LAKE EFFECT STORM "FIR"

December 19-20, 2000

Lake flake Scale: ** 2 Stars

Maximum Snowfall: Lk. Erie: (Eden) 16"; Lk. Ontario (W.Monroe) 12".

Duration: 18 Hours

Prime Feature: Persistence, light wind, little movement.

 

Lake Effect storm "Fir" was a very subtle event which set up on a light westerly flow of arctic air following yet another frontal passage in this very active early season pattern. A general snowfall associated with the front produced a few inches in the Buffalo area early on 19^th...then settled into an fairly intense band across southern Erie county later Tuesday and Tuesday night. Some locally heavy snow fell in a strip from Dunkirk to Eden where local amounts of a foot or so were reported by Wednesday morning. The activity drifted north and weakened by early Wednesday afternoon.

Off Lake Ontario...a similar scenario developed...with the heaviest lake snows over Oswego County Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. This band settled into the Syracuse area at times as well. Up to a foot fell over southern Oswego County.

Although this was the heaviest event of the season for the Dunkirk-Fredonia area...and was significant in the Syracuse area...it spared the bulk of the population centers of western New York. For that reason...the storm earns a 2-star (**) rating on the flake scale.