Within a three-day span, Southern Tier residents were trading shorts and T-shirts for jackets as very late winter weather pounded the area April 23 and 24.

The impact of the storm varied greatly depending on several factors, most significantly elevation.

According to the National Weather Service, the highest reported storm total in the area was 12.8 inches in New Albion. Eyewitness reports measured totals of almost 10 inches in Little Valley, 9 inches in Randolph and over 4 inches in Salamanca near the river. Outskirts of the city on higher reservations had higher totals.

Other NWS reports included 9 inches in nearby Franklinville and West Valley. The highest reported accumulation was 15 inches in Sinclairsville in central Chautauqua County.

“We just had a strong system move up the east coast,” said Dan Kelly, a meteorologist at the NWS Buffalo office. “Just the right ingredients came together.”

He said the cutoff points where snow fell were rigid; two locations near Frewsburg, for example, had accumulations of 5.5 inches and 13 inches despite only being a mile apart. Buffalo, which only received about an inch, was spared because of wind from the north coming off a warm Lake Ontario, Kelly said.

Although snowfall this late in the season is rare, April has had its share of winter weather. Kelly said 8.8 inches of snow fell in Jamestown on April 6, 2007. Likewise, Franklinville recorded a foot on April 5, 1975. However, a Cornell University climatologist, Jessica Renells, said the last time this much fell this late in the spring was May 7, 1989.

In Little Valley, which escaped the brunt of the storm early Monday, several inches of the heavy, wet snow caused damage to several trees that evening, according to village clerk Peggy Root.

* This is a partial story. The full story can be found in the April 26, 2012 edition of The Salamanca Press and online in the e-edition. *