Yeah, western NY really gets the lake effect snows and it can be pretty bad. Central New York not so much. We’re on the other side of Syracuse and the only lake is Oneida Lake. We don’t feel much from that.
We are in norhtern Chautauqua county, in the lee of Lake Erie, above the escarpment, so we get loads of lake effect snow. up to about 300 inches a year in the worst years.
But, we are on a hill, do not get any flooding, have wonderful summers and falls, and do not get sick of the snow until March. It stays white, and even in the worst storm, we do not get snowed in, because the mega plows do a great job of clearing it off the highways and byways.
The cities are a different matter. There is no place to put the stuff, and it gets dirty pretty fast. And, getting around all the parked cars on the streets makes plowing very difficult.
Rural upstate NY is a wonderful place. I wish we could divorce “downstate”!