We get snow every year because ...... we do, but not like this. All the 60* days we had in October & November left the Great Lakes warmer (in the low 50's) than usual. When cold arctic air blows across the warm water you get lake effect snow storms. When the wind is out of the West / Northwest the snow totals are vastly reduced & the snow ends up in the ski resort areas south of Buffalo. When the wind is out of the South / southwest it travels the entire length of Lake Erie (200+ miles) from Cleveland to Buffalo and it dumps snow totals like these in a short period of time.
Yesterday, the ski resorts south of Buffalo were making snow in anticipation of the natural snow that will come soon, the storm did not drop a single inch. The main snow band that's causing havoc is perhaps 20 - 25 miles wide, the area on either side of the snow band gets nothing. I've driven into and out of snow bands many times, inside is like a 1000 pillow pillow fight in a small room. It's easy to become disoriented because you have no horizon, no sky, can't see 100 ft and having high beam headlights ON only makes it worse.
These storms come ever 7 - 8 yrs or so and they are nasty.