Heavy Snow Blankets Western New York

Cold winds blew bands of heavy snow across the Great Lakes onto western New York on Monday, dumping up to a foot and a half and causing treacherous whiteout conditions on roads.

The so-called lake-effect snow, in which cold winds pick up moisture from the warmer water below and drop it in the form of snow on coastal areas, was expected to last into today, the National Weather Service said.

Buffalo was blanketed by more than a foot of snow from Lake Erie, while in Watertown, off Lake Ontario, visibility was what National Weather Service spokesman Steve Francis called “zero, zero.”

“They can’t see up, and they can’t see out,” Francis said. “They can’t see a thing.”

Midwestern states faced arctic cold temperatures while digging out from the weekend’s heavy snowstorm. Chicago’s 22-inch snowfall on Saturday ranked second on record only to a two-day 1967 blizzard. Milwaukee’s 15-inch snowfall was its heaviest since 1947.

Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar on Monday declared the entire state a disaster area. In addition to allowing the state to coordinate state resources to aid local governments, the declaration makes possible a request for federal assistance for counties that demonstrate the need.

It was 29 degrees below zero in Minot, N.D. In northwestern Iowa, it felt like 59 degrees below zero with the windchill, which is how cold it feels on the skin from the combination of cold and wind.

Major airlines operated full schedules at capacity but were still struggling to clear a backlog of travelers stranded after the New Year’s weekend storm.

“We have a lot of people attempting to fly stand-by. We were expecting a very heavy travel day today, even before the storm,” said Dennis Colloton, spokesman for Chicago’s Aviation Department, which operates O’Hare International Airport, the nation’s busiest.

The trouble rippled out across the nation’s air traffic system, with some planes and crews pushed out of position by the weekend’s weather.

In Atlanta, heavily booked flights could not accommodate the passengers whose flights were canceled over the weekend, leaving long lines of frustrated passengers.