Lake Effect Snow

News: The Great Lakes region in the United States is experiencing extreme winter weather, with heavy lake-effect snow and freezing temperatures.

About Lake Effect snow

• It is a localized weather phenomenon that causes heavy snowfall due to the interaction between cold air and the warmer waters of large lakes.
• This phenomenon is common in areas near the Great Lakes in the United States, especially in states such as New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
• Formation process:
  • Cold air, usually from Canada, flows over the warmer, unfrozen waters of the Great Lakes.
  • The warm water transfers heat and moisture to the lower atmosphere.
  • As the air rises and cools, it forms narrow bands of clouds that produce snowfall at rates of 2–3 inches per hour or more.
•   Contributing factors:
  • Wind direction: Determines the areas that will experience snowfall.
  • Cold air-The intensity of the snow depends on how much colder the air is compared to the lake’s surface temperature.
  • Geography– Physical Features such as the size of the lake, the depth of the water, and the landscape around the lake (like mountains or valleys) can influence how much snow is produced.

About Great Lakes of North America

• The Great Lakes of North America are a group of large, interconnected freshwater lakes.
• They are linked to the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River and to the Mississippi River basin via the Illinois Waterway.
• The five great lakes are—Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
• Four of the Great Lakes are on the border between Canada and the United States of America.The other, Lake Michigan, is completely inside the United States.
• Hydrologically, Michigan and Huron form a single body of water, connected at the Straits of Mackinac.
• The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater lake system in the world by total area and the second-largest by volume, holding 21% of the Earth’s surface freshwater.