Lake-Effect Mode and Precipitation Enhancement over the Tug Hill Plateau during OWLeS IOP2b

• Published in: Monthly weather review 2016-05, Vol.144 (5), p.1729-1748
• Main Authors: Campbell, Leah S, Steenburgh, W James, Veals, Peter G, Letcher, Theodore W, Minder, Justin R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cool season; Echoes; Lakes; Lowlands; Maximum precipitation; Orography; Plateaus; Precipitation; Radar; Radar clutter; Radar echoes; Ratios; Snow; Snowfall; Snowstorms; Storms; Studies; Troughs; Water depth; Weather forecasting
• ISSN: 0027-0644; 1520-0493
• DOI: 10.1175/MWR-D-15-0412.1

Improved understanding of the influence of orography on lake-effect storms is crucial for weather forecasting in many lake-effect regions. The Tug Hill Plateau of northern New York (hereafter Tug Hill), rising 500 m above eastern Lake Ontario, experiences some of the most intense snowstorms in the world. Herein the authors investigate the enhancement of lake-effect snowfall over Tug Hill during IOP2b of the Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS) field campaign. During the 24-h study period, total liquid precipitation equivalent along the axis of maximum precipitation increased from 33.5 mm at a lowland (145 m MSL) site to 62.5 mm at an upland (385 m MSL) site, the latter yielding 101.5 cm of snow. However, the ratio of upland to lowland precipitation, or orographic ratio, varied with the mode of lake-effect precipitation. Strongly organized long-lake-axis parallel bands, some of which formed in association with the approach or passage of upper-level short-wave troughs, produced the highest precipitation rates but the smallest orographic ratios. Within these bands, radar echoes were deepest and strongest over Lake Ontario and the coastal lowlands and decreased in depth and median intensity over Tug Hill. In contrast, nonbanded broad-coverage periods exhibited the smallest precipitation rates and the largest orographic ratios, the latter reflecting an increase in the coverage and frequency of radar echoes over Tug Hill. These findings should aid operational forecasts and, given the predominance of broad-coverage lake-effect periods during the cool season, help explain the climatological snowfall maximum found over the Tug Hill Plateau.