NEW YORK - Snowfall of more than six feet (1.8m) in western New York state prompted local officials on Saturday to further restrict road travel and forced airlines to cancel flights in the Buffalo area, just ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday week.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called in the National Guard, deploying about 70 members to help with snow removal in the hardest-hit parts of Erie County.

Officials said the storm appeared to drop a record amount of snow for Erie County in a 24-hour period – up to 6 inches (15cm) per hour at times, leaving more than 50, 60 and even 70 inches over the white-out region.

Erie County recorded totals of 77 inches in the village of Orchard Park, the site of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills home field. The county’s prior record for snowfall in a 24-hour period – 47.5 inches – was set during a massive storm in 2014 that left more than 86 inches by its third day.

Most businesses in Orchard Park remained closed on Saturday with deep snow blanketing parking lots and entrances. Ploughs and backhoes of every size were ubiquitous throughout the area.

“We believe we’ll be making history with having the most amount of snowfall in a 24-hour period right here in the state of New York,” Governor Hochul said at a news conference on Saturday. “Never happened like this before.”

Squalls began blowing in from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario on Thursday to produce the region’s first major snowstorm of the season, more than a month before the start of winter.

According to the National Weather Service, conditions could persist through Monday morning.

Nearly three feet of snow had fallen at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, where many flights were cancelled on Saturday. Buffalo, the second-largest city in New York, was placed back under a travel ban on Saturday morning.

“This has been a very unpredictable storm with the snow bands moving, back and forth, north to south,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN. “The snow has come down very fast, very wet, very heavy.”

Buffalo saw daily record snowfall of more than 16 inches, topping the one-day record of 7.6 inches recorded in 2014, the National Weather Service said on Saturday.

At least two deaths were reported on Friday. Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said in a tweet that two residents died of apparent heart attacks while shovelling snow.

In addition, 280 people were rescued in the area, and some 1,600 were without power. White-out conditions returned on Saturday night, with fierce winds blowing snow through streets deserted by closures for the weather.

County officials warned people to stay off roads to keep clear for snow removal crews.

During midday on Saturday, Mr Greg Shiltz, 47, of Orchard Park, was standing on top of his red pickup truck and shovelling off a few feet of snow after spending about four hours digging out of his driveway on Saturday.

“I’m finally catching up,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of snow,” he added. “But it’s better than a tornado. It will eventually melt.”

Illustrating the highly localised nature of lake-effect snow, accumulation levels varied widely across the region. Still, 11 counties remained under an emergency declaration issued on Thursday by Ms Hochul.

The US National Weather Service forecast lake-effect snow will dump up to 14 inches in the counties of Chautaqua and Cattaraugus from Saturday night through Sunday. Snow bands are forecast to bring up to two feet of snow in Oswego and Lewis counties beginning on Sunday morning.

After a northward shift that will impact the Niagara County, the Buffalo area braced itself for more snowfall late on Saturday, according to Erie County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Daniel Neaverth.

“It’s going to eventually swing back down through the county sweeping all the way back through,” he said. NYTIMES, REUTERS