General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLake Effect snow?......how are y'all holding up under it?
"When conditions are just right, the snow rates during some events are the greatest ever measured on record from anywhere in the world."
says my weather page.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)I wasn't familiar with the term Lake Effect Snow until about 8 years ago...I was 57 then...
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I haven't paid much attention to snow, since thankfully we have it very very rarely here in SW Ala.
Cental and North Alabama gets snow occasionally.
So this "Lake Effect" stuff that popped up in the weather page warning compelled me to ask about our DU community who live up there.
Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)OneTenthofOnePercent
(6,268 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)One of my favorite photos ever - a Lake Effect squall moving in on Buffalo, NY:
Mark Helperin, author of Winter's Tale, went to school at Syracuse University. I suspect that's where he got his inspiration for the cloud wall.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Thunderstorms, yes..but never a wall of what looks like a white sandstorm.
Very impressive.
Esp. from a long long distance!
cali
(114,904 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)whistler162
(11,155 posts)snow in Camilus and there was about 2 inches in the Groton/Moravia area. So :}
Of course if the winds turn we could get it down the rt. 81 pipeline or across the Thruway pipeline. Have fun.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)Two foot plus out there, and it's still snowing!
apnu
(8,759 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,932 posts)I'll take these 'snowmageddons that never were' in Central NJ thank you very much!
Which I love - because we get six inches over 24 hours here - and everyone else stays home - and I get the roads to myself.
mikeytherat
(6,829 posts)I love snow, but I don't miss those winters.
mikey_the_rat
IADEMO2004
(5,566 posts)mikeytherat
(6,829 posts)And the old family cabin on Birch Island is no more, apparently.
mikey_the_rat
IADEMO2004
(5,566 posts)Earth_First
(14,910 posts)It's as sunny (albiet COOOOLD) winter day as any.
NWS has been calling for 6-12 during the day today, 6-12 tonight; and 2-4 tommorrow...
Time will tell.
The bands have been set up in their traditional areas right along the lake all day, I bet they are getting pounded. Forty miles south; and it's a bright sunny winter day.
We will see, if we get that NNW wind at 25-30 tonight as predicted; we will be buried by morning.
Cirque du So-What
(25,999 posts)It wasn't too horrifying, although I've seen much worse lake-effect snow than I encountered yesterday. In worst cases, it can be absolutely immobilizing to even the heaviest of snow-moving equipment, and that's scary.
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)Could have been worse. A truck jack knifed and that saved the rest of us who were downhill from that guy. His truck acted as kind of a barrier.
longship
(40,416 posts)For lake effect snow there has to be wind off the lake. (Here in Michigan, we know about lakes, and lake effects.) Current wind is less than ten mph, not nearly enough for lake effect.
I received two weather alerts early today, but both were for east MI, Detroit area.
It is calm here. No lake effects.
We've received only traces of snow this winter, never more than an inch at a time. It is very, very dry here.
I live in the midst of the Manistee National Forest. Normally I am waste deep in snow, or more, at this time. Last night, the temp dipped below zero for the first time this winter, just barely -- I remember -20F on multiple occasions here. I also remember more than a foot of snow in a day, many times.
Neither happened last year, and this year looks to be even less cold and snowy. Forecasted high for next Monday is above freezing. Most unusual.
No lake effect yet here this winter.
But I would check Buffalo, NY before I'd make any conclusions. They are pretty much the capital of lake effect snow.
R&K
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)Not too bad but the roads are slippery and drivers are in the ditch, or at least those who forgot how to drive with care. This is 1/22-usually this stuff comes in late Nov. and Dec. Pretty cold, kids had to stay home from school today-too cold at the bus stops.
Global warming folks.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Yep..that is what the weather page pointed out, saying something about increased water vapor in the air due to ice melting.
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)(when its really cold there is less water vapor in the air) largely because the lake is broad beemed at the lower end. So counties higher up in the State experience less lake effect snow. When the temp's, wind are just right, W. Michigan can really get dumped on. But not this year.
With the heat from last summer and the much lower than average rain/snowfall-its going to be a very dry summer unless something changes.
Editing to add that since the lake is not frozen over this year=more opportunities for lake effect. But its been a very mild winter this year.
erinlough
(2,176 posts)We have 3 inches of snow, but its still snowing. Lots of wind in the past few days, but the temps are 10 or less. A town 4 miles away has almost no snow, that's lake effect.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)I expected to change my jeans because they'd be wet to the knees- I didn't expect to change them because they were covered with snow to the seat! Now I am short (5'2" , but the snow was over my thighs except where it was up to my hips!
"I'm from Fulton, we laugh at your snow!" ©
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)but most of us who get lake effect are in places that are pretty well prepared for such. It takes epic amounts to really cause serious trouble and I can say that the pinky area of the mitten of Michigan isn't there yet. We've got REALLY cold temps though!
Low of -5 tonight with 100 % chance of snow. What we wake up to tomorrow could be epic. Those crazy lakes, never know what they'll do. Up til recently, it hasn't been terribly cold so the lakes are not frozen so lots of water to be accessed for mother nature's snow machine. We'll see.
Julie
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)The further West I got the worse it got except...
Pennsylvania once yet again didn't look at the forecast.
NY Thruway: At the very worst, a little bit of wind-blown snow.
I-90 in PA: As soon as I crossed the state line, totally covered with packed snow, so you know that road crews hadn't been out at all as traffic packed whatever snow that was falling into a white sheet.
And now they're trying to fix it.
Too late.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)there still isn't even a trace of snow there. I'm 30 miles north with over 2' and counting!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I had not thought to do that.
I can sit in my chair, and wander all over the highways of different states, and shiver at the snow I would be seeing, with out getting my feet cold.
whistler162
(11,155 posts)I am working in Union Springs on Wednesday. A Network Administrator I have worked with drives from Oswego to Port Byron everyday, maybe not today. He used to drive from Oswego to Moravia in Tompkins county, we work for BOCES as IT support in school districts.