LAKE EFFECT STORM "KOLANUT"

March 26-27, 2001

Lake Flake scale: ** 2 Flakes.

Maximum Snowfall: Lk. Ontario: 9" (Oswego)
Duration: 12 Hours
Prime Factor: Extreme instability for the season, little shear, good fetch.

Unseasonably cold air became entrenched across the Great Lakes and Northeast during the second half of March and several trofs swinging south across the region initiated a number of snowfalls. Although some of these were enhanced by the lakes...none were really pure "lake effect"...until this one.

An inverted trof passed across the region during the daylight hours of the 26^th...and deposited several inches of snow to much of western and central New York. Following this...and with the advent of darkness...a single band of moderate lake snows developed along and just off the south shore of Lake Ontario and extended on across much of northern and central Oswego county...on into Oneida County. The 850 temperatures were near -18...remarkably cold for so late in the season...creating a delta-t of 21-22C. This resulted in sufficient instability to get the lake machine into action. The band meandered a bit south overnight before breaking apart by mid morning of 27^th with the strong late March daytime heating.

This event...our latest one in the seven years of record...was very rare for the season...earns two flakes on our "flake scale". It caused few problems despite centering over a populated area...as it was only marginally heavy enough to rate...and the region has already seen over 200 inches for the winter...and this snow melted off quickly.