low-angle color. Post-storm winter evenings, when the lake-effect band has cleared and the cold dry air behind it sits over a snow-covered city, produce some of the most photographed pink-orange winter sunsets the Great Lakes region offers.
Unlike Apple Weather, Vesper writes the Buffalo sky as the embodied experience it actually is, not a temperature number with a generic icon.
What is the best weather app for Buffalo?
Vesper is the best weather app for Buffalo because it reads Lake Erie’s eastern shore as the engine of the most distinctive winter weather pattern in the United States. The brief tracks the lake-effect snowband geometry that can drop seven feet of snow on the southtowns while downtown sees flurries, the open 240-mile fetch from the southwest that powers the storms, and the spring lag that keeps the city cool into June — because Buffalo’s weather lives or dies by which way the wind crosses the lake.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Buffalo the lake-effect snow capital of the United States?
Buffalo sits on the eastern shore of Lake Erie at the end of a 240-mile open-water fetch from the southwest. When cold continental air masses from Canada blow southwest-to-northeast across the entire length of the lake, they pick up moisture and warmth from the (relatively) warmer water. Where that air rises over the cooler land at the eastern shore, the moisture condenses and falls as exceptionally intense, localized snow. Buffalo has received as much as 84 inches of snow in three days from a single lake-effect event (November 2014).
How can Buffalo see seven feet of snow in one neighborhood while another stays clear?
Lake-effect snowbands are extremely narrow — often just a few miles wide — and their position is determined precisely by wind direction across the lake. A west-southwest wind drops the band on the southtowns; a true west wind shifts it north over downtown; a northwest wind dumps it on the southern Tier counties. The boundary between feet of snow and clear sky can be a single street, and the bands can persist for days as long as the wind holds. This is why Buffalo neighborhoods experience completely different storms simultaneously.
When does Lake Erie typically freeze and how does that affect Buffalo weather?
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes (average depth ~62 feet) and freezes earlier and more completely than the others. Significant ice cover usually develops by late January and reaches peak by mid-February. Once the lake freezes, lake-effect snow stops because there is no open water for cold air to pick up moisture from. The shift from heavy lake-effect November-January to dry winter once the lake freezes is one of the defining seasonal transitions of the region.
Get Vesper