Im not one of those who jumps on facebook the minute a snowflake is spotted, nor do I toss out inane comments about global warming during the first cold snap. Weather happens. But ,THIS is WILD! Incredible lake effect snow. WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED? Lake effect snow storms (or squalls) happen when all the ingredients are lined up perfectly all at the same time. First of all you need cold winds blowing over a large body of water. The temperature of that water must be warmer than the air above it. The warm air rises, cools, condenses and creates clouds in upper levels of the atmosphere. And as clouds are wont to do -- they produce precipitation that freeze into snowflakes in that cold air. Back to the winds - that are just starting to push those clouds over the surface of the lake - and as that happens those clouds are gathering more moisture as they move. But when those clouds reach land, they lose their connection to the moisture (the lake) and start to lose their energy. Now dont forget that there is an incredible amount of moisture in those clouds, and as soon as they make landfall, they lose their energy, and dump, dump, dump all that snow! One more thing: In your run-of-the-mill lake effect snow storm, you need about 100km of open lake water for the winds to blow those moisture-laden clouds. In this instance, the runway was almost the entire length of Lake Erie, thats about 350km of open water straight to Buffalo. So, yes thats three and a half times the minimum distance - meaning three and a half times the amount of snow usually seen in a lake effect snow storm. Can you dig it? buzzfeed/mjs538/the-most-terrifying-pictures-of-the-snow-in-buffalo
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 00:31:04 +0000
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