Climatological Characteristics and Orographic Enhancement of Lake-Effect Precipitation East of Lake Ontario and over the Tug Hill Plateau

Abstract

The final published version of this manuscript will replace the preliminary version at the above DOI once it is available.If you would like to cite this EOR in a separate work, please use the following full citation: Veals, P., and W. Steenburgh, 2015: Climatological Characteristics and Orographic Enhancement of Lake-Effect Precipitation east of Lake Ontario and over the Tug Hill Plateau. Mon. Wea. Rev. Abstract 1Lake-effect snowstorms east of Lake Ontario are frequently intense and contribute to 2 substantial seasonal accumulations, especially over the Tug Hill Plateau (hereafter Tug Hill), 3 which rises at a gentle 1.25% slope to ~500 m above lake level. Using a variety of datasets 4 including radar imagery from the KTYX WSR-88D, this paper examines the characteristics of 5 lake-effect precipitation east of Lake Ontario over 13 cool seasons (16 September 2001 -15 6 May 2014). During this period, days with at least 2 h of lake effect account for 61-76% of the 7 mean cool-season snowfall and 24-37% of the mean cool-season liquid precipitation. Mean 8 monthly lake-effect frequency and snowfall peak in December and January. The highest lake-9 effect frequency and snowfall occur over the western and upper Tug Hill, with an arm of 10 relatively high lake-effect frequency and snowfall extending to the southeast shore of Lake 11Ontario. To the east (lee), lake-effect frequency and snowfall decrease abruptly over the Black 12 River Valley, although relatively high frequency and snowfall extend downstream into the 13 western Adirondack Mountains. Broad coverage and long-lake-axis-parallel (LLAP) bands 14 dominate the lake-effect morphology throughout the region. There is no diurnal modulation of 15 lake-effect frequency during winter, but weak modulation in fall and spring, especially of LLAP 16 bands. 17Collectively, these results quantify the role that lake effect plays in the cool-season 18 hydroclimate east of Lake Ontario. The increase in lake-effect frequency and snowfall over the 19 Tug Hill suggest an inland/orographic intensification of many lake-effect systems, with evidence 20 for shadowing in the lee. 21 22

Understanding Heavy Lake-Effect Snowfall: The Vertical Structure of Radar Reflectivity in a Deep Snowband over and downwind of Lake Ontario

“…This distribution is noted particularly near Lake Ontario (Jiusto and Kaplan 1972;Wilson 1977;Minder et al 2015;Veals and Steenburgh 2015), as was the case for an LLAP event on 11 December 2013. The present study focuses on this particular event, observed intensively as part of the Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS) project (Kristovich et al 2016).…”

“…The presence of the ;600-m-high Tug Hill to the east of Lake Ontario (Fig. 2) likely contributes through orographic influence (Hill 1971;Alcott and Steenburgh 2013;Veals and Steenburgh 2015). This may contribute to the inland increase in the observed precipitation, as the NR site is 223 m higher in elevation than SC.…”

“…Lake Ontario and the downstream areas experience lake-effect snowstorms, some of which are capable of producing persistent, heavy snowfall (Eichenlaub 1979;Niziol et al 1995;Burt 2007;Markowski and Richardson 2010;Steiger et al 2013;Veals and Steenburgh 2015). Lake-effect snow results from boundary layer convection.…”

“…In some cases, when the boundary layer wind is roughly aligned with the long axis of the lake, a well-defined, continuous band of elevated reflectivity forms. This type of organization, known as a long-lake-axis-parallel (LLAP) band, produces more vigorous yet localized snowfall and is most common over Lakes Erie and Ontario (Jiusto and Kaplan 1972;Niziol et al 1995;Kristovich and Steve 1995;Steiger et al 2013;Veals and Steenburgh 2015). LLAP bands result, in part, from a lake-scale secondary circulation with low-level convergence (Peace and Sykes 1966) and upper-level divergence (Kristovich et al 2016;Bergmaier et al 2015).…”

Characteristics of Sea‐Effect Clouds and Precipitation Over the Sea of Japan Region as Observed by A‐Train Satellites

“…Heavy snowstorms frequently impact the northwest Japanese coast and adjacent topography, disrupting transportation, contributing to structural damage and periods of elevated avalanche risk, and building a snowpack critical for regional water resources and winter tourism (Chechin & Pichugin, ; Eito et al, ; Nakai et al, ; Steenburgh, ). Much of this snowfall results from sea‐effect precipitation (e.g., Campbell et al, ; Eito et al, ; Magono et al, ; Mizukoshi, ; Murakami et al, ; Nakai et al, ; Tsuchiya & Fujita, ), a phenomenon closely related to lake‐, sea‐, and ocean‐effect precipitation in other regions of the world (e.g., Andersson & Nilsson, ; Kindap, ; Kristovich et al, ; Laird et al, ; Niziol et al, ; Norris et al, ; Steenburgh et al, ; Veals & Steenburgh, ). Sea effect over the SOJ occurs predominantly during the East Asian winter monsoon, which results from the interaction of the semipermanent Siberian High over northern Asia and the Aleutian Low in the Gulf of Alaska and features mean northwesterly flow over the SOJ during winter (Boyle & Chen, ; Dorman et al, ).…”