Lake-Effect Snow

I have talked about lake-effect snow for the last few days due to the 80+ inches of snow that has fallen on the east side of Lake Ontario. So I thought I would show/tell you a little about what "lake-effect snow" is. Basically there are a couple of main ingredients that you need to produce lake effect snow. The first is a relatively warm body of water. The second ingredient is a source of cold air. Heat and moisture from the warm lakes rises into the "modified" arctic air where it then cools and condenses into snow clouds. The prevailing wind direction through the depth of the snow clouds (third ingredient!!) determines where the snow will occur. The picture above is from the National Weather Service.