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. Many motorists were stranded on Fuhrmann Boulevard and were rescued by police and firefighters overnight Wednesday. The clearing of snow from this storm was made difficult by winds, which in one case on Thursday, January 27, transformed a clear road to one with drifts in less than an hour. The Greater Buffalo International Airport closed Thursday, January 27. By late January, snow removal was hampered; 33 of the city's 79 snow plows were in for repairs. On the afternoon of Thursday, January 27, the National Guard had been called to the region with equipment to help clear the streets of snow. Onset Friday morning On Thursday, January 27, an Arctic front had swept southward through the northern Great Plains to the Midwest. Between 6:00 and 7:00 am on Friday, January 28, a wall of snow accompanied the cold front's passage through Indianapolis, Indiana, along with a temperature drop of almost . Between 7:00 and 8:00 am, Columbus, Ohio, reported similar situations. Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio, as well as Erie, Pennsylvania, were also hit strongly by the cold front. The NWS office in Erie warned "travel might be disastrous"; and there were more than 500 accidents in the area that morning. From midnight to 11:00 am, the temperature at the Buffalo airport rose from . Snow began around 5:00 am, with about of new snow prior to the beginning of the blizzard. At 4:00 am, the Buffalo NWS office indicated "very strong winds will once again produce near blizzard conditions beginning late this afternoon and continuing tonight". At 11:00 am, a blizzard warning was issued, which was the first time the Buffalo NWS office had done this. That morning observers on the 16th floor of the M&T Bank Building in Buffalo watched as a gray wall covered