Buffalo snow pile still stands 8 months after winter storms
Digital Reporter
Wednesday, July 29, 2015, 1:32 PM - Forget the Boston snow pile -- the city of Buffalo still has one, and it's pretty massive.
It's the end of July and a snow pile more than three metres high still stands in Buffalo, the remnants of a brutal winter season still evident in the dead of summer.
In November 2014, a series of severe record-breaking winter storms lashed the city in New York state, dropping nearly two metres of snow in a 24-hour period. Weather was so severe, the season was quickly nicknamed 'Snovember.'
After that, snowplows kept adding to the growing pile and eight months later....voilà!
SNOW STILL EXISTS ON JULY 29th in BUFFALO NY, U.S.A. pic.twitter.com/jkgqM7wOBT
— Glenn bradley (@Glennbradley5) July 29, 2015
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The miniature glacier sits in the city's east side, in a vacant lot where excess snow is typically dumped by city plows.
Similar to the famous snow pile in Boston, that was completely melted by July 14, the size of the Buffalo pile has created its own microclimate. Despite recent summer temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius or more, the core of the pile has managed to stay cold.
Soil on top of the snow, which has sprouted grass and weeds, has also helped act as an insulator, holding the cold in and keeping the heat of the sun out. Warming temperatures from the ground have a better chance of chipping away at the giant ice block.
"It's sort of like an Oreo cookie right now," said New York state climatologist Mark Wysocki, "where you've got snow in the middle and heat from above and heat from below and it's slowly eating away at the snow."
In Buffalo, a snow pile remains from winter https://t.co/RxqE4SPjJs pic.twitter.com/jxvOZDMJhZ
— Joseph Spector (@GannettAlbany) July 28, 2015
When the snow pile was at its largest, it towered over nearby light poles.
As of the last week of July, the largest part of the pile is about as long as the length of a school bus.
At this point, a heavy rainstorm would be about the only thing that could bring the snowy tower down.
But as far as Wysocki is concerned, if it's lasted this long, the Buffalo pile will likely be around when the first snowflake of another winter hits the ground.
Source: CNN
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