Buffalo Has A Massive Plow Problem To Deal With

The 2025/26 winter season has been one for the history books. While Buffalo did not actually set many weather records, it has been one of the coldest we've seen in a long time, with tons of snow and strife that comes along with it.

While Buffalo did not see more than 100 inches of snow this year, there was plenty of work for public and private snowplow drivers to do this season, and depending on who you asked, the job that was done by the city of Buffalo crews got a mixed rating.

While there were some neighborhoods that said they saw a huge improvement in snowplow services from Buffalo's Department of Public Works, there are several other neighborhoods that said they didn't see a plow all winter. While that statement itself might be a bit of hyperbole, a new admission from Buffalo's new Mayor gives us a clear view as to why Buffalo has a major plow problem.

New York's Second-Largest City Has Less Than 15 Functional Snowplows

After what Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan calls years of neglect and potential mismanagement of Buffalo's plow equipment, city road crews only have 14 working snowplows to clear Buffalo's streets.

With Buffalo being more than 50 square miles, and with 1,600 lane miles of road to plow, only having around a dozen plows to get the streets cleaned is not enough.

The City of Buffalo has failed to invest in itself... and for 11 years in a row, we had shrinking revenues and growing expenses that only yields to one thing: bankrupt city...
-Sean Ryan, Mayor of Buffalo, New York

According to WGRZ-TV, the city started the season with around 28 plows, but a lack of maintenance and improvements has seen many of those pieces of equipment fail and go offline.

The current government has a winter plan that calls for 40 operational plows, and it looks like they have their work cut out for them.