Erie's infamous winters and lake effect snow

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

That old Christmas carole wasn't written about Erie, but it might have been. Erie is one of the snowiest cities in the continental United States, averaging about 88 inches (more than seven feet!) of snow each year.

Why? It's the lake effect. Here's how it works.

It's well known that land masses warm and cool more quickly than bodies of water. So in late fall and early winter, Lake Erie stays relatively warm while the land in and around Erie cools. That disparity in temperature causes wind to come off the lake and onto the land. The wind picks up moisture from the water, then drops that moisture on the cool land as snow. The same phenomena occurs when a cold front moves over the lake.

It can be difficult to predict the amount of snow from the lake effect. Many times meteorologists predict, say, two or four inches of snow, but the Erie area gets much more. This is not a reflection on the meteorologists' forecasting skills, but on the uncertainly of how much moisture the winds will pick up.

Lake effect snow tends to fall heaviest a few miles from the shoreline. In the Erie area, areas south of Interstate 90 usually get the most lake effect snow. Many people think I-90 is a dividing line, causing most snow to fall south of the road. But of course, it's just coincidental. I-90 is just far enough away from the Lake Erie shore so that the heaviest amounts of snow tend to fall south of it. In most years, Lake Erie freezes over and the lake effect is minimized. Once that occurs snow tends to blanket the area more evenly.

It's not unusual for lake effect snow to bring a foot or more of snow to parts of the Erie area. These events cause major headaches for the region, including widespread school and work closings and many auto accidents. Snow removal crews often have difficulty keeping up with the snow--as fast as they plow it, more snow falls.

The snow, of course, isn't all bad. Just over the state line, near Findley Lake, NY, there is a fine ski resort, Peek'n Peak. Even though the resort has snowmaking equipment, they still of course rely on Mother Nature to do her part in making snow, and most times from mid-November through mid March or later, skiers aren't disappointed.

How much does the lake effect account for the amount of snow Erie gets? Consider this: Chicago and Detroit are at roughly the same latitude as Erie, but those cities average only about 38 and 40 inches of snow, respectively. The difference is those cities aren't on the leeward side of a great lake, as Erie is.

The Erie area isn't the only place where lake effect snow occurs, of course. Cleveland, Buffalo and Syracuse also experience this phenomena.