Winter Weather Summary January 20,

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Winter Weather Summary
POSTED: January 20, 2004 6:28 a.m.


Lake Effect and an Alberta Clipper

Lake-effect snow will continue Tuesday into Tuesday night with cold air filtering through the region. Although it is cold, the winds at the surface and the upper levels are not aligned well, and this will lead to multiple bands that will show little or no organization. In fact, if it were not so cold, we would be unlikely to see any snowfall at all. This will taper off from west to east starting at Lake Michigan Tuesday morning as high pressure builds into the area and winds turn to the south. This will continue to fall apart into the evening. Snow will accumulate another 3-6 inches south of lakes Erie and Ontario from northwestern Pennsylvania northeastward to central New York. 1-3 inches of snow will fall outside this area and off Lake Michigan.

High pressure building eastward will quickly give way to a storm moving in from Canada today. This storm is known as an Alberta Clipper since it moves out of Canada and into the northern U.S. Usually these storms produce snow along and just north of the storm track, but in this case the associated frontal boundary will trigger a few snow showers in northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These areas could ahve 1-3 inches of snowfall.

A storm moving through the Southwest will produce snow over the central and southern Rockies. This snow will be fairly light with little dynamic support from the upper levels. This means that just 1-3 inches of snow in the nearby mountains.