Incredible lake-effect snow has verified across the eastern shores of the lakes Erie and Ontario this weekend, some areas across the Tug Hill Plateau received even more than 50 inches (4 feet or 120 cm) of snow in around 48 hours period. Below are details with satellite imagery as well as numerous reports from the infected cities.
Note: Lake-effect snow develops when a very cold air mass (usually during the Polar / Arctic outbreaks) moves across the warmer lake (or sea, e.g. Black Sea, Adriatic sea, or Baltic Sea in Europe) water. The layers of air closer to the lake surface are heated up by the warm lake water, picking up moisture/water vapor from the lake and rises up through the colder air advection above. This results in convective squalls and bands of heavy snow. Snow is then deposited on the leeward (downwind) side of the lakes (seas) shores.
Convective cloud streets (lake-effect snow bands) were perfectly seen from the satellite during the peak time of the event, Friday, Feb 28th. The most defined areas are marked on the map, eastbound of the lakes Michigan, Erie and Ontario:
A day after, we could see a lot of deep snow coverage over the same areas, Feb 29th:
Snow totals have reached more than 50 inches (4 ft / 125 cm) eastbound of lake Ontario, across the area southeast of Watertown – precisely the Tug Hill Plateau.
Impressive #snow snow totals. These places are climatologically favored for snow. Some spots get over 20 feet in an average season. As I plotted my maps I noticed the population mostly stays away. #LakeEffect pic.twitter.com/8dvv2jjubh
— Geoff Fox (@geofffox) March 1, 2020
Check out some of the highest snow totals from the lake effect event the last few days. Carthage got more than half of #ROC's total snow so far this season, in about 36 hours! The power of #LakeEffectSnow pic.twitter.com/EErrv6vYgn
— news10nbc (@news10nbc) February 29, 2020
Lake-effect snow in full flight the last couple of days across western New York #nywx pic.twitter.com/BKl4FxmvZ4
— Greg Postel (@GregPostel) February 29, 2020
Reports of huge amounts of snow accumulated from the Tug Hill Plateau – town Copenhagen wast of the city Watertown.
#LakeEffect is finishing its final push through the area. Hard to get accurate #totals but seems to be anywhere between 20" and 36" inches depending on where you measure. We will likely see totals on top of #tughill well over 40" #snow #les #storm #snowstorm #blizzard pic.twitter.com/reSDaPQC8z
— Jordan zehr (@NNYstorm) February 29, 2020
#LakeEffect has finally relented here on #tughill the #Blizzard left has much as 48" of #snow in many locations east of #lakeontario .This video was recorded in the village of #Copenhagen. #NewyorkBlizzard #Les pic.twitter.com/FmTI44DgSS
— Jordan zehr (@NNYstorm) February 29, 2020
– Snow piled up high here in #Watertown #NewYork making for some treacherous travel…#NYWX
#TugHill #LakeEffectSnow #LakeEffect #Snow #Blizzard #NYWX #Winter #WinterStorm pic.twitter.com/GGfBgsZOcx— WeatherGoingWILD (@WeatherGoinWILD) February 28, 2020
Satellite animations of the maintaining convective cloud streets producing heavy snowfall on the east-southeast sides of the lakes. A wider view of the water vapor satellite indicates a long dry slot wrapping around the low in Quebec which was powering the event. See also a spectacular visualization of the lake-effect snow trajectory:
Here's a close-up mesoscale view of the clouds over #LakeOntario via #GOESEast. (Band 2) pic.twitter.com/s3DQiJzCOX
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) February 27, 2020
#LakeEffect snow is impacting the #GreatLakes Region today with the fetch on #LakeOntario causing #blizzard conditions for #NYwx! Wind flow is outlined in #GOESEast imagery via a long dry slot wrapping around the low in Quebec which us powering the event. https://t.co/Ndax2pPy7v pic.twitter.com/qE5hKul3s1
— UW-Madison CIMSS (@UWCIMSS) February 28, 2020
This is the #GOES16 multispectral RGB composite "Day Cloud Phase Distinction" imagery from early Friday. Notice how the clouds change from mostly water-based over Lake Ontario to glaciating as they approach the shoreline.#LakeEffect pic.twitter.com/tsv7MZmGDS
— Divergent Weather (@DivergentWx) February 29, 2020
#LakeEffect snow trajectory ❄️ pic.twitter.com/1SrnwoLkL8
— Stu Ostro (@StuOstro) February 29, 2020
The #SnowSquall band (#LakeEffect and otherwise) location/orientation evolve as a lobe of the vertically stacked low pivots, and the radar aligns well with the 700 millibar vorticity field #Meteorology pic.twitter.com/lOPDVaRNcP
— Stu Ostro (@StuOstro) February 29, 2020
Here are various reports during the heavy snowfall (LES) event:
#LakeEffect white out: watch these vehicles drive into the white abyss as a #snow squall dumps on western NY.
We'll see you live on the @weatherchannel 3-8 PM ET.#NYwx@NWSBUFFALO pic.twitter.com/7b4V55X5lS— Mike Seidel (@mikeseidel) February 28, 2020
Northbound on interstate 81 yesterday with @WeatherGoinWILD behind the wheel. Extremely poor visibility. #LakeEffect #LakeEffectSnow pic.twitter.com/RlDdNbFKC2
— Nicholas Isabella (@NycStormChaser) February 29, 2020
Snowing again pic.twitter.com/MHQE3hseGX
— Mark Sudduth (@hurricanetrack) February 29, 2020
Downtown Watertown currently looks like a snow globe ☃️☃️☃️ pic.twitter.com/v3IzzCv4MO
— sydney schaefer (@sydneydschaefer) February 28, 2020
High winds across the lakes also produce high waves, causing the water spray to develop thick ice layers on the shores.
Strong, strong winds along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario last night near the Oswego lighthouse #WinterStorm #LakeOntario #LakeEffectSnow #cnyweather pic.twitter.com/tzS80bvU0M
— Lauren Long (@longphoto) February 28, 2020
The 80 MPH Gust: Wind gust recorded at 80 MPH at 8:54am along Lake Ontario at the Oswego Coast Guard station. Here are 40 raw seconds captured in that timeframe. Hurricane force on this Great Lake today. @spann @JimCantore @StormHour @JamesGilbertWX @TomNiziol @wxbywilliams pic.twitter.com/saxiDHlaNW
— John Kucko (@john_kucko) February 26, 2019
Ice formations after large waves crashed onshore in Oswego, NY. #nywx #lakeeffect pic.twitter.com/RmrirT30mU
— Tommy Cerra (@TCWeather) February 29, 2020
The Beach Life: 48 hours of battering wind off Lake Erie create an otherworldly scene south of Buffalo (Hamburg). @news4buffalo @News_8 @EricSnitilWx @wnywxguy @JamesGilbertWX @spann @JimCantore @StephanieAbrams @wxbywilliams @StormHour @GarofaloWX #DigitalFirst #NexstarNation pic.twitter.com/fUBrkJ6OTN
— John Kucko (@john_kucko) February 29, 2020
See the forecast discussion of how this event unfolded:
An impressive narrow (10 miles across) snow band extending 150+ miles across north-central Kansas