When towns along the Great Lakes get buried in drifts of blowing snow, like several have over the past few days, weather experts start talking about the “lake effect."
Lake-effect snow often occurs in relatively narrow bands that dump copious amounts of snow. The weather phenomenon can drastically increase snowfall totals, and it may slam one area and leave another just miles away untouched.
Over the weekend, parts of upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan saw nearly 4 feet (1.2 meters) of lake-effect snow.
Here's a look at how it works:
In the United States, the lake effect typically begins when cold air — often from Canada — blows in over the Great Lakes' warmer waters.
Warming air from the lakes then pushes the moisture in the sky higher into a zone most conducive to snowfall because of its temperature. That creates clouds capable of dumping lots of precipitation downwind, said Phillip Pandolfo, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s office in Buffalo, New York.
Most of the moisture needed for lake-effect snow does not actually come from the lakes, but rather from cold air that blows over them.
“It’s a common misconception that the lakes are a tremendous source of moisture,” Pandolfo said. “In practice, we actually need the air to actually have enough moisture in it before it really starts going over the lakes."
With the right conditions, the rising, moisture-laden air causes clouds to form that could bring "some really intense snowfall rates,” Pandolfo said.
The results typically are thin bands of clouds that can produce heavy snowfall — 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) per hour and sometimes more. And because the bands are narrow, towns near each other could see significant differences in snowfall totals.
Forecasting lake-effect snow can be difficult; slight changes in wind direction can have a major impact on where the heaviest snow falls, according to the weather service.
Lake-effect snow goes hand-in-hand with living near a Great Lake. In many cases, a foot or two (30 to 61 centimeters) of snow will fall, but occasionally it can get out of hand.
In November 2022, lake-effect storms dumped more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow in western New York. Those wintry storms were the worst in New York since at least November 2014, when some communities south of Buffalo were hit with 7 feet (2.1 meters) of snow over the course of three days, collapsing roofs and trapping drivers on a stretch of the New York State Thruway.
In parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, snowfall can total more than 20 feet (6 meters) a year as the lake effect bolsters storms, according to researchers at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.
The phenomenon can also happen with other very large lakes, including the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
A sculpture is covered in snow on the steps of Erie Art Museum Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Erie, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
A man plows a sidewalk after a snow storm in Lowville, N.Y., Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
PALERMO, Calif. (AP) — Two children were wounded Wednesday in a shooting at a tiny religious K-8 school in Northern California and deputies arrived to find the gunman on the ground near the playground, dead after apparently shooting himself, sheriff’s officials said.
The children, boys aged 5 and 6, were hospitalized in “extremely critical condition," officials said.
The shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m. at the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists, a private school in Palermo with fewer than three dozen students. Palermo has about 5,500 people and is about 65 miles (104 km) north of Sacramento.
It was the the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms.
But school shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws. Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.
“My heart is breaking for everyone impacted by this tragedy," Assemblyman James Gallagher, whose area includes Palermo, said in a statement. "As a community, we’ll all be hugging our loved ones closer today as we pray for the victims and try to make sense of something so senseless.”
Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said they had received information that the shooter was in a meeting with the principal about enrolling a child at the school, though the meeting wasn't yet verified by investigators. Shortly after, shots rang out, Honea said. Earlier, officials had said they did not believe the shooter had any connection to the school.
The motive was not immediately known. Honea said they were trying to contact the shooter's family before releasing his name.
Near the school’s slide and other playground equipment was the shooter’s body, covered in a blue tarp, as officers stood nearby to secure the scene. The school abuts ranchland where cattle graze.
Authorities rushed students initially to a gymnasium where they stayed until a bus arrived to take them off the grounds and to the Oroville Church of the Nazarene to be reunited with their families, Honea said.
Sixth grader Jocelyn Orlando described what happened to CBS News Sacramento.
“We were going in for lunch recess and basically everybody in my classroom heard shooting and most people were screaming,” she said. “We all went into the office, we closed the curtains, locked the doors, basically did what we would do in a school shooting, and then one of the teachers came and we all ran into the gym.”
Rev. Travis Marshall, the senior pastor for the Oroville Church of the Nazarene, called the reunification between parents and their children "very moving.”
“Some of the children were incredibly emotional," he said. “One woman was raising her hands up, praising the Lord" when she found her child.
Representatives for the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists could not immediately be reached for comment.
The school has been open since 1965, according to its website.
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarp outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarp outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Police tape blocks a road outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Emergency personnel state outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
