Crushing Records

Christmas of 2017 will officially go down as a white Christmas for Allentown and many other nearby locations.  Further south, not quite as lucky.  Further north and you were dealing with a blizzard.  Further northwest and, well, the lake effect machine can be a beast.  If you live along Lake Erie or Ontario you know what you are getting into.

These two lakes tend to draw the most discussion or interest and for good reason.  For starters there are many large cities impacted by lake events such as Cleveland (suburbs), Erie, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.  All these cities are home to over 100,000 people.  Most of these areas average somewhere between 90 and 120 inches of snow a year which is far greater than any other major city.  Erie and Ontario can also be distinguished by the west to east length of the lake.  With cold westerly winds driving across that type of distance, bands can set up for hours or even days over the same locations.  None of this is news.  This is an every year event and in some cases an all winter event.  I tend to not spend much time on lake effect unless something unusual happens.  Something unusual happened.

Hello Erie.  While many spent time yesterday visiting with family, eating too much unhealthy food or trying to rest from a long day, people in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania received a very interesting gift.  Erie broke their one day snowfall record for any day by receiving 34 inches of snow on Christmas.  The city must have been extra nice this year because the snow didn't stop by midnight either.  Over the next six hours they added another 19 inches bringing the total snowfall in 30 hours to 53 inches.  Let me say that once more.  A city of 100,000 people received 53 inches of snow in 30 hours.  That's impressive.  I highlight the population because things like this happen in other areas that are home to hundreds maybe thousands of people.  This is a major city.  Wait there is more.

The city is currently under a Lake Effect Snow Warning through tomorrow afternoon for an additional 1 to 2 feet.  They might catch a break by Thursday before the snow will resume Friday and continue into the weekend.

By the end of the day Erie will either be just under or slightly over 100 inches of snow for the month.  The month.  That is their average for the year.  This isn't even normal for lake effect standards.   

I'll continue to monitor the situation in Erie.  I've included the link from the Weather Channel story which provides more info, video and pictures.  My favorite bit of info is the 13 day snow record was broken by an event that lasted 36 hours.

Take a look.