Lake effect
From Glossary of Meteorology
lake effect
Generally, the effect of any lake in modifying the weather about its shore and for some distance downwind.
In the United States, this term is applied specifically to the region about the Great Lakes or the Great Salt Lake. More specifically, lake effect often refers to the generation of sometimes spectacular snowfall amounts to the lee of the Great Lakes as cold air passes over the lake surface, extracting heat and moisture, resulting in cloud formation and snowfall downwind of the lake shore.
Copyright 2022 American Meteorological Society (AMS). For permission to reuse any portion of this work, please contact [email protected]. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code § 107) or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S.Copyright Act (17 USC § 108) does not require AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a website or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, require written permission or a license from AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy statement.
