Context: Recently residents across western and northern New York are bracing for historic “lake-effect snow,” a storm set to engulf most of the region in a crippling white cloak.
How does lake-effect snow form?
Lake-effect snow forms when dry, freezing air picks up moisture and heat as it moves along warmer lake water.
This causes some of the lake water to evaporate into the air, causing the air to be warmer and wetter.
As the air cools and moves from the lake, it dumps all the moisture on the ground. When it’s cold enough, it results in a massive dumping of snow.
The perfect recipe for lake-effect storms occurs during the late fall and early winter, when there is the largest difference between the warm lake water and the colder air moving over it.
The bigger the temperature difference, the heavier the storm.
Will climate change affect lake-effect snow?
Human-caused climate change has the potential to intensify lake-effect snow events, at least in the short term, according to the NOAA’s U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.
“Ice cover extent and lake water temperatures are the main controls on lake-effect snow that falls downwind of the Great Lakes,”.
The predictions change once lake temperatures rise to a point when much of what now falls as snow will instead fall as rain.”
Lake-effect snow frequently pummels the Great Lakes with feet of wet snow that can trap people in their homes and covers cars.
