Here we go again: More snow for buried N.Y.

BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Upstate New York is about to be inundated, again, with something chilling: Snow. Meteorologists are predicting another three feet on top of the five-feet-plus already burying Buffalo.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling the early-season snow that has blanketed northern New York and killed seven people a "historic event" that's bound to break records. Deaths have also been reported in Maine, Michigan and elsewhere in the U.S., bringing the toll so far linked to the extreme weather to 20.

Some Buffalo-area residents have been trapped in their snow-bound cars or homes for almost two days. Some 140 miles of Interstate 90, the main artery running across New York, remained closed, from Rochester to the New York-Pennsylvania state line.

Towns south of Buffalo were particularly hard hit, with snow levels close to 6.5 feet and temperatures in the teens with a wind chill that makes it feel like it's below zero.

A second monster wave of "lake effect" precipitation was already dumping the first new flakes on northern and western New York late Wednesday. Because wet air blowing in from Lake Erie is significantly warmer than the rest of the region's air, the result again is thunderstorms with snow, not rain — "thundersnow."

The snow is expected to continue falling through Thursday. Cuomo has declared a state of emergency for 10 counties, and the National Guard was called up to help.

"When we say stay home, really, stay home," Cuomo warned residents.