Lake Effect Storm A
November 26 - November 29, 2025

Maximum Snowfall: 	Lake Erie:	 23.8" (Cattaraugus) 
			Lake Ontario: 12.0" (Montague), 12.0" (Cato)

Duration: +/- 60 hours
Flake Scale: 2 flakes **

While nuisance lake effect snow occurred earlier in the month, the first widespread
major lake effect snow event of the year unfolded in the late evening hours of
Wednesday the 26th of November, just before Thanksgiving. Several unique characteristics
with this event included a decent amount of lighting off both eastern Great Lakes 
through the event, and greater snow accumulations found much farther inland than what
typically occurs in heavy lake effect snow events. 

A strong cold front passed across western and central New York during the afternoon 
hours of Wednesday, November 26th. Strong southwest winds behind the front gusted into 
the 50 mph range northeast of Lake Erie during the afternoon and overnight hours, while 
the Buffalo Airport recorded a wind gust to 68 mph during the mid-evening. Falling 850 
hPa temperatures from the low single digits down to around -7 to -8C allowed for rain 
to transition over to snow in the late evening hours off Lake Erie, with wind swept snow
across the northern Niagara Frontier. As the temperatures cooled aloft, mixed phase 
allowed for graupel formation which brought charge separation to electrify the evening 
sky across Buffalo and the northern suburbs, with many reports of intense lightning bolts.

A heavy wet snow fell northeast of Lake Erie through the early morning hours of Thursday, 
Thanksgiving Day. Roads became very slick, but with the bulk of the holiday traffic 
already at their destination there was little impact to the holiday travel. Meanwhile, 
a delayed arrival of the colder air aloft with the closed upper-level low kept lake effect
activity a mix of rain and higher elevation snow through Wednesday night east of Lake 
Ontario, and with still marginal surface temperatures Thursday accumulations remained 
minor off Lake Ontario through the daytime of Thanksgiving. 

Wind shear and moderate synoptic moisture kept the snowbands generally in the one inch per
hour snowfall rate through the evening hours of Thursday, November 27th. By Thursday night,
a return of deep synoptic moisture associated with a shortwave that pivoted across the 
Lower Great Lakes allowed for snowbands to intensify up to 2 inches of snow per hour off 
Lake Erie and 1 to 2 inches per hour east of Lake Ontario in the traditional snowbelts east
of both Lakes. A decent wind flow aided in a lake induced warm boundary layer to expand 
inland deeper than typical events, which limited snowfall accumulations for Chautauqua and
southern Erie counties, as well as the low lying communities east and southeast of Lake 
Ontario. Lake induced equilibrium levels peaked just shy of 15K feet over both Lakes, and
850 hPa temperatures bottomed out around -11 to -12C, with the colder air found over Lake
Ontario. Thursday night a half to one foot of snow fell southeast of Lake Erie across the
western Southern Tier and Boston Hills, while east of Lake Ontario a half to one foot of
snow fell on the Tug Hill.  

Both Thursday and again Friday had marginal temperatures for snow accumulations along the
immediate lakeshores, and this left the thoroughfare of the New York State Thruway with 
just narrow strips of minor snow accumulations south of Buffalo. However, Friday southeast
of Lake Ontario the New York State Thruway did not fare as kind with a heavy band of 
snowfall over the Thruway east of Geneva. A little graupel mixed within this band brought
a few lightning strikes southeast of Lake Ontario through the day Friday, November 28th. 
Snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour and snow-covered roads impacted the NYS Thruway
travel between Geneva and the Syracuse metro area.  

Friday night the synoptic moisture with the upper-level low began to pull to the northeast
while a broad area of high pressure at the surface began to advance towards the Lower Great
Lakes from the Midwest. The falling inversion heights combined with the drier air weakened
the band of snow off Lake Erie through the early morning hours of Saturday, November 29th, 
while the Lake Ontario snowband held on in a weakened state of flurries into the late 
afternoon hours of Saturday. 

The snowfall totals for this late November event pale in comparison to other major November
events in the past 10 years, but still a foot and a half to two feet of snow falling east
and southeast of both lakes is impactful. In total this event was just over two days, about
average for a lake effect snow event of this size. The bulk of the snow's impacts occurred
after the pre-Thanksgiving Day travel, and before post-Thanksgiving Day travel. Without 
much travel impacts, nor big city impact, this event will be given two flakes.