A period of heavy snow that has smothered portions of the Great Lakes since early last week — stranding Thanksgiving travelers, burying towns in snowdrifts and making for a snowy National Football League game in Buffalo on Sunday night — is expected to continue to some degree throughout the week as quick-moving storm systems glide through the region, bringing stronger winds and colder air.
It’s been an active stretch for winter weather across the region, forecasters in Michigan said Monday. Winter storm alerts, including some warnings, were still in effect Monday afternoon for portions of Southern Ontario in Canada and parts of Michigan, far northern Indiana, northeastern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, and western and northern New York in the United States.
Over the weekend, the normally lively downtown in Erie, Pa., was deserted as fast-falling lake-effect snow trapped residents inside their homes, and motorists along Interstate 90 wound up stranded on two-lane highways. While the busy Thanksgiving travel was mostly over by the start of the week, forecasters said they expected travel to remain treacherous where the heaviest snow bands line up this week.
The snow has been falling, piling up to over five feet over the weekend, in an area known for snowfall, commonly called the “snow belt.” Lake-effect snow occurs when cold winds blow across the unfrozen and warm body of water, like the Great Lakes, causing moisture to rise and fall as snow downwind. This snow belt is on the eastern and southeastern shores of the Great Lakes, including Canada, where lake-effect snow, on average, generates more than 50 percent of the annual snowfall for this region.
This weekend’s lake-effect snow event should start to wind down into Tuesday, but forecasters described it as more of a “regime change than a change in weather conditions.” A storm system called an “Alberta Clipper,” a meteorological name given to winter storms that begin in Alberta and quickly slide through the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States. This transition from just lake-effect snow will be a weather system that could impact a larger part of the region, including the higher elevations of the Northeast.
“Clippers” are common during winter and often have lighter snow amounts; however, like this storm, they bring stronger, gustier winds and colder air, potentially the most frigid air of the season so far. While some of the snow amounts could be lighter during this time frame, reduced visibility from blowing snow is possible.
After the clipper moves through Wednesday into Thursday, it will allow an opportunity for the “lake effect snow machine” to get going again, National Weather Service forecasters in Cleveland said.
By Friday, there may be at least some reprieve from the active weather for some in the region, but another quick-moving storm could threaten the region again this weekend.
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