comment: >
  
  I ended up finally getting COVID a few weeks ago. I was working in person in hospitals before any vaccines existed and never got it.
  I was either lucky or unlucky it was while I also was sick with the flu.  I just woke up one day and besides the flu aches I felt just totally bizarre.  I'd describe it as sparkly brained. Then I noticed I couldn't taste the goat cheese I put in a salad.  I took a COVID test and it came back positive.  So I don't really know what symptoms I had were from the flu and which were from COVID but I basically worked (from home) and slept 14 hours a day for a week and a half.  I had congestion for like 2 weeks after and still do a little too. Just crappy all around.  And then I'm here in Amherst (N. Buffalo) in Blurricane central.
  Pretty crap winter, but it could have been so much worse.  People are still dying of COVID. People lost power and some got stuck out of their house.  So despite all this, I still feel a bit fortunate.
context: Buffalo native here. Wasn't around back in '77 but I absolutely remember Snowvember 2014, and even though we had to bring in the National Guard with bucket loaders because plows couldn't cut through six feet of snow, people were just out and about the moment they could get out of their driveway. We've dealt with snow, and so many people that I know figured this was just gonna be another snowstorm.
  The real killer was the cold, but more specifically, it was the wind. We don't regularly get 60mph winds even during storms, and wind chill that intense is a whole different kind of cold. Normally I'm sweating by the time I finish snowblowing when I wear boots, snow pants, and a jacket over shorts and a t-shirt; this time around, had to add flannel pajamas and a hoodie to the rest and I still had to take a break halfway through to warm up. So many other people felt the same way, until they got out and the wind was just sapping heat like nobody's business and blowing snow almost completely horizontal. >
  
  I've always been curious about world population and the expansion of human kind on earth. 
  I am not trying to be insensitive to current conditions. 
  As a California native,  I've always wondered how people live where they live. 
  Phoenix. Buffalo. Minnesota. Las Vegas. 
  Like...why did people CHOOSE to live there? >
  
  
  Like...why did people CHOOSE to live there? 
  
  For cold places it was often the availability of red meat and hides of animals. Both of which are valuable for human development. >
  
  I understand that part. But a place like Las Vegas is literally a created city. I understand the nefarious underground, but eventually, 2mill+ still had to CHOOSE to be there. 
  The populations of humanity, and again, not to be insensitive to circumstances, it has always been a curiosity as to...not how humans ended up where they are. But WHY are humans still where they are 
  Maybe I'm asking an evolutionary question? >
  
  Because by leveraging the resources of other areas, such as water, and power for cooling, it was made liveable, and then sustained by economic activity using those resources >
  
  I heard it's up to 35 now, likely to go quite a bit higher. >
  
  If you go in the buffalo subreddit people are listening in police scanners. Expect the death toll to rise quite soon >
  
  Yep, that's one of the reasons I'm expecting it to go much higher. I'm not listening myself, I think it'd be too depressing but people are constantly reporting more and more. >
  
  Buffalo can handle snow, even 6 feet of it.
  Hurricane force winds and frigid temperatures made this storm much more deadly.
  /r/buffalo >
  
  Not this time. Usually when you see 6 feet of snow in Buffalo it is mainly in the towns to the south of Buffalo. This time we got an insane amount of snow in the north, the south, and the city proper. We have not seen accumulation this high across this much area in 50 years, possibly ever. Add that to the hurricane winds and you can see the problem. 
  There is so much snow and it's so densely packed that snow plows are getting stuck frequently, myself and some of my neighbors had to dig one out in our neighborhood and I've seen many other stories like that. It's to the point where they are just putting it into dump trucks and driving it away and using backhoes to move it around. Absolutely insane storm >
  
  Right, definitely wasn’t a normal storm. >
  
  For people who don't understand how bad this storm was: Buffalo receives on average 96.4" of snow total for the winter season.
  This weekend alone Buffalo got 94".
  We all knew the storm was gonna be bad, and change (especially when it tracked up to Canada, where im at) But this storm rapidly changed from "wow it's heckin windy" to "I can't see 1ft from my face, it dropped from 38f to sub-zero in under 4 hours, the snow wont stop AND it's STILL WINDY--THERE GOES MY ROOF SHINGLES" all within friday.  I was watching a storm chaser on Friday over in Fort Erie and he said it was horrible, dangerous and in some areas the snow was blowing and accumulating so fast, some snow drifts were +6ft tall in just 4 hours. It's mindboggling. 
  Sadly, the more they dig, the more bodies they're gonna find, as well as doing neighbourhood safety checks on the elderly. They usually die first in storms like this due to no power, no heat, and nobody checking on them. So they die to the cold or C02 poisoning because they can't clear their furnace piping, bad fireplaces, bad ventilation on generators...etc. 
  If you got elderly neighbors or family and you got a heat source/power; help them. >
  
  No, we did not get 94 inches this weekend. The seasonal total reached that amount, which is a lot of snow. Big difference, though! >
  
  You’re still wrong. That’s 92” THIS WINTER. Buffalo also had 40ish inches on November 19, though it wasn’t as cold and windy. They got roughly 50” this weekend. >
  
  I don’t understand how so many people got stranded on the road? It’s not like in ‘78 where they didn’t have accurate weather forecasts wasn’t this predicted? >
  
  Everyone thought they had time to get where they are going.   
  I think the biggest issue are those who have employment. I highly doubt many jobs just let people go before the storm and likely many left during not realizing how bad it had got. >
  
  Jobs I can see it’s amazing how many bosses don’t give a shit. When I was a cashier my boss wanted me to come in when the roads were closed in case someone suddenly needed printer paper. Too bad we can’t hold corporations accountable. >
  
  I lived in Boston during the marathon bombing and they wanted me to come in to work during the lockdown/manhunt the day after. They do not give a shit. >
  
  That seems like a safe time to be out. I remember that day I lived well outside of the lockdown area so mom and I decided to go out shopping the helicopters circling overhead made us realize we may have made a mistake. >
  
  It’s gonna be more than that, felt like every hour there was DOA on the scanner last night >
  
  Triple dip on La Niña isn’t messing around. The pressure gradient and size of the air masses involved in this storm was insane. 
  A retrospective on this storm will be very interesting to look back on, hopefully some lessons can be gleaned for future storm preparation even if an event this powerful is relatively rare. >
  
  Im in Iowa, so Im "used" to snow. 
  But this year sucks. Im just ranting here but i got COVID a week ago finally and it made me feel like HELL. Legit the worst I have ever felt. That first day, I went to go through the drivethrough to get some cold medicine and my car wouldnt start because of the cold. Its been a week now, I feel like shit, and my car wont start, and DoorDash isnt running here as its a small town, so theres legit 0 way to get shit delivered. On top of that, now there is like 3 feet of snow all aaround my car in the parking lot. And was without power for 2 days. On the plus side, I havent smoked or drank in 9 days so thats a plus. I just really hate snow and winter. It makes everything else 10x harder to do. 
  Just, man, this year will go down in my brain is probably the worst winter so far. Im glad im not dead of course, and this story sucks for those affected. I just needed to vent.