Brief, Blinding Snow for Great Lakes, Northeast Highways

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

November 23,2012; 9:31PM,EST

A change in the weather pattern is on the way and will kick off with a blast of cold air and the season's first widespread round of lake-effect snow during the middle part of the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Enough snow can fall in some areas to make roads slippery and bring sudden low visibility for highway travelers.
Motorists around the Great Lakes to the central and northern Appalachians this weekend are advised to be alert for rapidly changing traction conditions and to allow extra stopping distance between vehicles during the snow showers.
For a large percentage of the area, this would be the first snow event of the season. Roads do not yet have a snow-melting residue on them and can get slippery very quickly.

As the cold flow of air sets up over the Great Lakes, blinding, ground-covering squalls can reach over 100 miles away into the ridges and valleys of the Appalachians during Saturday. Such snow squall activity in the past has contributed to multiple vehicle accidents on the interstate highways.

Areas downwind of all the Great Lakes will partake in lake-effect flurries, squalls and snow. Only the immediate Atlantic coast and areas southwest of the Great Lakes will avoid the event.

This will not be a big snow event for Buffalo and Watertown, N.Y.

Interstate highways in the central Appalachians and along the southeastern shores of the Great Lakes that can experience the quick-hitting snow squalls include I-68, I-70, I-75, I-80, I-81, I-86, I-90, I-99 and I-196. The greatest risk of blinding snow showers would be Friday night into Saturday morning in Michigan and mostly during the day Saturday over the eastern Great Lakes and central Appalachians.
The heavily traveled I-95 corridor will be unaffected by the snow showers.

The caboose in a train of storms slamming the Northwest since last weekend will spin across southern Canada this weekend, after the Thanksgiving holiday. The storm will tap arctic air as it moves by, sending it southeastward across the Midwest and into the Northeast.

The lake effect began Friday morning along the southern shore of Lake Superior and will expand and progress southeastward across the balance of the lakes Friday night and throughout Saturday.

According to Winter Weather Expert Brian Wimer, "While the event will be relatively brief, lasting 12 to 18 hours, it will be the first widespread lake-effect snow event of the season."
A locally heavy snow accumulation is possible over the Upper Peninsula, the northwest part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, part of southwestern Ontario, the northeastern corner of Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, western New York (south of Buffalo), in the snow belts just north of Syracuse, N.Y., and the ridges stretching from southwestern Pennsylvania to western Maryland to northern West Virginia. Narrow bands within these areas could pick up a half a foot of snow and locally more.
The area over southwestern Michigan to northwestern Indiana may have the shortest duration of lake effect due to the speed at which the cold air pivots through the region. As a result, significantly less snowfall is likely, when compared to the other snow belt areas.
According to Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, "A brief flurry could even reach all the way to the northern and western suburbs from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston at some point during Saturday."

Abrams added that while this will not be a lake-effect snow event for Buffalo on the front end, at the tail end of the cold air, a brief period of snow is possible.
"Winds will swing around to the southwest late Saturday night into Sunday, so if enough cold air is still around at that time, a period of lake-effect snow is possible in the city of Buffalo," Abrams said.
Folks heading to sporting activities Saturday should be ready for windy, cold conditions, even if snow showers fail to visit their particular location. AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures will be in the single digits, teens and 20s over the region.
By Sunday, the lake-effect snow machine will turn off in all but parts of western and central upstate New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. A biting wind will continue over the mid-Atlantic, New England and neighboring Canada.

Image of a white-tailed buck by Photos.com

A storm next week will affect all or part of the eastern third of the nation. The storm will bring not only rain, but the chance of snow on its northern flank and the possibility of thunderstorms in parts of the South.

This story was originally published on Tues., Nov. 20, 2012, at 10:30 a.m. EST and has been updated on Fri., Nov 23, 2012.