Hello everybody. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your sunny doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel.
When you live in Western New York, December means just one thing. No, not Christmas.
It's time for Lake effect snow! Wooooohoooo! In the map above, you can see that WNY is bordered on the North by Lake Ontario, and on the west by Lake Erie. As long as the Great Lakes are not frozen, cold winds from the north and west blow over them and pick up moisture. When these winds hit land, that moisture gets dropped as snow.
Lake effect snow can be very regional, depending on exactly which way the wind is blowing. Ghostwriter and Dad had to drive to Buffalo today on a business trip. As soon as they hit the Buffalo region, the roads became covered with slush and snow. Here's a picture from inside the building where they had to go:
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| Everything covered with snow! |
The wind was blowing directly west off Lake Erie, so it dumped snow on the Buffalo area and on areas south, but not on us in Rochester, which is more to the north.
Here are a few more pictures from their drive home:
Driving past the University of Buffalo, Dad's alma mater!
More snow and slush.
Here's the NYS Thruway just east of Buffalo. Notice, less snow!
Still driving on the NYS Thruway, east of Batavia. Even less snow. Oh, all that slop and splatter on the windshield is from the road salt that gets put down by the snow plows to help melt the ice. Everybody that drives on wet winter roads in WNY get covered with road salt haze.
Heading home down Middle Road just after exiting the Thruway. No snow at all!
All clear and sunny here! It's plenty cold out, though.
Sunshine is one of those things you really appreciate here in WNY. Even if there is no snow, we still usually have tons of clouds!
Yup! I'm squinting in the sun!
Trying to get those last rays before it sets!
It's only 4 o'clock and it'll be totally dark in an hour!
Maybe the wind will shift and send some of that lake effect snow to us tomorrow!
Ghostwriter says, be careful what you wish for.
Ah, yes that infamous lake effect! Once we drove form Toronto to Washington DC via NY and Pennsylvania...when we got to Erie there was about a foot of new snow on the ground and coming down with zero visibility. YUCK! Therehad not ben any evidnece of snow until just before Eirei, and when we fianlly got through that mess it we had only gone about 20 miles to no snow!! Go figure. And e]we are not exempt from that here either...years ago we had about 2 feet of that lake effect snow, but in town they did not have more than about 6inces...that is 8 miles south of here...and we were snowed in! OMD! Hope that nevfur happens again, though now we have a good snow thrower to deal with it. A Cadet three stager. We need the muscle power of that here a lot in the winter.
ReplyDeleteWe are expecting about a total of maybe 4 inches over the next few days...you guessed it...lake effect streamers!
Dalton has some new things to learn about here in Michigan...being from Texas...but hey, right now they are in the freezer zone!!!
We have our paws crossed that we get some of that snow soon too. It sure is nice seeing the sun once in a while around here isn't it?
ReplyDeleteSunshine in that part of New York in December is a treasure to enjoy. Mom remembers many a dreary ride to Cornell to visit Dad at law school. No sun from November until May:( We hope you get some snow soon too, Chester.
ReplyDeleteWoos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber
I am glad your parents had safe travels and did not come home to snow
ReplyDeleteMom is very glad she doesn't have to drive to work in the snow anymore. We are not supposed to get anymore for a while but it is cold so what we have is not leaving
ReplyDeletehugs
Hazel & Mabel
I's jealous - I's never seen snow!
ReplyDeleteI've nevfur seen snow either, unless you count the stuff they bring down in trucks from the mountains once a year so the mini-peeple who live here can play in it. It isn't like what you snow pups bark about, though. It's hard and wet and cold.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get your snow, Chester, but not as much as in 2014. OMD! We're supposed to get a few flakes today☺ whooooooohooooooooooo
ReplyDeleteLady grew up on Lake Huron, she knows all about the lake effect. Her parents like with the lake as their front yard. One January they were snowed in 18 days! They always prepare with extra food etc.
ReplyDeleteWe know all about lake effect even though we don't get it here. But mom used to live under the Great Lakes. We don't know how anyone can live under a lake though.
ReplyDeleteYour Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
Chester OMCs do we know about Lake Effect Snow. My human uncle lived in Syracuse for 5 winters...not years...winters. MOL
ReplyDeleteWe really enjoyed your graphics though and actually you are a better Weather GEEK than the one one on our TVeeees
Hugs madi your bfff
BRRRRRRR!!! It sure looks chilly too!!
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Jakey, Arty & Rosy
We had some snow last night and earlier this morning and I think it will stay for a few days as well. Since we live so close to the sea, we usually get rain, so this was a nice surprise. Here it will be dark at around 4pm though. Which will be in about half an hour (my time here).
ReplyDeleteHope Ghostwriter's leg is doing better and she is ready for the marathon soon! And am wondering how Oma is doing.
Mara from Norway