Heavy Snow in Indiana, January 25 to 26, 2000

18-20 inches of snow fell in Michigan City and Laporte with most other locations across Laporte county reporting in excess of 1 foot. Many roads were closed due to the heavy snow and whiteout conditions the night of the 25th into the mid morning hours of the 26th. 9 inches of lake effect snow fell at the South Bend Airport with up to 12 inches along the St. Joseph/Laporte county line. Locations east of South Bend reported only an inch....Synoptic and mesoscale conditions on the 25th/26th...A tremendous snowstorm was ongoing along the east coast during this period with a large nearly meridonal longwave upper level trough in place across the upper midwest. A clipper type low pressure system rapidly dove southeast out of Alberta Canada early on the 25th spreading a band of light snow across Northern Indiana. Quick on its heels was a 1040 millibar arctic high. This combined with intensifing cold advection and induced thermal troughing along the lake and initial boundary layer wind trajectory of 360 degrees... led once again to a very intense shore parallel snowband to develop along the Lake Michigan shoreline during the late afternoon of the 25th reaching as far south as Lafayette Indiana. This band remained in roughly the same position for 12 hours before shifting westward into Lake and Porter counties the morning of the 26th. Many locations from western Berrien county into Laporte county reported from 14 to 20 inches of snow with the heaviest snowfall occurring in Michigan City and Laporte.