Snowbelt

The snowbelt is an American region, much of which lay downwind of the Great Lakes, where heavy snowfall is particularly common. Near the Great Lakes, a particular form of snowbelt is lake-effect snow, caused by cold air picking up moisture while crossing the lake and then releasing it as snow when the air cools over land. The Great Lakes produce lake-effect snow and continuous cloudy skies throughout the winter months, as long as air temperatures are colder than the lake water temperatures.

Well-known snowbelt sections exist southeast of Lake Erie from Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New York and south of Lake Ontario stretching roughly from Rochester, New York, to Syracuse, New York, and northward to Watertown, New York. Similar snowbelts exist on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in Michigan and Indiana, and on the eastern shores of Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay in Ontario, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Lake Erie is the smallest of the five Great Lakes and the most shallow. It can completely freeze over during winter. Once frozen, lake-effect snow over land to the east and south of Lake Erie is temporarily alleviated.

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