Folks near Buffalo, NY on the eastern side of Lake Erie are very used to seeing lots of lake-effect snow events during the winter, which are notorious for dumping LOTS of snow in very localized locations... but even for them, yesterdays lake effect snow event was off the charts (This video is a loop from 12 AM Tuesday to 8 AM Wednesday). Arctic air flows from WSW to ENE over the warmer water of Lake Erie basically parallel to the orientation of the lake, creating an opportunity to pick up copious amounts of moisture and instability. The convergence of air over the lake from the rising warmer air from the lake then works to intensifies the snow band as it tracks ENE. This created VERY heavy snowfall rates of 3-5 per hour, and with little change in direction in the wind flow for a good 24 hours, the snow just continued to drop over the same location over and over and over until the wind direction finally changed. This also creates HUGE snow total differences over very short distances... many areas on the north side of Buffalo picked up 4-6 inches of snow on average, while areas on the south side of Buffalo picked up 5-6 FEET of snow... thats right, I said FEET. This lake effect event has ended, but no rest for the weary up there... it looks like ANOTHER lake effect snow event is setting up for Buffalo within the next few days!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 18:15:39 +0000