Lake effect snow - Less ice = more lake effect

Parts of the lakes Erie and Ontario snowbelts in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York have been dealing with consistent lake effect snow on Monday resulting in slower commutes. The lack of Great Lakes ice cover and abundant northwesterly winter winds keep the snow machine on full blast.

Snowplows and salt trucks are busy at the start of this second full week of 2025 as the lake effect snow machine keeps cranking. Lake effect snow warnings have been active since the weekend for many from Erie, Penn., to the northern Adirondack Mountains in New York. Many of these warnings are lasting through Thursday of this week!

Residents of the snowbelt are expert drivers in these conditions, but even the most experienced drivers have to slow down during heavy lake-effect snow events. Monday morning in Buffalo, N.Y., drivers had to proceed with caution as snow plows worked hard to get the quick-accumulating white stuff off the roadways. Up to a foot in accumulation is possible for Buffalo by Tuesday morning.

Lake-effect snow season often begins in October as the first blasts of cold northwesterly wind come across the warm, ice-less Great Lakes, sending flakes flying along the snowbelt shorelines. As the cold winds continue throughout the season and temperatures drop, ice forms. The amount of ice depends on how long the subfreezing temperatures last, however.

Currently, all of the Great Lakes have below-average ice coverage as of January 12, 2025. Lake Erie, for example, is below 20 percent ice coverage and the parts without ice are the areas that are producing the most lake-effect snow along the Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York snowbelts, including Buffalo.