How far can lake effect snow travel?

All that water picked up from the lake normally travels no further than about 25 miles away before falling, but it can sometimes travel as far as 100 miles away! That moisture can make for a whole lot of snow. Luckily for people living near large lakes, lake effect snow generally slows down around February.



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Anywhere! Lake effect snow can occur over any unfrozen body of water where the fetch is long enough to gather enough moisture to create snow. Lake effect snow can occur over Lake Tahoe, the Great Salt Lake, the finger lakes, and even has been reported over rivers in the Midwest!

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Lake-effect snowstorms can produce 0.3- 1.5 meters (1-5 feet) of snow in single extreme events and can continues for days. The great Lake snow belts cover the lake shores and about 50-80 km (30-50 miles) inland before most of the lake-supplied moisture is removed by precipitation.

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  • Western Michigan, Northwestern Lower Michigan, and Northern Indiana can experience heavy lake-effect snow. ...
  • The region east and southeast of Lake Ontario frequently sees daily snowfall totals that are higher than anywhere in the United States.


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Lake-effect snow can form on small lakes just as it does in the Great Lakes. Salt Lake City, Fort Worth and Carson City, Nevada have all had bouts of snow from lakes. Inland lake-effect and ocean-effect doesn't just occur in the United States.

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The most affected areas include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; Northern New York and Central New York; particularly the Tug Hill Region, Western New York; Northwestern Pennsylvania; Northeastern Ohio; southwestern Ontario and central Ontario; Northeastern Illinois (along the shoreline of Lake Michigan); northwestern ...

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Lake effect snow is common across the Great Lakes region during the late fall and winter. Lake Effect snow occurs when cold air, often originating from Canada, moves across the open waters of the Great Lakes.

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FOX Weather winter storm specialist Tom Niziol explains why Buffalo will see significant snowfall from this historic snowstorm. Once a lake freezes over, the source of warmth and moisture is lost, making it much more difficult for lake-effect snow to develop.

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The vapor then freezes and is deposited on the leeward (downwind) shores. A cold northwesterly to westerly wind over all the Great Lakes created the lake-effect snowfall of January 10, 2022. The same effect also occurs over bodies of saline water, when it is termed ocean-effect or bay-effect snow.

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