Steelers vs. Bills playoff game weather forecast: How much snow is expected in Buffalo?

Already postponed once, the game will go on as scheduled.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Sunday in a news conference that the wild card round game between the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills would not be rescheduled a second time and would be played Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET. On Saturday, Hochul had announced the postponement of the game from its original kickoff window, Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, citing public safety concerns.

Western New York, and in particular Orchard Park, where the Bills' Highmark Stadium is located, was blasted by a winter storm Sunday that dumped around 17 inches of snow and lashed the area with blizzard conditions and wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) said "travel will become difficult to impossible," and Hochul placed travel bans to prevent people from exposure to the blizzard conditions.

Bills players and staff spent Sunday at home. The Steelers arrived Sunday afternoon with travel restrictions having been lifted at Buffalo Niagara International Airport and northern parts of Erie County.

Here's everything you need to know about Monday's forecast:

What is the weather for the Bills-Steelers game?

As of Monday morning, most of the snow had waned, per the NWS, but frigid temperatures remain. At 4:00 p.m., half an hour before the scheduled kickoff, the NWS is calling for a forecast of 18 degrees, with winds gusting to around 14 mph, producing a wind chill of 4 degrees. While the NWS is calling for a slight chance of snow showers between noon and 1:00 p.m., the weather should clear well before kickoff.

Temperatures will gradually drop as the game plays on, with the NWS calling for a forecast of 14 degrees, wind gusts of up to 11 mph and a wind chill of 1 degree at 7 p.m. Snow showers are expected to return, though they are projected to begin at around 10 p.m.

Southern Erie County, also known as the Southtowns, remains under a winter storm watch, which is scheduled to continue through Thursday evening, per the NWS.

How much snow fell before the Bills-Steelers game?

The storm dumped between eight to 17 inches of lake-effect snow in the region, depending on location. The Bills have been posting updates to their social media accounts, with images and videos of the conditions.

The franchise has also leaned on volunteer snow shovelers to help clear the field and stands of Highmark Stadium, while crews worked on clearing parking lots. The region's travel ban was lifted Sunday evening only for those who were volunteering to shovel at the stadium. Volunteers worked overnight, and as of Monday morning, the franchise was still calling for shovelers to help prepare the stadium for the game.

Because of wind gusts and snow drifts, and because the snow needs to be relocated, parking spaces for the Bills-Steelers game will be limited and the Bills are offering complimentary shuttle bus services to assist fans.

"It would have been absolutely impossible (to play). We could barely see the next row down from us. And unfortunately, it’s still that way," volunteer snow shoveler Logan Eschrich told the Associated Press Sunday afternoon. "We made progress shoveling, but not much at all."

Eschrich said bleacher seats were entirely buried by snow, adding that it was treacherous to travel the mere two blocks to the stadium from where he camped overnight.

How often do the Bills play in the snow?

Given Buffalo's location on the eastern tip of Lake Erie, arguably no NFL team has had to manage snowfall more than the Bills.

In November 2014, a winter storm unleashed almost seven feet of snow in Orchard Park, over a four-day span. Several of the team's players then had to be transported from their homes by snowmobile because conditions had made roads impassable. The NFL opted to relocate Buffalo's Week 12 game that year against the Jets — originally scheduled for Sunday, November 23 in Orchard Park — to Ford Field in Detroit on Monday, November 24. The Bills would go on to win, 38-3.

Eight years later, the NFL moved another Bills game to Detroit's Ford Field, this time in a preventative measure. The Bills played the Browns there on November 17, 2022, an eventual 31-23 Bills victory, because forecasts were projecting a winter storm to lash the region.

In a December 7, 2021 game against the Patriots, it wasn't the snow as much as it was wind. Gusts of up to 40 mph whipped the area that day, as intermittent snow showers fell, leading to Patriots quarterback Mac Jones attempting just three passes. The Bills lost 14-10.

Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bills vs Steelers weather forecast: How much snow expected in Buffalo?