To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Arborgeddon While technically not a blizzard, an unusually early storm on October 13, 2006, proved that trees with their full complement of leaves, together with up to two feet of heavy, water-laden snow, are a very bad combination indeed. Nicknamed “The October Surprise Storm,” “Arborgeddon,” “The Friday the 13th Storm,” and “The Columbus Day Massacre,” it checked in as the worst October lake effect snow storm in the 137 years during which records have been kept. It was also an example of the particularly rare meteorological phenomenon known as thundersnow. The storm’s effects were highly localized, as it downed power and phone lines and snapped off tree limbs as though they were toothpicks. It is estimated that the storm damaged as much as 90 percent of the city’s trees, including many in the city’s cherished Olmsted parks and parkways. Electric crews from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania were called in to assist with the clean-up efforts and to help restore power for nearly 400,000 people, 100,000 of whom were still in the dark a week later. PHOTO: LAURA A. DONNELLY Left: Devastation on Englewood Avenue in the Town of Tonawanda following the October Surprise Storm page 35