Ten months after their wild card playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was postponed due to blizzard conditions, the Buffalo Bills will host another dangerously wintry scene on Sunday. A lake effect storm warning is in effect for the Buffalo area through Monday, with 2 to 3 feet of snow forecast ahead of Sunday night’s Week 13 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers.
Snow plows began surrounding the Bills’ Highmark Stadium on Friday, as Spectrum News 1 reported, while the team also began recruiting volunteer shovelers, as it did before the weather-affected January postseason game. Area leaders also warned against heavy travel around Sunday’s game.
“This will be concerning for people trying to travel to the football game,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference, via Spectrum News. “We don’t expect the game to be postponed or anything like that. The game will continue. [We’ve] I had games that are colder… [But] people need to be prepared. It’s the first real cold of the season. “We haven’t had anything like that all year.”
The National Weather Service anticipates “blackout conditions” between Saturday and Monday, which will make “travel treacherous and potentially dangerous.” Lake-effect snow can produce a wide variety of weather conditions, according to The Weather Channel, including “bands of locally heavy snow with greatly reduced visibilities in dry conditions just a few miles away.”
The Bills are scheduled to kick off Sunday’s game against the 49ers at 8:20 pm ET.
