Great Lakes Area Gets 5 Feet of Snow, With More on the Way

National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists are warning of "significant additional accumulation" of snow in some impacted areas in the Great Lakes region as bands from a lake-effect snowstorm continue to move through the area.

Lake-effect snow hit Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York on Friday and continued to fall through the weekend, amassing snowfall totals measured in feet across many locations. Warnings issued by the NWS office in Cleveland, Ohio, and Buffalo, New York, are expected to remain in place until 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

How much snow has fallen?

In New York, NWS meteorologist Dan Kelly told Newsweek that four-day snowfall totals included 40.9 inches in parts of Cattaraugus County, 54.1 inches in Chautauqua County, 38.4 inches in Erie County, 65.5 in Jefferson County and 60 inches in Lewis County through Monday morning.

In Pennsylvania, NWS meteorologist Alex Kennedy told Newsweek that Erie County saw totals up to 24 inches. Crawford County saw a range from 1 inch to 25 inches.

"It's a good gradient between the southern portion of the county and the northern portion," Kennedy said.

In Ohio, the hardest-hit county was Ashtabula, with as much as 50 inches of snow, Kennedy said. Lake County also was hit hard, with 20 to 40 inches depending on the location.

As much as 20 inches of additional snow could fall in northwest Pennsylvania, the NWS office in Cleveland warned in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday morning.

"Snow will continue across the snowbelt through Tuesday morning," the office posted. "A more persistent band with a Lake Huron connection will impact NW PA through Tuesday evening. Areas in the snowbelt could see an additional 8-15" of snow with locally up to 20" in NW PA."

Lower amounts are expected in the Buffalo forecast region, with an additional 8 inches of snow expected to fall on Monday in Jamestown, New York.

"Moderate to locally heavy lake effect snow will continue through Tuesday across the western Southern Tier with significant additional accumulations," the NWS office in Buffalo posted on X. "Bands of light to moderate snow will also continue southeast of Lake Ontario."

NWS Buffalo said that the storm, which is the first of its kind this season, came almost two weeks later than average.

What is 'lake-effect' storm?

Lake-effect snow is a weather phenomenon that occurs when cold, dry air moves over a large, warmer body of water, such as the Great Lakes. The temperature difference causes the air to pick up moisture from the lake's surface, and as the air moves over the land, it cools and the moisture condenses, forming snow.

The process often results in heavy, localized snowstorms, particularly along the downwind shores of the lakes. The snow can be intense and concentrated in narrow bands, leading to significant snowfall in some areas while other nearby regions may see little to no snow.

The severity of the storm prompted both the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to warn motorists against traveling in the early morning hours on Friday. PennDOT also issued some travel restrictions during the heaviest snowfall periods over the weekend.