Phil may be right after all, as lake-effect snow falls in northeast USA by Alex Deakin
When Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog, ‘Punxsutawney Phil’, saw his shadow on Groundhog Day last Thursday, it forecast six more weeks of winter. After one of the mildest Januarys on record for many parts of the US and Canada, it now looks like Phil’s forecast may come true this year.
Cold air has finally started making its way back into northeast USA as a more normal winter pattern to the country’s weather returns. A storm over the Great Lakes brought in cold air from Canada and helped to create lake-effect snow in New York State and parts of Pennsylvania on Sunday.
This type of snow is normally common in winter over northeastern US states, and is created when cold dry air picks up moisture as it passes over a large and relatively warmer lake. This moisture forms snow showers, which stream inland downwind of the lake. If the showers are then forced to rise over higher ground, the snowfall is enhanced. Lake-effect snows on the Tug Hill plateau, east of Lake Ontario, frequently set daily records for snowfall in the United States.
Lake-effect snow cloud bands can be extraordinarily persistent, and have been known to cause non-stop snowfall for as long as two days, with amounts that often exceed that of a typical winter storm. On occasions as much as 193 cm (over 6 feet) of snow in 24 hours have been reported. Lake effect snow supplies between 30 and 60% of the annual winter snowfall on the eastern and southern shores of the Great Lakes.
Erie, a Pennsylvanian city on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie, saw nearly 11cm (4 inches) of snow fall in 24 hours up to 6am GMT on Monday, and the westerly winds creating the current spell of lake effect snow are expected to persist right through Tuesday as well. Over 60 cm (2 ft) of snow is forecast for the prone areas downwind of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
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