Great Lakes Storm Dumps 2 Feet of Snow on Northeast and Midwest, With More to Come

More than two feet of snow blanketed parts of western New York and Pennsylvania on Saturday, as a lake-effect snowstorm disrupted post-Thanksgiving travel and threatened to bring up to five feet of snow to some areas by Tuesday morning.

The snowfall was heaviest along Interstate 90, the National Weather Service said, which hugs Lake Erie from Buffalo through Pennsylvania and on to Cleveland. In some areas, white-out conditions could be life-threatening, the service said. National Guard troops were dispatched in New York and Pennsylvania.

Parts of Northern Michigan recorded 30 inches of snow as well, and officials in Grand Rapids, Mich., blamed the wintry conditions for a pileup involving about a dozen vehicles on Thursday night. Jerry Byrne, director of the county roads commission, said that while traveling just a mile during the storm, drivers could go from clear pavement to white-out conditions.

“If you’re not thinking winter, it’s what gets you in trouble,” he said.

Interstates in Pennsylvania across the New York State line were impassable, the New York State Thruway Authority said on Saturday morning, and some areas remained closed to commercial trucks.

Erie International Airport in Pennsylvania was closed, too, as about 30 inches of snow fell on the city. At least that amount had also fallen on some areas of western New York, the National Weather Service said Saturday morning. Nearly 34 inches were recorded in Perrysburg, N.Y., about 35 miles south of Buffalo.

Kevin Ricart, 33, who was visiting family in Erie, Pa., from Chicago for the holiday, had hoped to take his wife, Brittany, and their 2-year-old son, Robbie, to the Experience Children’s Museum downtown. But their plans were quickly derailed.