Down comes the snow. Here in Michigan, we get snow even when nearby states are snow-free. How so? It’s called “lake effect snow,” and it arises when the relatively warmer waters of Lake Michigan evaporate, condense, and freeze into snowflakes in the colder air above. This can add real interest when you’re out and about. You can be driving under crystal blue skies one minute and whiteout conditions the next. The closer you are to the lakeshore, the thicker the snow; inland, it gradually thins out, though the snow bands can stretch a long ways.
As I write, lake effect snow is falling here in Caledonia, forty miles east of Lake Michigan. I might as well get used to the stuff since I’ll be seeing a lot of it these next few months. I’d like to think that it”s at least helping to raise the water levels in the Great Lakes, but that”s not how lake effect snow works. Synoptic winter systems get the job done, but lake effect snow is just sleight of hand, robbing Peter to pay Paul. It takes from Lake Michigan, winds up back in Lake Michigan, and leaves us neither the richer nor the poorer.
I have to say, though, snow-Grinch that I am, that right now, this snowfall sure looks pretty.
