Coming as welcome news to residents of western New York who were buried under nearly seven feet of snow last November, the surface of Lake Erie is now covered in enough ice to declare Buffalo's lake effect snow season effectively over for this winter. Hallelujah.

A nasty lake effect snow event is cranking up over western New York this afternoon, threatening to dump several feet of snow on communities from Buffalo to Watertown. Towns south of Buffalo could dig out from three feet of snow from the system, while eastern Lake Ontario could see up to five feet of snow in 36 hours.

While making boneheaded comments about forecasts leading up to Buffalo's seven feet of snow last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mentioned that the state is developing a "weather detection system" that would have improved the city's snow forecasts. Here's why he's (mostly) wrong.

Four months ago, Andrew Cuomo falsely stated that New York just recently started seeing tornadoes. On Saturday, the governor gave a press conference where he slammed meteorologists for their largely accurate Buffalo snow forecasts. As usual, Andrew Cuomo is clueless.

Cities to the south and east of Buffalo are digging out from up to 88 inches of snow this morning after this week's double lake effect snow events. To make matters worse, warm temperatures and potentially heavy rain will cause a rapid snowmelt, bringing the potential for major flooding.

Before it formed, forecasters were concerned that today's lake effect snow could form over the areas that saw five feet of snow earlier this week, dropping a total of 100 inches of snow by Friday. That's just from two storms! How many snowstorms would it take elsewhere in the country to reach 100 inches of snow?

The Buffalo Bills are offering local residents $10/hour plus game tickets if they swing by Ralph Wilson Stadium and help dig out the arena before the football game on Sunday. The Bills should pay people to dig out their trapped neighbors, not their football stadium.

More than five feet of snow is on the ground near Buffalo, New York, and a few more feet could fall by Thursday night. Some communities could see up to eight feet of snow by the time the storm is done. Governor Cuomo has called in the National Guard to dig out the buried region.

The above photo, taken from a plane above Buffalo yesterday by photographer Jeff Suhr, shows the brutal lake effect snow storm in effect over Western New York right now. Some areas are expecting up to six feet of snow by the end of the week. These snowstorms are among the most intense in the world, and the processes that create them are pretty spectacular.