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Upstate/Eastern New York- Jan 5-7 Lake Effect Snow Event


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5 minutes ago, vortmax said:

These bands seem to be heavier away from the lakes. Is this just an orographic thing?

Frictional effects causing some lift I believe...sort of like a pileup, airmass gets backed up slightly and lifted and wrings out precip as it moves from lake to over land... At least that's my crude understanding. 

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5 minutes ago, Syrmax said:

Frictional effects causing some lift I believe...sort of like a pileup, airmass gets backed up slightly and lifted and wrings out precip as it moves from lake to over land... At least that's my crude understanding. 

Ah yes, frictional convergence based on the coastline shape and then orographic lifting. We've been getting squat in western Wayne cty...bummed. Can't even get the grass fully covered! My kids are NOT happy...lol

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40 minutes ago, sferic said:

Heavy Snow  in Cicero (AT least by Long Island Standards) I'd say an inch an hour; gorgeous

 

Please stay this way until Midnight!

@TugHillMatt @CNY_WX Love it !

So excited for you as you experience a lake effect event for the first time.  The size of the dendrites in these bands are one of my favorite things. Still pounding here on the NW side.

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5 minutes ago, TugHillMatt said:

So excited for you as you experience a lake effect event for the first time.  The size of the dendrites in these bands are one of my favorite things. Still pounding here on the NW side.

This is your second good one. I knew someone would do ok on the backside.  Congratulations! Enjoy it. 

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24 minutes ago, Blue Moon said:

What do you figure the ratios are right now? It's been in the 20s in Oswego today, and it's currently 21. If 15:1 is reasonable then it's safe to say our QPF for the past 24 hours is around 0.07 in. 

I’ll let you know the LE and ratio in the morning when I take my measurement. 

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48 minutes ago, Blue Moon said:

What do you figure the ratios are right now? It's been in the 20s in Oswego today, and it's currently 21. If 15:1 is reasonable then it's safe to say our QPF for the past 24 hours is around 0.07 in. 

It's quite common for lake effect, especially at these temps, to be 20:1. Welcome to the land of lake effect FLUFF!

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45 minutes ago, rochesterdave said:

This is your second good one. I knew someone would do ok on the backside.  Congratulations! Enjoy it. 

Thanks! With Sunday hopefully being a very short warmup, I think this one will stay around much longer than the good one from before Thanksgiving. I didn't think we would get more with this event, but it's looking like it. Definitely an overperformer if one goes by NWS forecast. @LakeEffectKingdid a great job with this one!

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2 minutes ago, sferic said:

Hey guys,

 

Still snowing lightly in Cicero at 8:40PM even though radarscope pro and other radar apps show nada.

 

Is there a radar product that you can recommend that can pick up precip in situations like this?

 

Thanks!

Radarscope is probably one of the best options for that. It's something you'll just have to accept about living here. When the temps get into the teens like this, precip. often doesn't show up on the radars. They have trouble picking up on the limited moisture in the cold air (that is still enough to produce for us.) Also, not sure if you saw my post earlier, we're on the fringes of the 3 different radar areas in Upstate NY, so sometimes it appears as a black hole of no precip. no matter what radar you look at.

Still enjoying watching the flakes fall here as well.

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Here is a good explanation..

Lake effect snow clouds are relatively low in the atmosphere compared to rain and especially thunderstorms. Lake effect snow cloud tops are usually no higher than 10,000 feet. Compare this to a thunderstorm that can be a tall as 50,000 feet.

Weather radar starts out as a signal transmitted from the radar dome near the ground. The radar beam is shot out of the radar at a slight upward angle. This has to happen so the beam can radiate out away from the dome and so the return signals do not hit the ground at the radar site. If that happened there would be no radar image as you are used to seeing.

As the radar beam travels up and out at an angle, the radar beam travels higher in the atmosphere. By the time the radar beam is 50 miles from the radar site, the radar beam is 5,000 feet up in the air. At 90 miles out the radar beam is 10,000 feet high.

The low nature of lake effect snow means the weather radar beam can shoot right over the top of the lake effect snow and not “see it.” That is why you will often look out the window in the U.P. of Michigan and it is snowing hard. Then you look at a radar image, and it doesn’t show snow at your location. Snow chasers will watch the radar and never see the snow on the screen but they are surprised to learn how much fresh snow actually did fall.

https://www.snowtechmagazine.com/why-does-lake-effect-snow-not-show-up-on-the-radar/

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15 minutes ago, TugHillMatt said:

Radarscope is probably one of the best options for that. It's something you'll just have to accept about living here. When the temps get into the teens like this, precip. often doesn't show up on the radars. They have trouble picking up on the limited moisture in the cold air (that is still enough to produce for us.) Also, not sure if you saw my post earlier, we're on the fringes of the 3 different radar areas in Upstate NY, so sometimes it appears as a black hole of no precip. no matter what radar you look at.

Still enjoying watching the flakes fall here as well.

Your posts are great , Matt

 

I'm slowly acclimating and learning the meteorological nuances that are specific to this part of the state

 

What is you guess on high temps on Tuesday? Do you think we can stay in the single digits?

I know this is not the Adirondacks or Southern Tier but have there been days where temps in our area don't make it above zero?

 

Thanks again

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