Maximum Snowfall: Lk. Ontario: 11" (Watertown); Lk. Erie: 7" (Perrysburg)

Duration: 12 Hours +/-

Prime Feature: Strong enhancement with weakening front. Good upslope and frictional enhancement off Lake Erie.

Lake Flake Scale: ** 2 Flakes

The 13^th lake effect event of this busy season was a bit of a surprise. A weakening front dropped southeast to the north shore of Lake Ontario just after midnight on Sunday 9^th and gradually dissipated. A west to southwest flow ahead of this feature was still cold enough to allow lake effect to break out just ahead of it over the St. Lawrence Valley. The band intensified as it drifted across northern Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties around daybreak and dropped 6 to 10 inches between 4 and 10 am. This activity weakened and drifted south before briefly intensifying again later in the afternoon and drifting north again before dissipating in the evening.

The feature also brought some limited lake snows to the Buffalo area...1 to 3 inches...around daybreak with a little open water east of Long Point. The activity became a bit heavier later in the morning south of Buffalo and lingered from frictional enhancement and good upslope over ski country where up to 6 inches fell.

This was a marginal event but did show that lake influences still remain off a frozen Lake Erie and cannot be totally discounted. Also...don’t underestimate prefrontal activity if airmass is cold enough. This event earns two ** stars.

By the way...the 13 events so far in the 2002-03 season is now the second most in the nine winters of record for the "Lake effect" names. Only 1995-96 with 19 had more. Normally there are nine events...and we still have over a month to go!

Here are some representative amounts ....