An ice-covered Lake Erie usually puts an end to lake effect snowstorms, because the wind cannot pick up moisture from the lake's surface, convert the moisture to snow and then dump it when the winds reach shore. The wintry weather continued in January, with the monthly average temperature being , the coldest on record (records began in 1870 in Buffalo). January's average temperature was below normal. It never rose to freezing in Buffalo that month, the first January that had occurred. Prior to January 28, the day the blizzard started, it had snowed almost every day since just after Christmas. By January 27, Buffalo's snow depth was . There was continuous snow cover from November 29 until the day of the blizzard, and of snow had fallen that winter prior to the blizzard – in January alone – well above normal even for a city that averages about of snowfall per year. This resulted in a snow depth of on the day the blizzard started. Low pressure crossed Lake Erie on January 27 and moved to James Bay; it became stalled east of James Bay. Then the storm moved back west over James Bay before finally moving east to the Canadian Maritimes. Even before the blizzard hit, the Niagara Mohawk Power Company (which is now National Grid) had warned that snow was reaching the power lines in some areas of western New York. Also, on Thursday, January 27, severe natural gas shortages forced industries and schools to either curtail activities or to close. The governors of Minnesota, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey had also declared energy emergencies. Early in the week of the blizzard, James Lindner, Commissioner of Street Sanitation for the City of Buffalo, estimated approximately 20% of cars in the city of Buffalo were illegally parked or abandoned, limiting the ability of snowplows to clear side streets and making many of them impassable. A concentrated effort to plow (and tow as necessary) – called the "Snow Blitz" by the press – managed to make significant progress on Tuesday, January 25, and Wednesday, January 26, with the help of 960 tickets and 140 tows. Even so, one source notes the side streets in Buffalo were "practically impassable" on Wednesday, January 26. On Wednesday evening, snow squalls and high winds hit Wyoming, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Erie counties in western New York. This snowstorm closed the Buffalo Skyway, Fuhrmann Boulevard – a major route to the suburbs south of the city – and many other roads, and forced snow removal crews to focus on the major and secondary roads Wednesday night and Thursday.