Quite the Range of Lake Effect Snowfall Totals! (credit: NWS Eastern Region Headquarters)

DISCUSSION: As the most recent lake effect snowfall event event off of both Lake Ontario and Lake Erie officially comes to a close during the overnight hours into the pre-dawn hours on Friday, there are a plethora of snowfall totals which have already been called into different NWS offices across the various coverage warning areas.  As you can see in the snowfall totals above, there was quite an impressive range of snowfall totals from throughout this fairly long-duration lake effect event.  It is worth noting that the highest snowfall totals across the Tug Hill Plateau region of New York state were substantially less than forecasters at the National Weather Service in Buffalo, New York initially thought.  However, despite the overforecast snowfall totals in some places, they were very accurate in regards to the conditions which were forecasted for throughout the course of this latest lake effect snowfall event.  This goes to show that even in the presence of an error in snowfall forecasts, it is far more important for a forecast to be accurate in terms of the expected conditions in order to help convey the most important messages associated with a given winter weather forecast.

To learn more about other high-impact weather events from across North America, be sure to click here!

©2016 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz