A lake-effect snow blitz lasting much of the week before Thanksgiving 2014 crippled parts of the Buffalo southtowns with locally over 7 feet of snow.

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A 132-mile section of the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) from exits 46 through 61 was forced to shut down for several days. A stretch of the Niagara Thruway (Interstate 190) southbound from Niagara Falls (exit 16) to the Interstate-90 interchange was also shut down.

Western New York dealt with, both late Monday into Tuesday, then again just about two days later. Snowfall rates were estimated as high as six inches per hour.

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Here are the reported snowfall totals from both rounds of lake-effect snow in western New York, as of 11 a.m. EST on Nov. 21, 2014:

- Cowlesville: 88 inches- Orchard Park: 71 inches - Lancaster: 74 inches - Wales Center: 69.3 inches - West Seneca: 52.5 inches - Buffalo Int'l Airport: 16.9 inches - Tonawanda: 7.9 inches

To put this extreme snowfall into perspective...

Side streets in the Buffalo southtowns remained choked with feet of snow days after the initial round of lake-effect snow.

This snow also prompted the National Football League to move Sunday's scheduled game between the host Buffalo Bills and New York Jets to Detroit on Monday night. , enough to fill the team's practice facility eight times.

(VIDEO/PHOTOS: Buffalo Lake-Effect Snowband Looked Like a Haboob)

Was this the worst storm in Buffalo history?

Winter weather expert Tom Niziol says a five-day blizzard in January 1977 hammered all of western New York, including the city of Buffalo, stranding hundreds in their vehicles. Twenty-nine people lost their lives in that storm, many of which were either asphyxiated in their cars or froze to death from exposure.

Two factors combined to yield the extreme snowfall totals in localized areas.

First, wind directions remained fairly constant Monday-early Wednesday. That meant lake-effect snow bands tended to hammer the same areas for a protracted period of time.

Second, the air blowing over the lake was the coldest this early in November since 1986. The large temperature difference between the lake water and the air above create an unstable atmosphere, which allows air to rise more quickly and therefore to generate snow more efficiently. Snowfall rates were estimated at 4 inches per hour in the snowbands east of Lake Erie Tuesday.

(MORE:4 Things To Know About Buffalo's Lake-Effect Snow)

Research has shown that November storms produce the highest amount of precipitation for lake-effect events. Because the atmosphere overall is warmer in November compared to January, it is able to contain more water vapor which in turn produces more snowfall, according to The Weather Channel winter weather expert, Tom Niziol.

Elsewhere, parts of western Lower Michigan picked up almost 30 inches of snow. Through 8 a.m. EST on Nov. 20, Gaylord, Michigan, chalked up its heaviest three-day snowstorm on record, with 29.6 inches of snow since the morning of Nov. 17.

Grand Rapids, Michigan set a new November monthly snow record, topping the old November record from 1895 (28.2 inches).

The snow-weary Upper Peninsula of Michigan and far northern Wisconsin also got their share of heavy lake-effect snow, with up to 23 inches reported. As of the morning of Nov. 21, Marquette, Michigan was nearing its November monthly snowfall record of 48.9 inches set in 1991, nearly double their average November snowfall (24.4 inches).

Combination of photos from Gile, Wisconsin, on November 18, 2014. Gile had picked up over six feet of total snowfall from the morning of November 10 through 6 a.m. on November 18. For reference, the dog is 20 inches tall and stop signs in the town are taller than standard height elsewhere.

(Peg Sutherland)

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Winds also gusted over 50 mph, at times, in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the U.P. early Tuesday morning.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Lake-Effect Snow Photos