Hey Yankees! Question about lake effect snow.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

I thought that lake effect snow was a cloud condensing over a lake and then blowing over on land, and dumping snow.

My dad grew up in NE Ohio (Ashtabula/Geneva) and got tired of shoveling snow, so he went south.

I've seen the storms lately drifting east past Buffalo and I wondered how many miles inland does lake effect snow usually go? Ten or fifteen miles or a lot more?

Thanks from this native Texan (who LIKES snow and sees it sometimes).

[sarge43]

1. If the Great Lakes and Buffalo get nailed, about a day or two later,

we usually do. The gift that keeps on giving.

[Avalux]

2. Lake effect snow can extend fairly far out depending on the weather pattern.

Just this week, Indiana PA got walloped with lake effect snow from Lake Erie - about 110 miles away.

[MorningGlow]

3. I'm about 50 miles inland from Buffalo

and we usually only get the edge of a lake-effect dumping off Erie. Buffalo gets 2 ft., we get 2 inches. But then again, it depends on how powerful the lake-effect snow is. Sometimes we get a lot more from the same weather system that buries Buffalo. Even more fun, sometimes we catch Lake Ontario lake-effect from the north, but then again sometimes we don't.

The thing about being a Western New Yorker is to roll with the punches! There is NO rule about winter weather that doesn't get broken every year. (It's fun, if you like variety--and surprises!)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. speaking of Buffalo.....

They had a record snow there back in '76 or '77, maybe. Some girl who lived in Buffalo said "I can't stand it anymore!" and she got on a plane to Houston and moved there.

It made the Houston paper and was funny because I could just imagine a girl going nuts from dealing with many feet of snow and running off screaming -- literally hopping on a plane.

I guess if you've lived there a long time you might know the actual year. I think it was something like ten or twelve feet of snow.

[A Simple Game]

5. Some info. for you

From the Weather Doctor, http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/lkefsnw3...

The total snowfall for January 1977 in Watertown, New York was 230.6 cm (90.8 in), and Hooker, New York was buried under 378.5 cm (149 in). For the season, total snowfall in Buffalo was a record 506.5 cm (199.4 in) with one period of 53 consecutive days with snowfall, exceeding the previous record by 23 days!. The total could have been higher, but Lake Erie froze completely over by late January. Hooker accumulated the greatest amount of snow every observed in the lee of any of the Great Lakes to that time 1185.9 cm (466.9 in)! These total were accumulated in a winter where most areas of the U.S. Northeast reported a drier than normal winter.

From me.

466.0 inches is almost 39 feet. I live about 60 miles east of Watertown, and remember seeing video on the local news about houses with just the chimneys showing. That year I had a newborn so did not venture toward the area. We did also have an abnormally high snowfall that year but nowhere near what Watertown or Hooker got. Hooker is on Tug Hill directly east of Lake Ontario, Tug Hill gets snow when nowhere else does. Tug Hill is snowmobile heaven in New York.

[MorningGlow]

7. Hey, ASG

Nice area! I've been cross-country skiing around Tug Hill. Yeah, that place gets buried on a regular basis. My aunt and cousins live in Cape Vincent--only been to visit them in the summer, though!

[MorningGlow]

6. Ah yes, the Blizzard of '77

I remember it well! I loved it! Then again, I was in 6th grade and simply enjoyed a brazillion snow days.

What was even more fun was the NON-Blizzard of '78. We were so scarred by what happened the year before, that every time there was the hint of a couple of flakes, the meteorologists would all freak out and we'd batten down the hatches. At one point a huge storm was predicted and all the schools closed a day ahead of time. And then...nuthin'.

[Lady President]

8. Akron is about 40 mi. from Erie

Boy, did we get lake effect snow when I lived there. I thought the lake effect would be 10 miles at the most until I lived in Akron. I was unhappily surprised.

The first time I experienced it went something like this... The alarm goes off about 6:30 to the song "Life in a Northern Town". (Found out later that the song was a bad snow omen.) Turned on the Cleveland news to hear that there was some lake effect snow overnight. Looked at the window-- looked like the freakin' tundra!!

Like everything else, I got used to it. Still live in Ohio, still hate driving in snow.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. I was in Cleveland a few years ago at Xmas.

I think it was 2004, the snow was pretty bad. I wanted to see the Rock and roll Museum. It was pretty deserted.

My dad's brother and sister stayed up there, while he went to Houston and eventually met Mom. And the world hasn't been the same since!!


The aunt and uncle were in Ashtabula and Cuyahoga Falls. I have been to see ancestors' graves in Saybrook, couldn't find the one in Ashtabula. Stow is really pretty.

When I saw Akron I realized what they meant by Rust Belt.

Once we stopped at the courthouse square and park in Paynesville which is really pretty.

I looked at a Civil War monument in Paynesville. Took me a while to realize, "Duh. Same war, other side."

You'll have to excuse me, I'm a native Texan. I'm used to seeing Confederate monuments.
Mom was a Texan.

[bluedigger]

9. If you look at the snowfall patterns, Western Maine.

At least the maps I've seen, and my own experience growing up there.

I drove from Iowa back to Maine once in a blizzard, and I-80 below Cleveland was pretty unbelievable...