Lake-effect snow could pose serious dangers in the days after Thanksgiving

AccuWeather

Intense snow bands in places like Erie, Buffalo and Watertown may leave drivers stranded in zero-visibility conditions over the post-Thanksgiving weekend.

Transcript

00:00A lake effect snow event will unfold over the Great Lakes region during the extended

00:04holiday weekend.

00:05Some towns are going to be buried in feet of snow, making travel extremely dangerous

00:10if at all possible.

00:11That's right.

00:12And if you're visiting family or traveling around the Great Lakes, you'll need to be

00:15on high alert for whiteouts and other travel troubles.

00:19Bernie Rayno and AccuWeather regional expert Brandon Buckingham, he's the master of the

00:23Great Lakes, have a closer look at what to expect.

00:27I've never been in these lake bands, but obviously coming from Michigan, you have been.

00:35Can you explain to our viewers when you're in that band, that single band of lake snow,

00:41what that's like?

00:42It, honestly, it is one of the most intense weather phenomena I could say that I've ever

00:48been through to go from, you can go from almost sunny skies to zero visibility in a matter

00:53of a mile in cases like this.

00:57And again, you don't want to be caught in this, you don't want to be caught off guard.

01:00And if you are, if you do have to travel, which we do not recommend, please carry the

01:05necessary items with you in case you get stranded.

01:09And you know, we worked on this graphic quite some time, Brandon, and this is our big concern

01:17in these areas, Interstate 81 between Watertown and Syracuse and the New York State Thruway,

01:22let's call it I-90 between Erie and Buffalo.

01:26Yeah, absolutely.

01:27For the residents in the area, you know, they've seen things like this before, but as we go

01:32to that post Thanksgiving travel, many people may not be totally used to driving through

01:37stretches like this, which again, can be very dangerous.

01:41And you want to heed all local warnings, closures, and advisories.

01:44Take those very seriously in the coming days.

01:47AccuWeather regional expert, Brandon Buckingham.

01:50Thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early, Brandon.

01:56AccuWeather was ahead of other known sources in issuing a snowfall accumulation map for

02:01the major lake effect event expected Thanksgiving night right through Tuesday of next week across

02:06the Great Lakes.

02:07In addition, AccuWeather forecasts continue to be more detailed and more accurate in conveying

02:11the amounts and the impacts expected, which can include road closures, whiteout conditions,

02:17and dangerous travel.

02:18Our goal is always to provide you with the most useful weather insights so you can make

02:21the best decisions for you and your family.

02:24Let's take you up into Michigan right now.

02:27We have been dealing with some cold air in many areas here, and you can see lake effect

02:32snow is going to be a big story for us across Michigan and also down into the lake.

02:35So this is going to be more of a west wind scenario here for a lot of us, and even maybe

02:40a little west-southwest at times.

02:42So with a west wind, that deposits the snow in a more focused way in areas south of Buffalo,

02:48near Erie, and up into areas around northern Chautauqua County, and also into the Tokyo

02:53Plateau.

02:55So we're talking about the wind direction, and that can focus the moisture in different

02:57ways in more intense bands for some as opposed to for others.

03:01So as we carry this forward here, you can watch our coastal storm moves offshore, and

03:05then you can see the wind is going to be blowing mainly west to east here across many of these

03:09areas here.

03:10And with the lakes running warm, it may actually allow slightly, we were talking to one of

03:16our meteorologists here, Brett Anderson, he was making the point that there might be a

03:19slight more of an inclination for lower pressure over the lakes because the lake water is so

03:24warm.

03:25That may actually bend the wind just another 5-10 degrees from west to east-northeast in

03:32many areas.

03:33Degrees in terms of on a compass as opposed to temperature degrees.

03:36And that will focus the snow in a big way here into areas around northern Erie County

03:41of Pennsylvania, so areas around Harbor Creek and up into especially the community of northeast

03:45at Wattsburg, we'll see a lot of that.

03:47Up into Chautauqua County, northwestern Cattaraugus County, near Perrysburg, New York, and into

03:52the Buffalo Southtown, seeing quite a bit.

03:54Also, the area south of Watertown, into the area around the Tokyo Plateau, we're going

03:59to get hit hard off the Georgian Bay, big time fetch there, look at all that mileage

04:04of cold air crossing the warm lakes here.

04:07Sault Ste.

04:08Marie, you had about 10 inches of snow over the past few days, you're going to see 2-3

04:11feet on top of that.

04:13And again, a very hard hit for some, we're very concerned about I-79, I-86, I-90, the

04:19New York Thruway is going to be a mess there, specifically in areas between Erie and Buffalo,

04:23so places near, say, Ripley, Dunkirk, Westfield, very problematic here, road closures likely

04:30in some areas, there could be multi-vehicle pileups, motorists stranded, and it's going

04:34to be very cold out there, so be aware of that.

04:37And in the north-central U.S. beyond that, chilly weather for many of us, here's a quick

04:41look at your Thanksgiving forecast for the north-central U.S., we have some rain showers

04:45around Cincinnati, and we're just cold up there in Minneapolis, Damien, beyond the lake

04:49effect issues.

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