Lake effect snow

[Joel Wright]

I was just doing some reading on lake effect snow. Many of the readings stated that snowfall rates have been reported as high as 11in per hour in past events!!!! Has anyone ever experienced a rate of snow that high? I cannot imagine what that would be like. A few years ago we had thundersnow with an accumulation rate near 3"/hr. That was crazy enough, visibilities were less than 100 yards. I cannot imagine a snowfall rate nearly FOUR times that!!

 

[Greg Stumpf]

Bear in mind that in these kinds of situations, the snow-to-liquid water ratio is very high, sometimes as much as 50:1 (typical snow is 8:1 to 12:1). So light and fluffy, you can sweep your driveway with a broom (of course, if not extremely deep).

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

snowfall in Michigan

Here's a link to snowfall summary for Michigan after the heavy snow they got yesterday:

http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/mi/public.html

Don't know for sure whether some of the totals were lake effect induced or not. The Weather Channel is all over this story about the lake effect snow this morning.

 

[Robert Dewey]

I have seen 6-8 inches in one hour off of the lake Superior snow belts. The flakes were huge, temperatures were in the upper teens, and you couldn't see more than an arms length in front of you. Those are the situations where it's even dangerous to leave your house on foot. The snow actually drifted up and over one side of the house, which is about 15ft tall... :shock:

That was back in '96 I believe...

 

[Robert Dewey]

I see the cabin up north got 15 inches of snow:

KENTON/PAINT LAKE 0.34 M 15.0 31 M M

When we left a few days after Thanksgiving, the ground was absolutely bare, now there is 31 inches on the ground...