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Author Topic: Snow on a Northwest Plane - Buffalo October of 2006  (Read 6436 times)

Offline mhawke

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Snow on a Northwest Plane - Buffalo October of 2006
« on: October 01, 2007, 04:13:47 PM »
Thought I would share this picture, although it is a year old.  This happened during the October Surprise storm here in Buffalo.  I assure the picture is real.  We received a record amount of heavy wet snow over the course of a night.  Appranetly the weight of that snow on the tail of the picture aircraft was enough to affect the balance of the plane.

I though this was fitting to share, since this storm was just about a year ana couple weeks ago.  Anybody from or near Buffalo will remember.




Offline KSYR-pjr

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Re: Snow on a Northwest Plane - Buffalo October of 2006
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2007, 06:43:40 PM »
Remember it well.  I was working in Buffalo and commuting by single engine aircraft.  I left Buffalo to return home for the week on the day the storm started, which was a Thursday.   Took off from Buffalo airport around 4:30pm and snow was falling so hard that visibility had dropped to a 1/4 mile (so much that BUF tower couldn't see the intersection of the runways and pilots couldn't see the tower).  Most arriving aircraft were just starting to be put into holds in the hopes that the visibility would improve to approach minimums.

The air temperature on the ground was above freezing but the air temperature at about 3,000 feet was way below freezing (which was the reason for the storm - extremely cold Canadian air flowing perfectly over the length of warm Lake Erie).  This resulted in a very tense moment for me whereby the falling snow melted into water on the wings during taxi and then froze up to become ice covered wings at 3,000 feet.

Fortunately the snow band that was literally crushing Buffalo at that point was only about 30 miles wide and there was sun and normal life going on east of Buffalo, so the ice melted off the wings once I was clear of the band.

My two co-workers who were also leaving around that same point via commercial airlines were not so fortunate; they didn't get home until very early Sunday morning, or about two and a half days later.  One of them told me later that the Northwest flight that was to become his departing flight was struck by lightning as it made its approach into Buffalo during the storm, which started his long string of delays.  For those not familiar with US Great Lake-induced weather, the precipitation that falls within the atmosphere downwind of the Great Lakes during a lake-enhanced storm can be so intense that lighting is generated due to all that friction.  "Thundersnow" is a common forecast during early winter months.

The damage to property and trees from the approximately two feet of very wet snow that fell in those 24 hours was devastating to the region.





Offline dan9125

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Re: Snow on a Northwest Plane - Buffalo October of 2006
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2007, 08:49:17 PM »
That is one storm i'll never forget either, the power to the buffalo feed was out from late Thursday night when the storm started until the following Monday afternoon. Many people were without power for weeks. I remember seeing that Northwest DC-9 on the local news.

Dan

Offline BWilliams

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Re: Snow on a Northwest Plane - Buffalo October of 2006
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2007, 08:03:14 PM »
I don't think that ANYONE who lives in BUF will ever forget that one... I can remember looking out the window that night, thinking that it's going to suck to get out in the morning, then waking up in the morning to a little over 2 feet of snow. 

From an aviation standpoint, the airport was down for quite a while, between the visibility . ice on the RWY's, and then power problems.

Offline Greg01

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Re: Snow on a Northwest Plane - Buffalo October of 2006
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2007, 08:04:59 PM »
Oh, yeah...about a week off from school!

My neighbor, who also flies out of the same airport, was up doing some IR training when it started snowing. They had to shoot the ILS into BUF because the wx was too bad to get into the home drome (GPS approach).


Offline bphendri

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Re: Snow on a Northwest Plane - Buffalo October of 2006
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2007, 05:39:26 AM »
Wow....  Now that aircraft is rotating WAY below Vr.. :P