The storm with a silver lining: Accidents were scant and outages were few if any

Rochester Police on duty Saturday during the storm line up to thank residents for staying off the streets. (Courtesy photo)

Greater Rochester will spend today digging out after about a foot and a half of wind-whipped snow belted the region on Saturday.

Still for all the bluster that preceded Saturday's blizzard that heralded it as a potential record breaker, there was a silver lining: folks stayed off the road.

On Saturday afternoon much of the Saturday crew policing the city's streets took to the parking lot in front of the police station to line up for a photo to thank residents for staying off the roads.

ALL'S QUIET ON THE WEST LEBANON FRONT: During the height of the storm on Saturday there were few tire tracks beside the mailman's. (Rochester Voice photo)

Police noted there there had only been one accident during the storm, and it had been a minor one at that.

"Kudos to our evening shift working under these conditions--always ready to respond to any emergencies when needed," read a post on the department's Facebook page around 5 p.m.

The storm's wind-whipped snow fell sideways throughout the day till around 4 p.m. when it became vertical signaling the wind was slacking.

Winds ramped up again overnight again ushering in frigid conditions and attendant wind chills.

As of 6 a.m. today Rochester's official temperature stood at 8 with a wind chill of -18.

On Saturday winds around Greater Rochester stayed in the 20-30 mph range for the most part, but they were much stronger in Massachusetts, where more than 100,000 lost power.

In Maine CMP was reporting just 2,500 outages Saturday night, while Eversource showed no outages in Greater Rochester.

The only concern left today will be digging out which will be dangerous due to severe wind chills.

Those looking to shovel a driveway or path will need to take frequent breaks inside to warm up to avoid frostbite.

Today's high will be a frigid 19 with wind chills around 1. The deep freeze continues tonight with a low of -1.

Temps will warm up beginning Monday and climb into the mid-40s by Thursday.