Try living in upstate New York for awhile. I was there for a tear and a half near Watertown at Ft Drum and the least amount of snowfall I saw on average was 6 inches and I think Watertown held the record for the most snowfall at one time.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/2003-10-01-snowiest-cities_x.htm
Ayup. Chicago is overrated in a lot of ways. Watertown, Ft. Drum, Syracuse, the Adirondacks is where it snows nine foot deep to an asshole Indian, er wait, oh well you know what I mean. Seriously, Syracuse gets an unbelievable amount of snow. If it were rain it would be Biblical. Ft. Drum is regularly closed, buried really and utterly inaccessible by roads. This isn't something that happens every so many years or so, it happens at least once a year and sometimes for weeks on end.
I was in Utica in '94 when that city got eight feet in one night. Even with that though the roads were cleared and traffic was flowing within 24 hours. Happened to Buffalo a few years back too, seven feet in a day.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2001/2001-12-28-buffalo-snow.htmThis is New York, par for the course. Unlike some places like say, North Carolina where if they get an inch of actual snow on the ground the entire region is crippled with people hiding under bridges, etc. and multiple car pile ups on every highway.
Here we have high school kids and grannies who can drive 55 in a foot of unplowed snow without flinching, just another day.
The blizzard of '77 was truly horrific but everyone pulled together and we got through it. That's why Buffalo is called "the city of good neighbors". If that sort of thing happens to a place like NYC everybody bitches, moans and whines.
In Buffalo we just pick up a six pack and stay home.
