While this week’s snowfall broke a record, it’s not the latest Buffalo has ever seen snow before.

What You Need To Know

  • On average, April 15 marks Buffalo’s last snowfall of the season

  • The latest measurable snowfall happened on May 20, 1907

  • July and August are the only months when snow hasn’t been observed

Let’s face it, April has been a weird month here in Western New York. Buffalo saw record warmth twice during the first half of the month, and yet earlier this week, record snow was the top weather story.

If you’ve lived in Western New York long enough, you know it’s not that unusual for snowflakes to greet us in the spring. Since 1893, there have only been two instances when Buffalo didn’t pick up some sort of measurable snow after the start of spring around March 20.

What was shocking was how much snow stuck just a few days ago.

The airport picked up 3.1 inches of snow on April 21, demolishing the old daily snowfall record of 1.3 inches from 1934. During this time of year, it’s pretty tough to see that much snow at once.

With that said, there were six other instances when at least two inches fell in Buffalo after April 21. The last time that happened was back on May 7, 1989. That day picked up an astonishing 7.9 inches. That’s still not even the latest measurable snowfall Buffalo has seen to close out the season.

That record belongs to May 20, 1907, when a tenth of an inch fell. Keep in mind, measurable is defined as seeing at least 0.1 inch.

If you consider that, then the last time Buffalo has ever seen any snowflakes flying around was June 10, 1980, just 11 days before the official start of summer. 

On the flip side, the earliest the last measurable snowfall happened for the season was Feb. 27, 1946.

In recent memory, Buffalo gave that record a run for its money when the airport picked up its last 0.4 inch of the season on Feb. 28, 2010.

On average, though, Buffalo sees its last measurable snowfall on April 15. While snow has already fallen past that date this year, that window of opportunity for more snow will just continue to shrink as spring goes on.

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Spectrum snow fight

Buffalo picked up 4.8 inches of snow earlier this week, bringing its seasonal total to exactly 77 inches.

But was it enough to take over the top spot in snowfall totals across all the cities that Spectrum News serves? Check out this weather blog to find out!