Lake Effect Snow Emergency

[George Kourounis]

After several days of lake effect snow squalls. The snow has finally stopped coming down in the Muskoka region of Ontario. I finally was able to make it up into the hardest hit areas and the amount of snow there is staggering! Even with several days of the snow compacting down, it is still the wildest lake effect event I've ever witnessed. This was truly an epic snowfall. Estimates of 4 to 6 FEET of snow were reported in some areas. We may never know for sure exactly how much came down, but it was unreal.

I waited a day for the plow crews to clear the roads, so that I could actually get into these towns. Starting in the small town of MacTier, I then continued on to Bracebridge, then Minden. These were the areas where the snow squalls seemed to lock into place and dump massive amounts of snow for several days in a row. Cars were completely buried, snowbanks reached to the roofs of houses and sidewalks were non-existent in a lot of these communities.

I've uploaded several dozen photos from the event here:

http://www.stormchaser.ca/Snow_Blizzards/2009_12_11_Ubersqualls/2009_12_11_Ubersqualls.html

Here are a few samples:

George Kourounis
www.stormchaser.ca

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

Dude Where is My Car?

Great shots George. I especially liked the first one "Hidden Intersection". Probably can't find it either!

Also loved the clean look of the cars in the parking lots in photo #3 and #4. It brings to my mind that phrase "Dude Where is My Car?""

Perhaps a fitting cutline for the last photo (police car with cones and flare marker) "Road to Nowhere"!!

Thanks for the great coverage!!

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Great shots, George. I loved the foot bridge and river scene.

 

[Jason Foster]

I love lake affect snows. I missed this past weekends event on the NY state side. I am hoping there will be more coming up soon while I'm on break between classes.

George...I saw some of your FB messages. What was the total time you were stuck in your car that day, before they were able to turn you guys around? And yes...looks like you got a totally epic LES event.

 

[George Kourounis]

I was trapped on the highway for just over 2 hours before the provincial police got everyone turned around. There are 2 main highways that run north/south through the region and both were totally shut down. There weren't even any side road options due to all the small lakes in the area.

With the temperature dropping over the next few days, I expect there to be some more strong lake effect snow in the Great Lakes region on Tuesday/Wednesday.

I won't be out on that though. I leave for the Cayman Islands tomorrow.

 

[Chris Hayes]

I love heavy snowfall, but thats ridiculous. lol. Would be awesome to experience though if I didnt have to go anywhere and kept up with it when it comes to shoveling.

 

[Paul Hadfield]

I won't be out on that though. I leave for the Cayman Islands tomorrow.

Talk about going from one extreme to the other... Greatly enjoyed this adventure of yours, cannot wait to see the next!

 

[mpearce]

Wow!!!

Fantastic post!! Fantastic pictures! I love Lake Effect Snow! It's one of my most favorite weather events ever. I live in Cleveland, OH...so I'm no stranger to Lake Effect, and my wife is from Buffalo...and we all know what happens up there. Those are very impressive pictures...and I never really thought about the other Lake effect regions...like the one you posted about being downwind of Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. Very cool.

I'm more familiar with the lake effect hot spots like east Cleveland, NW PA, the Chautauqua ridge, Buffalo southtowns, and the Tug Hill Plateau region. Sorry Michigan! I know I left you guys out...but I've never chased up there.

I did miss this past event unfortunately...but my wife was stuck in Buffalo during it. Hopefully I will have another chance to hit a good chase up into the Tug Hill region as this winter starts winding up. Towns like Montaugue, Hooker, Parrish, and Redfield, NY.

Anyway...loved the pictures. Thanks for posting!

-Mat

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Lake Effect is both a bizarre and extremely dangerous phenomina (winter driving / blizzard conditions). Awesome stuff again, George ... Bet yer glad to go to paradise (Caymans)!

Just about any large body of water can create a lake effect, even Salt Lake in Utah ... But - by far - the Great Lakes is most notorious for this. Any lee side of the lake, with a "fetch" of 50 miles or more, can create an instant blizzard (wind-swept snow showers). It also occurs in HIGH PRESSURE systems building in behind a departing low, where the wind gradient / cold advection (Canada airmass) is maximized. The snow squalls (wind-swept showers) are often no more than 10,000 feet MSL top heights (cold cumulus).

The side of the lake with the greatest precip is the lee side (downwind), and the wind direction is crucial. For example, the Lake Effect is common with Lake Erie from any wind direction, dumping snow in fort Erie with a NW flow. However, a cold WSW flow, blowing LENGTHWISE across the lake, can produce incredible snowfall in places like Buffalo, NY ... A bit inland, with lifting of the poorly mixed boundary layer over small geographic features, such as the Tug Hill Plateau, enhance the snow even more. Despite the low topped nature of the convective cells in the squalls, lightning SOMETIMES can make for interesting thundersnow events, especially in the aformentioned Buffalo area.

I had been on a few of such lake-effect snow "chases" in 2008 when I was in Chicago. The weather in Chicago one morning was -15 F with crystal clear skies and winds 30-40 MPH from the NW.

Sixty miles across the lake (Michigan) in Saint Joseph, Michigan, the SAME frigid Canadian air mass (continental polar high pressure behind a departing "Alberta Clipper" low) had blown across the lake, and made for what I called a "frozen hurricane"!

The 35 degree lake water, with -15 F air passing over it, created a full-on blizzard, with snow accumulating 2-3" per hour, and winds gusting over 50-MPH with freezing spray and waves up to 15 feet on the east side of the lake with temperatures +5 F (warmed a bit by the heat "flux" from the lake).

The lake would be "steaming", because of the relative temperature between +35 F water (as cold as that seems) and the -15 F air is actually a 50 degree F temperature difference (wow) ... That's as if the air temperature was 75 F and the lake being 125 F (steaming hot).

The snow rate gets the worst about 2-3 miles inland because of the frictional drag (boundary layer) against hills, trees, ect in a poorly mixed enviroment as the wind first comes ashore. The marine (lake) layer rises over this slower moving air, enhancing the forcing even more, intensifying the snow, despite lighter winds along the immediate surface.

It was also interesting that once you leave the areas affected by the lake effect bands, you are back in clear blue skies, cold Canadian air, and the sun is out and there is no snow even on the ground! The "blizzard to nothing" line along the side of the lake is like 5 miles or less wide ... Wild stuff!