Heavy snow and ‘treacherous’ travel likely for Buffalo Bills playoff game Sunday

Syracuse, N.Y. -- It’s looking more likely that lake effect snow will coat the field and swirl through Highmark Stadium Sunday afternoon when the Buffalo Bills begin the NFL playoffs against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It’s also more likely that fans heading to the game in Orchard Park will face very tough driving conditions.

Forecasters are increasingly confident that lake effect snow will pound the Buffalo area Sunday. Snow could fall at a near-blinding rate at times, blown around by wind gusts up to 45 mph.

“With that blowing, drifting snow, 1 to 2 inches per hour, and reduced visibility, travel is going to be treacherous,” said Dan Kelly, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Buffalo office. “Don’t take any unneeded risks.”

Kelly said the lake effect snow is likely to start Saturday, first blowing north of the city before snow bands drift south by Sunday afternoon. Kickoff is 1 p.m.

“It looks like it’s going to be down towards the Southtowns,” Kelly said, “and the Southtowns do include Orchard Park.”

Conditions will be ideal this weekend for heavy lake effect snow. Lake Erie is abnormally warm for this time of year, and that means there’s little ice to slow the evaporation of lake water as the winds blow over it. While winds tonight will be from the southeast, by Saturday and Sunday they’ll be from the southwest, funneling that lake effect snow right into the Buffalo area.

While it looks like there could be snow during the game, weather forecasting hasn’t reached the point where meteorologists can say for sure that snow will fall in a stadium during a particular three-hour window.

“We’re confident there’s going to be a lake band and we’re confident that it’s going to be very close to the stadium,” said Tom Kines, a meteorologist with Accuweather. “The big question is: Is it over the stadium or not?”

While the snow remains a wild card, Kines said, meteorologists are confident that Sunday will be cold, with temperatures in Buffalo falling into the low 20s. The wind will be in the single digits.

That’s still relatively warm to what the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins will play in on Saturday night. The wind chill could fall to a brutal 24 below zero during the game, in Kansas City, tying for the sixth-coldest National Football League game on record.

The coldest Bills home game ever was on Jan. 15, 1994, when the Los Angeles Raiders came to town for a playoff game, according to NFL.com. The wind chill that day was minus 32 degrees.

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