LAKE EFFECT STORM "ELDEBERRY"

February 12, 2005

Maximum Snowfall: Lk. Ontario: 14" (Parish).

Lake Flake Scale: * 1 Flake

Our first pure lake effect event in a about a month was a brief one which focuses on the snowbelt areas of southern Lewis and Oswego counties.

The synoptic feature consisted of an increasingly cold northwest flow aloft which had a couple of ripples in it. One of them brought general snow showers to the region late Friday and Friday night (11^{th) but a stronger trof approached early on Saturday 12th. The air was cold enough ahead of it to create sufficient instability and the lower levels were moisture primed from the earlier system to allow a strong band of lake effect to develop over northern Oswego and southern Lewis counties in the predawn hours of Saturday 12th. This band lifted north a bit as the trof approached and then pushed back south as it crossed by midday Saturday.}

Snowfall amounts ranged up to a foot across the southern Tug Hill and back across central Oswego county…with lesser amounts north and south. A few inches fell off Lake Erie but this was trof related.

There were a few lake enhanced events south of Lake Ontario during the cold last half of January….but most of the snow was synoptic or enhanced so none qualified as a lake effect name.

This event was brief, on a weekend and affected little population. It earns * 1 Star * 

Off Lake Ontario