Blast of snow, cold air this weekend

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Regional Expert Brandon Buckingham assesses the upcoming lake-effect snow this weekend.

Transcript

00:00interesting time of year here is there's so many different types of weather we can still get

00:03throughout the month of November and we've seen it all and starting to see a new type of weather

00:07kick up once the cold air comes you open up a whole box of problems near the Great Lakes let's

00:13take you out to what they call the Sioux up in Michigan right now Sioux St. Marie where all is

00:19quiet now a little skiff of snow on the ground there already it looks like a beach it looks like

00:23white sand how about that wow that looks great all right joining me right now is actually with

00:29a regional expert Branding Buckingham who has spent a lot of time in the great state of Michigan

00:36one of the meccas for lake effect snow and of course Brandon this is the time of the year we

00:41start talking about lake effect snow let's go over the process because it's a fascinating process

00:48that all begins with the difference between the water temperatures and colder air and I

00:55understand and we all know that the water temperatures along the lakes right now are a

01:00lot warmer than they usually are yeah absolutely Bernie this time of year we're running ahead of

01:07pace of the record warmest lake temperatures that we've ever seen that actually occurred in 2016 so

01:13this upcoming event will just add extra fuel to these lake effect snow showers and squalls that

01:18we expect over the coming days beyond the Thanksgiving holiday this cold air just

01:23coming on down from Canada riding over those relatively warm lakes creates a very unstable

01:30atmosphere that is just primed to produce lake effect snow now and then then as it moves inland

01:38then it becomes the wind direction that then determines the areas that get hit the hardest

01:47yeah absolutely it comes down to a matter of degrees of that wind direction just very slight

01:52and subtle changes of that wind direction will realign those lake effect snow bands

01:58and really just focus that heaviest snow in very specific locations based on that wind

02:03and it's a little different uh western uh Michigan the lake effect snow in Michigan

02:08than it is across let's say uh Lake Erie and Lake Ontario because it all depends about how those

02:16lakes are oriented and how the wind occurs over them here as we get this cold air as we go through

02:22the week here let's talk about the western lakes first uh Brandon because the way in which Lake

02:29Michigan sits and the way the wind direction occurs you tend to get multiple bands instead

02:35of a single band explain yeah that's right for Lake Michigan for example because the orientation

02:42of the lake is more north south you don't get quite as long of a fetch compared to a Lake Erie

02:47Ontario or in certain cases Lake Superior so you get kind of weaker but more broad coverage of that

02:53lake effect snow versus well depending on the wind direction Lake Superior and again the eastern lakes

03:00you get more of that westerly wind northwesterly wind or in Erie's case southwest winds that can

03:06really just focus those bands in a very tight band very intense snowfall yeah in fact when you

03:13get into those single bands of lake effect snow talk about what conditions are like within those

03:19bands Brandon it can be almost downright scary Bernie with zero visibility snowfall rates at

03:26times two to four inches per hour it's you know nearly impossible to travel through it's really

03:32just best case to sit at home and ride those ones out and Brian talk about why is it the early part

03:38of the year why is it uh November and December that's lake effect snow season and then it shuts

03:45off in the winter it's it's kind of an easy explanation but I think it gets lost sometimes

03:50on why we get the lake effect snow in the early part of winter yeah absolutely so early on in

03:56the season again those temperatures of the lake still well upper 40s for Lake Superior low to

04:01middle 50s for most of the rest of the lakes so that temperature contrast of that cold Canadian

04:06air coming over those lakes you know really on the front end of the season makes them very intense

04:12and as we progress through the winter those temperatures of the lakes kind of decrease and

04:17we do see the ice coverage increase which can lower the intensity and the duration of some of

04:22those lake effect events AccuWeather regional expert banding Buckingham thanks for joining us

04:27here Brandon batten down the hatches here comes lake effect snow and easily Brandon

04:32this is the most widespread and heaviest event we've seen so far this season absolutely yeah

04:38this is the first one of the year I'm just hoping it doesn't catch any travelers after the

04:43Thanksgiving holiday off guard all right uh Brandon Buckingham our regional expert and

04:48expert on lake effect snow thanks for joining us here this morning

Category

Transcript

Recommended