Forthcoming in September 2012 from Syracuse University Press.
Lake-effect snow is deposited by narrow bands of clouds formed when cold, dry arctic air passes over a large, relatively warm inland lake. Snow bands attached to one of the Great Lakes, or even the Great Salt Lake or Hudson Bay, can produce an intense “white out” lasting from a couple of minutes to two days. Television meteorologists call this the “lake-effect snow machine” because a slight shift in wind direction can shut down the snow suddenly, like flicking a light switch. With perhaps only half the water content of regular snow, lake snow is typically light, fluffy, and relatively easy to shovel. And because long stretches of gray days with persistent flurries are the norm, shoveling is a near-daily activity in the snowbelts, where whimsical weather is notorious for disrupting transportation, closing schools, canceling events of all types, and occasionally collapsing old or poorly designed buildings. Intriguing stories of the lake effect’s quirky behavior and diverse impacts include widespread ignorance of the phenomenon in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before a network of systematic observers had collected several decades of data worth mapping, and the advent of reliable short-term predictions based on satellites, Doppler radar, and computer models.
I’ve written this book for two audiences: Great Lakes residents who want to understand the lake-effect phenomenon and its implications more fully and nonresidents misinformed by a media stereotype of ceaselessly brutal winters. What I intend as a comprehensive and engaging narrative fits nicely into seven chapters, each with a telling one-word title: Recipe (chapter 1) outlines the basic physics essential to understanding what follows, Discovery (chapter 2) explores the slow cartographic recognition of lake-effect snow as a distinctive meteorological phenomenon, Prediction (chapter 3) examines the evolution of forecasting strategies, Impacts (chapter 4) limns societal effects and coping strategies, Records (chapter 5) investigates the collection and use of snowfall data and questions the national obsession with extreme weather, Change (chapter 6) looks at historical trends in snowfall and the regional implications of global warming, and Place (chapter 7) identifies seasonality as a key component of local economies and regional culture.
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Recipe
2 Discovery
3 Prediction
4 Impacts
5 Records
6 Change
7 Place
Notes
Index
