These places mentioned are actually northwest of Syracuse.
The lake effect is coming off of Ontario.
The area south of Buffalo where I grew up gets its snow off off Lake Erie. Which right now is almost completely frozen over. It is only on average 30 feet deep.
Lake Ontario and the rest of the Great Lakes never completely freeze over. Just the bays or some shore line.
Therefore, the downwind areas can get hammered all winter long. Syracuse(where I attended college) is the snowiest major city in the country.
I also grew up in the Buffalo area and moved to CNY later when we got married. Lived in the snowbelt in CNY and remember especially the Superstorm of ‘93 in March.
I am mostly familiar with the snow patterns off of Northernish Lake Michigan. Pretty interesting. The worst snowfall is about 10 to 20 miles West of Traverse City. The actual shore of the lake only gets about a third of what gets dumped inland. Inland is the snowmobile capital of the midwest.