Case Study 005"Lake Effect Snow
Case"
4-5 January 1995
Synoptic Overview for COMET Case 005 - Lake Effect Event 4-5 Jan 1995
The following is an observational overview, provided by Dr Greg Byrd, UCAR/COMET, it is an excerpt from a paper presented at the 4th Annual Great Lakes Workshop on Operational Meteorology in Syracuse, New York, 13-15 Sep 95 (see references for more details on this and other lake effect papers).
Following a cold frontal passage about 0000 UTC on 4 January, the WSR -88D at radar Binghamton, NY (BGM) showed the development of an E-W oriented band in the westerly flow of polar air, parallel to the long axis of Lake Ontario.
Between 0300 and 1800 UTC, the snowband generally maintained its E-W orientation, with occasional shifts northward and southward, concentrating the heavier snowfall in northern Oswego a nd Southern Jefferson counties, and adjacent regions in the Tug Hill Plateau to the east.
Between 1800 and 2000 UTC radar revealed the band to be fairly stationary, cente red near Cape Vincent (Fig 2a--18UTC radar) As a mid-tropospheric short wave trough reached the east shore of Lake Ontario region about 2000 UTC, the winds veered t o northwest, and the band drifted southward to near the south shore, by 0000 UTC, and appeared to pivot and establish a more northwest-southeast orientation during th e evening hours of 4 January and the early morning hours of 5 January (Fig 2 b--06UTC 5 Ja nuary). This shifted the axis of heavy snowfall to southern Oswego and northern Onondaga counties from 0000 to 0900 UTC.
After 0700 UTC the snowband again exhibited a northward drift as the steering flow backed to more westerly, and the band showe d a more E-W orientation prior to passing out of radar range in Southern Jefferson County about 1430 UTC. Surface reports from Watertown (ART) continued to indicate snow squ all activity during the afternoon hours of 5 January, and the snowband appears to ha ve dissipated north of ART shortly after 0000 UTC on 6 January. The behavior of th e snowband made precise forecasts of heavy snowfall very difficult. The NW-SE ori ented snowband became quasi-stationary over Fulton, where 26 in (66 cm) of snow fell d uring the overnight hours of 4-5 January, while Oswego, 10 miles to the northwest, was brushed with only 1-3 inches (3-8 cm) during the band's earlier southward migration.