Summer Snow Is Back In Western New York

If you have spent any time outside in Western New York over the past couple of days, you might have noticed "snow" flying around the 716.

The good news is that you won't have to break out the winter clothes or the snowblower to take care of this "snow", it is because this "snow" is actually the seeds of cottonwood trees.

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Now is the time that the seeds will be flying all over Western New York and it will look like a mini-blizzard in the area.

As I was driving around my neighborhood I noticed that my neighbor's lawn looked like it was covered in snow.

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I took these pictures of his yard in Hamburg and it looks like he got a dusting of snow but in fact, it is just cottonwood seeds from all the neighborhood trees.

You can expect to see this "Summer Snow" last until July. According to the USDA Forest Service's website on trees, the seeds are released for 4-6 weeks.

Eastern cottonwood is a prolific seeder and produces large seed crops annually. Seed dispersal occurs approximately 1-2 months after flowering in the northern part of its range and continues for well over a month.

Also, the reason it looks like a snowstorm has hit parts of New York is that a single cottonwood tree can a single release more than 25 million seeds.

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So if you have 10-50 trees in your neighborhood, that is a lot of seeds being sent all over town.