Lake-Effect Snow in Northern Cayuga, New York

A localized band of heavy lake effect snow developed in northern and central Oswego County during the evening of February 7, then drifted a little south overnight with the heaviest snow focusing on the central portion of the county. The lake effect snow also impacted the far northern end of Cayuga County. This was an event with a strong land breeze component that forced an east-west band of strong convergence just off the southern shore of Lake Ontario. The eastern extension of this band clipped far northern Cayuga and west-central Oswego counties as the shoreline starts to curve northward in that area. Thermodynamic profiles were strongly supportive of large dendrites with a favorable layer of dendritic growth beneath the inversion which resulted in rapid accumulation of snow even with low liquid water content within the snow. Selected snow totals included 12 inches in New Haven and 9.5 inches in Mexico.