Lake-Effect Snow — Oswego, New York

2007-02-02 to 2007-02-12 · Oswego, New York

Wider weather episode

This lake effect event started dramatically on the weekend of February 3-4 in association with a surge of arctic air and then continue all week off Lake Ontario as ripples in the low level circulation shifted winds and kept bands of snow moving up and down off Lake Ontario. Lake Erie was in the process of freezing up all week, so although conditions were favorable only an inch or two fell each day after the initial burst on the opening weekend.

The activity began on Saturday morning (the third) on a southwest flow as winds backed ahead of an arctic front. Several inches fell across metro Buffalo as well as Watertown. The front whipped through later in the day with another burst of snow, then intense lake effect bands set up overnight and lingered all day Sunday across Buffalo's south Towns as well as southern Jefferson and Oswego counties. Over two feet fell over Orchard Park and East Aurora off Lake Erie while east of Lake Ontario, Watertown received over a foot.

The Lake Erie activity pretty much shut down for the rest of the week, although we did get some minor bands meandering north and south and dropping 1 to 3 inches each day.

Off Lake Ontario however, the lake snows continued on Monday and strengthened later in the day. Across central Oswego County Monday night into Tuesday morning many areas picked up 3 feet of snow. The bands then settled south and turned multiple into Wednesday, then refocused over Oswego again Thursday morning, dropped south Friday, came back north Saturday (the tenth) and all the way to Watertown again before settling south one last time early Monday 12th as arctic front dropped south.

The bands never completely broke up or disappeared throughout the week to the lee of Lake Ontario. The Governor of New York declared Oswego and Lewis counties Disaster Areas. President Bush declared a Federal Snow Emergency for these areas. The weight of the snow on buildings posed an added danger with several reports of collapsed buildings.

Some storm snowfall totals included off Lake Erie: East Aurora 42 inches; Orchard Park 36 inches; Boston 26 inches; Warsaw 24 inches; Dunkirk 18 inches; and West Seneca 12 inches. Snowfall totals off Lake Ontario: Redfield 141 inches; Parish 121 inches; North Osceola and Mexico 106 inches; Oswego 84 inches; and Watertown 26 inches.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 17882. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.