LAKE-EFFECT SNOWFALL OVER LAKE-MICHIGAN

Aircraft measurements of snow particle size spectra from 36 nights on 26 snowy days are used to estimate snow precipitation rates over Lake Michigan. Results show that average rates during 14 wind-parallel-type lake-effect storms increased from the upwind shore to about midlake and then were essentially uniform (1.5-2 mm day(-1), liquid water equivalent) to the downwind shore. Snow from midlake bands and shoreline bands maximized over the lake. The position of the maximum during these types of lake-effect storms depends on meteorological conditions. In any given case it may be near either shore or anywhere between them. This study combines 12 cases of midlake and shoreline bands. The resulting cross-lake snow profile shows a broad maximum reaching over 4 mm day(-1) near midlake. The single sample maximum snow precipitation rate encountered in this study was 77.7 mm day(-1). The average cross-lake profile from combining 26 cases of lake-effect storms shows that snowfall into the lake is considerably greater than one would expect from a linear interpolation between values measured along either shore. An attempt is made to estimate the average increase in snow over lake Michigan resulting from combined lake-effect and large-scale cyclonic storms. The result is interesting but not considered very reliable because it depends upon the relative frequencies of different types of lake-effect storms as well as overtake snow rates from large-scale cyclonic storms; neither is well known.