Just checked Lake Erie temp “The water temperature off Buffalo is 43 degrees“ Boy if we get one of those Nor-East gales with low temps could be a repeat of the blizzard of 77
Having lived through it (though adamantly just a young lad at the time...I still have the board game!
) fortunately, it doesn't look good for a repeat of the infamous "Blizzard of '77". Lake Erie was already frozen over by this time (a record by the way).
The "Blizzard" resulted from incessant winds, gusting to near 70mph at times, driving the 30-35 inches of snow that was
already on the ground and the frozen 10,000 square miles of Lake Erie, across the entire region along with temperatures near 0 and wind chills approaching 60 degrees below zero. These conditions lasted from January 28th through February 1st. When finished the Blizzard was credited with the taking of 29 lives.
What's even more interesting is that the total snowfall during the Blizzard was only
about 12 inches. There is even some question as to how much of this actually fell and how much was just redistributed existing snow.
That said, with the lake still unfrozen and at a toasty 43 degrees, all you need now is a nice southwesterly arctic blast to run up the entire fetch of Lake Erie for some serious "Lake Effect". Still plenty of time for that.