Your Forecasting is Good, NWS, But your English Skills are Not So Good

The National Weather Service at Buffalo just released their latest Weather Statement, arriving here at 12:15 a.m. Earlier today, they made it very clear about the distinctions between "Wyoming County" and "Southwestern Wyoming County." One area got no new snow all day today (Wyoming County) and the other was getting up to 2 inches per hour (Southwestern Wyoming County). That's what makes this latest forecast so disappointing because the NWS neglected the distinction between areas of no snow and "heavy lake effect snow." This latest forecast says nothing about Southwestern Wyoming County (the heavy snow area of today), but erroneously states, "HEAVY LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT WYOMING..." Only the Southwestern area of Wyoming continued to experience heavy snow today; the rest of us in the upper 2/3 of the county saw NO snow--so how could no snow continue "at up to 2 inches per hour"? Either the forecast is about to change and we will be getting up to 2 inches an hour overnight, or the NWS' phrase "will continue to affect..." us is simply sloppy reporting.

So as fellow members of the upper two-thirds of Wyoming County, what do you think for tonight? Will we have heavy lake effect or will we have no snow? We're left to guess, but please note the addition of "Perry and Warsaw" in this latest statement.  :-)  Here is their full Weather Statement:

Weather Updated: Jan 27 11:40PM

Issued by the National Weather Service

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT UNTIL 12:45AM EST SAT ... HEAVY LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT WYOMING ... NORTHERN CATTARAUGUS ... SOUTHERN ERIE ... NORTHEASTERN CHAUTAUQUA AND NORTHWESTERN ALLEGANY COUNTIES ... AT 1132 PM EST, BANDS OF HEAVY LAKE EFFECT SNOW PRODUCING SNOW FALL RATES OF UP TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR EXTENDED ALONG AND SOUTH OF HAMBURG TO WARSAW LINE, AND NORTH OF A BROCTON TO HOUGHTON LINE. THESE LAKE SNOWS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY ACROSS THIS SAME AREA THROUGH AT LEAST 2 AM. LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE... DUNKIRK, FREDONIA, HAMBURG, LETCHWORTH STATE PARK, EVANS, BOSTON, EDEN, SPRINGVILLE, PERRY AND WARSAW.  THIS INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING HIGHWAYS... INTERSTATE 90 BETWEEN EXITS 59 AND 57. INTERSTATE 86 NEAR EXIT 31. IF TRAVELING SOUTH ON THE I-90 AND THE 219 OVERNIGHT BE PREPARED FOR RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER AND ROAD CONDITIONS. CONDITIONS CAN DETERIORATE RAPIDLY IN WINTER WEATHER SITUATIONS. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW OR ICE COVERED ROADS. SLOW DOWN AND ALLOW EXTRA TIME WHEN TRAVELING. LAT...LON 4275 7890 4276 7798 4263 7798 4262 7799 4260 7803 4260 7801 4259 7801 4258 7805 4257 7803 4254 7806 4254 7805 4252 7804 4252 7799 4228 7799 4229 7960