Fort Erie hit with white-outs

While much of the golden horseshoe is now dealing primarily with the cold, southern portions of the Niagara Peninsula are still being hit with lake effect snow.

There are white-out conditions in Fort Erie. The continuing closure of highways to the south and east of Buffalo forced officials to close the Peace Bridge to all truck traffic heading into the states. With an average of 1,700 trucks a day crossing the bridge into the U.S., the backlog is growing by the hour.

The duty free parking lot at the bridge is filled with trucks; while at the Flying J truck stop less than 2 kilometres from the border, hundreds of trucks were idled overnight, with little prospect of continuing their journey until much later today.

A blizzard warning remains in effect across the border in upstate New York. Weather officials say it likely won’t be lifted until this evening.

It’s the first blizzard warning for Buffalo since 1993, and by the time it’s all said and done, some areas could see more than a metre of snow. And in counties east of Buffalo, travel bans remain in place — meaning no one should be on the road. It’s the first travel ban in that area since the blizzard of 1977.