What causes lake effect snow?

Question

I live in WI and we get 'lake effect' snow from Lake Michigan. What causes it? What is it?

Answer 1

Lakes cause lake effect snow. Jake is right, though.

To supplement his answer: Lakes are full of water and water is one of the best known materials for holding heat. The warmth of the lake causes evaporation, so the air over the lake is saturated with water vapor.

When the wind blows over the lake, the warmth air (with its load of moisture) gets blown away from the lake by the winds. Well, when the wind gets back over the land, it cools down again because it is no longer over the warmer water.

The problem is that cooler air can't hold as much vapor as warmer air. So the air cools and has to drop some of its vapor as droplets. Lake effect snows occur when this droplet formation process occurs in air cold enough to turn the droplets into the tiny ice crystals that grow into snowflakes.

If it were warmer, you'd get rain instead of snow. That's what we get in New Orleans because of Lake Ponchartrain.

Answer 2

Hello I work for the NOAA National Weather Service,
Lake effect snow is caused when a cold air mass from canada called a (Cp) or Continental Polar air mass makes its way over the warm waters of lake Michignan, Huron or any other major body of water. Because storms need some kind of heat source to become stronger, the warm water is evaporated into the storm system that passes overhead. With this, more and more water droplts form inside the cloud that have the possibility of freezing when the storm continues onto land. When the storm does hit land there is a deep layer of cold air from the base of the cloud to the surface that causes all of the droplets to freeze and become snow. That is how you get lake effect snow

Answer 3

The warm water and the cold air cause lake effect snow. (the cold air going over the water). When its hot its just the opposite=)

Answer 4

I am no meteorologist, but I think it is when the moist, relatively warm air over the lake moves over the cold air on the land. The higher terrain and/or the cold air force the warm air to go higher, then cool, and to lose its moisture by snowing.