Arctic blast to trigger lake-effect snow across Great Lakes into Monday

By Brett Rathbun, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist

January 11,2016; 12:41PM,EST

 

 

The coldest air this season is plunging across the Great Lakes, triggering another round of lake-effect snow into Monday.
As this cold air dives across the region, bands of lake-effect snow will continue to develop around the Great Lakes and persist through Monday afternoon. The arrival of the cold air will cause any lingering wet areas to freeze and turn icy Sunday night.
"Within heavy lake-effect squalls off all of the Great Lakes, visibility can fall to near zero and make driving extremely difficult if not impossible," AccuWeather Meteorologist Mike Doll said.
The heaviest bands will develop downwind of lakes Erie, Ontario and Huron with snowfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour or higher possible. A few rumbles of thunder are also possible.

Snowfall totals could exceed a foot in some locations downwind of lakes Huron and Erie and over 2 feet in the Tug Hill Plateau of upstate New York into Monday night.
Those traveling along Interstate 81 between Syracuse and Watertown, New York, as well as I-90 from Buffalo, New York, to Ohio should be prepared for blinding snow and poor road conditions. Travel will also be dangerous at times along Interstate 86 in southwestern New York.
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"Snow removal crews will not be able to keep the roads clear in those conditions and this could lead to road closures, particularly I-81 south of Watertown, New York, I-90 south of Buffalo, New York, and I-86 across southwest New York," Doll said.
Lesser amounts will occur downwind of lakes Superior and Michigan but will bring some additional snow to Marquette, Traverse City and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Up to 6 inches could fall from the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to northern Lower Michigan into Monday.
Lake-effect snow will weaken during Monday night into Tuesday as a clipper system will spread a swatch of light snow and perhaps a brief burst of heavy snow from the Midwest into the Northeast Monday into Tuesday night.

This clipper system will bring a reinforcing shot of colder air and trigger another round of heavy lake-effect snow to close out the week.
An additional 1 to 2 feet of snow can fall downwind of Lake Erie and more than 3 feet downwind of Lake Ontario by the end of the week.