Blizzard — Northern St. Lawrence, New York

2022-12-23 to 2022-12-25 · Northern St. Lawrence, New York

Event narrative

Snow and Travel Emergencies were declared for St. Lawrence county with northern St. Lawrence county west of Route 11, closer to Route 37 witnessing blizzard conditions at times with near zero visibilities, sustained winds 20 to 30 mph and frequent gusts in excess of 40 mph. Snowfall totals were 8 to 15+ inches with the higher amounts west of Route 11.

Wider weather episode

A very powerful storm across Ontario (972mb) remained nearly stationary from the evening of December 23rd (Friday) through the morning of December 25th (Sunday). An arctic front associated with this storm moved across Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence valley during the early afternoon hours of December 23rd but the favored unidirectional SW flow across Lake Ontario didn't establish until Friday evening.

Friday evening through early Sunday morning, a very strong southwest flow of 40 to 50 knots across Lake Ontario led to blizzard conditions across southwest St. Lawrence county through Saturday night and near blizzard conditions at times across northern St. Lawrence county, mainly along/west of Route 11. The lake effect band shifted southeast during Sunday morning, bringing heavy lake effect snow to southeastern St. Lawrence county through Sunday evening.

Some of the higher snowfall totals included 20 to 38 inches in Gouverneur, 20 inches in Morristown, 16 inches n West Fowler, 15 inches in Star Lake and 10 inches in South Colton with 6 to 15 inches across northern St. Lawrence along/west of Route 11.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1089206. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.