Lake-Effect Snow — Lewis, New York

2025-01-20 to 2025-01-22 · Lewis, New York

Wider weather episode

An arctic airmass over the Lower Great Lakes developed a lake aggregate surface trough at the start of the event, which resulted in the development of a mesolow over the Niagara Frontier late on the night of the 19th. Heavy snow with the mesolow stretched as far east as the Rochester Metro area. A deep mid and upper level trough and re-enforcing cold air continued the favorable conditions for lake effect snow to continue into the middle of the week. 850 hPa temperatures dropping to near -25 degrees Celsius resulted in plenty of instability over the lakes and combined with the passing troughs and west to west-southwest flow, areas east to east-northeast of the lakes received heavy snowfall during this event. Areas east of Lake Erie received over 18 inches of snow, while areas east of Lake Ontario picked up over three feet of snow. This was a more widespread event than the typical lake effect event with many more counties impacted and with warnings in effect compared to normal.

Snowfall amounts for this event include: 41 inches in Hooker, 40.3 inches in Adams, 40 inches in Barnes Corners, 39.2 inches in Henderson Harbor, 27.4 inches in Watertown, 22 inches in Eden, 21 inches in East Aurora, 20.4 inches in Boston, 18.3 inches in Perrysburg, 16.5 inches in Forestville, 16.4 inches in Silver Creek, 14 inches in Kendall, 13.9 inches in Attica, 12.8 inches in Cassadaga, 12.8 inches in Lakeside, 11.6 inches in Newfane, 10.3 inches in Cattaraugus, 10 inches in Orwell, 9 inches in Albion, 9 inches in Pulaski, 9 inches in Rochester, 8.7 inches in Pendleton, 8.3 inches in Brockport and 8 inches in Webster.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1233923. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.