Syracuse, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Bills playoff game will be postponed until Monday afternoon to avoid a potentially dangerous lake effect storm, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced today.
Hochul said the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers planned for Sunday would instead be played at 4:30 p.m. Monday, still at Highmark Stadium. The National Football League agreed to the change, she said.
”This is going to be a dangerous storm,” Hochul said.
Hochul said current forecasts say the storm will be at its peak, with blinding snow and high winds, at exactly the same time the Bills had been scheduled to play, 1 p.m. on Sunday, in the stadium at Orchard Park.
“The bull’s-eye of the storm is predicted to hit midday Sunday afternoon,” she said.
READ MORE: Get our updated forecast for Sunday, which includes snow squalls for parts of Upstate NY
All vehicles will be banned from Erie County roads starting at 9 tonight and continuing until at least 6 a.m. Sunday, Hochul said. The state Department of Transportation has also banned empty and tandem tractor-trailers from parts of the Thruway and other roads in Western New York. starting at 9 a.m. today. (See complete list below.)
Hochul has declared a state of emergency this weekend in Western New York and Tug Hill for “potentially dangerous and life-threatening blizzard-like conditions” at the eastern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The National Weather Service has also issued winter storm warnings, the highest state winter weather alert, for those regions.
One to 3 feet of snow could fall in the most intense lake effect snow bands, and winds could reach 65 mph as northwest winds whip off the lakes Saturday through Monday, the weather service said. Widespread power outages are also possible just as temperatures drop to their lowest of the season so far. Sunday afternoon will also be bitterly cold. With falling temperatures and high winds, the wind chill could fall to 5 degrees Sunday afternoon.
AccuWeather, a private meteorology forecasting company, had also warned that “life-threatening travel risks” are possible in Orchard Park, where the Bills will play in Highmark Stadium. AccuWeather said in a statement that an intense band of lake effect snow, about 3 to 5 miles across, could develop in the Orchard Park area and stay in place from late Saturday to Monday morning.
“Within the intense snow band, it will be a full-fledged blizzard with snow falling at the rate of 2-3 inches or more per hour, complete whiteout, and winds gusting to 50 mph or even higher,” said Jon Porter, AccuWeather’s AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jon Porter.
Snow is expected on Monday, too but will ease up during the day and wind speeds will drop, according to the weather service forecasts.
Hochul said she had started talking with the NFL commissioner’s Roger Goodell on Thursday as the storm details were becoming clearer, and kept in touch over the past two days. They spoke again at 11 a.m. today, Hochul said.
“His priority has always been from the beginning the safety of all the fans,” she said. “And I said, well, I’m telling you, we cannot guarantee the safety of the fans with these deteriorating conditions.”
Hochul said she suggested the game be played Monday, giving public works crews time to clear the roads. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a state and federal holiday, so there will be less traffic on the road in the late afternoon, she said.
“He agreed with that assessment and he offered 4:30 on Monday,” Hochul said. “I said, that sounds great to us.”
The weather service forecast for Monday’s game calls for light snow and winds of about 16 to 18 mph, with a wind chill of about 2 degrees.
Two Bills home games in the past decade have been moved due to much larger storms. In November 2022, when Orchard Park received 66 inches of snow, the game against the Cleveland Brows was relocated to Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. That also happened in November 2014, when more than 5 feet of snow fell in Buffalo. The Bills-New York Jets game also landed at Ford Field that year.
Here’s the list of roads from which empty and tandem tractor-trailers are banned until further notice:
- New York State Thruway from Exit 46 (Rochester) to the Pennsylvania border:
- I-190, north and south of the North Grand Island Bridge
- Buffalo Skyway
- U.S. 219
- NY 400
- I-290
- I-990
- Kensington Expressway (NY 33)
- I-86 in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties