Lake-Effect Snow in New York, November 20 to 21, 2014

Another round of unusually very cold air for mid-November moved into upstate New York from Canada. With a constant flow of cold air over the relatively-warm waters of Lake Ontario, a strong band of lake effect snow developed on the morning of Thursday, November 20th.

With a low-level wind out of the southwest, the band initially affected Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties during the morning on Thursday, November 20th. By the afternoon hours, the band shifted south and affected far northern Herkimer and Hamilton Counties. This snowfall, falling at rates easily in excess of one inch per hour, continued over the same locations of the western Adirondacks for several hours in a row through the late evening hours. Up to 9 inches of snow fell across far northern Herkimer and northwestern Hamilton Counties before the band weakened and shifted south of the area during the early morning hours on Friday, November 21st.