Gov. Andrew Cuomo is fighting back against mounting criticism over the state’s response to the deadly upstate snowstorm — by blaming the weatherman.
“No one had an idea that it was going to be that much snow that fast,” Cuomo said during a tour of the Buffalo region late Saturday, after more than 7 feet of snow and 13 deaths in the area.
“Snow coming down at the rate of about 5 inches an hour. No one had an idea,” he said. “The weather service was off.”
The governor went so far as to announce the state is already investing $15 million worth of Hurricane Sandy aid money to create its own weather service.
“We want even more information and even more data, and the only way to get it then is to put up more stations that have more sensors,’’ Cuomo said.
But weather experts quickly buried the governor under an avalanche of data that showed they were right on target.
On Sunday, National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro unleashed records of the week’s forecasts that showed his agency’s predictions were “timely and accurate.”
Forecasters predicted Monday that Erie County could receive 3 feet of snow — then doubled the amount in their forecast by Tuesday morning. They estimated 3 to 5 inches would fall per hour, for a total of 5 to 6 feet Tuesday — plus an additional fall of up to 2 feet Wednesday night through Thursday.
But state officials only planned for 3 feet of snow from a briefing they received Monday and got a late start plowing out the region.
While Cuomo tried to take a page from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — who infamously blamed weather reports after failing to shut city schools during a mammoth snowstorm in February — Buffalo weatherman Kevin O’Neill called the forecasters “brilliant.”
“Shame on Cuomo for throwing @NWS under the plow. We don’t tell you how to run a state. Don’t tell us how to forecast,” he thundered on Twitter.
And, once again, “Today” show weatherman Al Roker got heated over a weather-related snafu.
“Seems like @NYGovCuomo folks didn’t look at @NWSBUFFALO forecasts on Monday for 2’-3’ of snow with significant additional amounts possible,” he tweeted Sunday.
“One hopes that @NYGovCuomo folks just forgot to tell him. Or maybe they were playing #cya but @NWSBUFFALO did their jobs.”
In February, Roker predicted de Blasio would be a “one-term” mayor for blaming his mishandling of school closings on the forecast.
Criticism over Cuomo’s handling of the storm has snowballed over the course of the week.
Cuomo shut down the state thruway Wednesday morning — and then blamed motorists who had already been on it for getting stuck.
“Whatever you do, this is going to be an imperfect situation,” Cuomo conceded. “Once you’ve closed the road, there are still going to be cars on it.”