Lake Effect Snow
Intense, localized snowfall produced when cold air moves across relatively warm lake water, picking up moisture and heat. Lake effect snow can produce snowfall rates of 2-4 inches per hour and create dramatic differences in accumulation over short distances.
Related Terms
Snow Squall
An intense, short-lived burst of heavy snow accompanied by strong winds and often causing a sudden drop in visibility to near zero. Snow squalls can create extremely dangerous driving conditions despite lasting only 30-60 minutes.
Blizzard
A blizzard is a storm with sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or more and falling or blowing snow that frequently reduces visibility to below a quarter mile, lasting 3 hours or longer. The National Weather Service definition has no snowfall or temperature requirement: wind and visibility make a blizzard.
Alberta Clipper
A fast-moving low-pressure system that originates near Alberta, Canada, and tracks southeast across the northern United States. Clippers typically bring light snow (1-4 inches) followed by bitter cold and gusty winds.
Thundersnow
A rare phenomenon where thunder and lightning occur during a snowstorm. Thundersnow typically happens in intense winter storms and is often associated with heavy snowfall rates of 2-4 inches per hour.
Nor'easter
A storm along the East Coast with winds blowing from the northeast. Nor'easters can bring heavy snow, rain, and coastal flooding, especially from Virginia to New England. The most powerful nor'easters rival hurricanes in intensity.
Lake Effect Snow: Guides and Explainers
These explainers connect this definition to real-world forecasting and decision-making.
In-depth guide
Lake Effect Snow: Why One Town Gets Three Feet and the Next Gets Flurries
What lake effect snow is, how it forms, why Buffalo gets so much of it, why totals change within a few miles, and what a Lake Effect Snow Warning means today.
Weather Education
Winter Storm Watch vs Warning vs Winter Weather Advisory (Plus Blizzard, Ice Storm, and Snow Squall Warnings)
What a Winter Storm Watch, Winter Storm Warning, and Winter Weather Advisory mean, how many inches of snow trigger a warning where you live, and how Blizzard, Ice Storm, Snow Squall, and Extreme Cold Warnings differ.
Weather Education
Understanding Snow Totals: Why Forecasts Vary
Learn why snow forecasts give ranges instead of exact numbers. Understand snow ratios, banding, elevation effects, and how to interpret winter storm predictions.
Helpful Tools and Hubs
Use these pages to apply the concept, compare conditions, or follow related weather workflows.
Tool
Snow-to-Liquid Ratio Calculator
Estimate snowfall from liquid equivalent and snow-to-liquid ratio.
Seasonal Hub
Winter Weather Guide
Find practical explainers on snow, freezing rain, wind chill, and winter travel risk.
Tool
Wind Chill Calculator
Estimate cold-weather exposure risk from temperature and wind speed.
Feature
Conversational AI
Ask about rain timing, alerts, and what the forecast means in plain language.
Explore Other Terms
Kp Index
The Kp index is a 0 to 9 scale of global geomagnetic activity, reported in 3-hour intervals from ground-based magnetometers. A Kp of 5 or higher indicates a geomagnetic storm, and the values map onto NOAA's G-scale from G1 (Kp 5) to G5 (Kp 9). The higher the Kp, the farther from the poles the aurora can be seen.
Earthquake Early Warning
A system that detects the fast P-wave near an earthquake's origin and issues an alert before the slower, more damaging shaking arrives, providing seconds to tens of seconds of notice. It is detection, not prediction: the earthquake has already begun. Public systems operate in regions including the U.S. West Coast (ShakeAlert), Japan, and Mexico.
Tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground, extending from a thunderstorm. Tornadoes are rated from EF0 to EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale by the damage they cause. Most last less than 10 minutes, but the strongest can stay on the ground for more than an hour.
Drizzle
Very light precipitation consisting of tiny water droplets less than 0.5mm in diameter that appear to float in the air. Drizzle typically falls from stratus clouds and reduces visibility more than light rain of the same intensity.
Wind Shear
A change in wind speed or direction over a short distance, either horizontally or vertically. Strong wind shear is essential for supercell and tornado development but is also a significant hazard to aircraft during takeoff and landing.
Velocity
Doppler radar measurement of how fast precipitation is moving toward or away from the radar. Velocity data reveals wind patterns, rotation in thunderstorms, and potential tornado signatures that reflectivity alone cannot show.
Browse by Category
Get the WeatherAI App
WeatherAI is a weather app for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. It is free to download.