Lake-Effect Snow — Southern Erie, New York

2014-11-19 to 2014-11-20 · Southern Erie, New York

Wider weather episode

Lake effect snow developed over Eastern Lake Erie and Southern Ontario Wednesday (19) evening on a southwest flow. Cloud to ground lightning was noted near Long Point near the onset of the activity. As the cold air deepened and low level winds veered, the lake band pivoted east and aligned itself with Lake Erie, allowing it to take full advantage of heat and moisture fluxes from the full fetch of the lake. The somewhat cellular band intensified into a solid plume of moderate to heavy lake snow, producing more thundersnow in the Buffalo area. The band temporarily settled south to the Chautauqua County lake shore to the Buffalo Southtowns to Southern Genesee County by midnight'very close to the where the epic lake snow storm took place 24 to 48 hours earlier. During overnight, the band drifted back north to the Buffalo metropolitan area with enhanced cells producing another round of thunder snow. The snow band oscillated back and forth for the remainder of the event, drifting south by daybreak across Southern Erie County and extending across Wyoming County before arching back to the north to the immediate southern suburbs of Buffalo for a couple hours Thursday afternoon.

The lake band was very well organized with observed snowfall rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour. This enabled the event to produce snowfall amounts of up to 4 feet across parts of Southern Erie County and Wyoming County. The moderate to heavy snow extended east across Livingston and Ontario counties as well with accumulations approaching a foot over northern Livingston County. After the passage of a couple of reinforcing secondary cold fronts late Thursday afternoon and evening, the low level flow veered to the northwest, and this pushed the lake snows into the southern tier where increased shear and a shorter fetch broke the solid plume of snow into multiple bands. Snowfall amounts across the Western Southern Tier generally ranged from 6 to 12 inches with slightly higher amounts over the hilltops.

Millions of dollars were lost as area dairy farmers were unable to transport milk for processing.

Specific snowfall reports included: Wales 49', Marilla 48', Wyoming 40', Boston 38', Colden and Eden 36', Cowlesville 32', Perrysburg 16', Fredonia 14', Jamestown 12' and Livonia 10'.

This event combined with the lake effect snow event following the next couple of days qualified the area for a Federal Disaster Declaration.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 550177. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.