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You hear us talk about them all the time, but where exactly are the snow belts, and why do they exist?

NEWS 5

By: Katie McGraw

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You hear the Power of 5 Weather Team and News 5 talk about it a lot...the "snowbelt" - but do you know exactly where they are located or that there are two of them? Plus, why do they even exist?

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Here is a quick Weather 101 about the snowbelts!

WHERE ARE THE TWO SNOW BELTS LOCATED?:

There are primary and secondary snowbelts for Northeast Ohio. The primary snowbelt gets the highest snowfall totals in our area and includes several communities across far NEO.

When we mention "the snowbelt" we are typically referring to the primary snowbelt. The primary snowbelt includes Lake (especially southern Lake), Geauga (especially northern Geauga), Cuyahoga (mainly the eastern half) and Ashtabula counties.

The primary snowbelt's snow results when frigid winds from the west, northwest, or north blow across the unfrozen and warmer lake compared to the air.

Meanwhile, the secondary snowbelt extends farther inland and farther to the west, including Lorain (especially northeast Lorain), Medina (especially northern Medina), and the northern halves of Summit, Portage and Trumbull counties.

The communities in these counties also receive lake-effect snow, although to a lesser extent. Lake effect snow here occurs mainly when winds are directly from the north.

WHY DO SNOWBELTS EXIST?

A snow belt is an area of land downwind of the Great Lakes, where heavy snowfall is particularly common due to lake-effect snow. Snow belts are usually higher elevations south and east of the lakeshore. The elevation rise causes water vapor from the lake to rise and condense into snow.

Lake-effect snow (and even rain) occurs when Lake Erie is warmer than the air above it. The wind then pushes this colder air over the lake, and the air warms a bit from the milder water below it. The warmer air and moisture from the lake rise, and clouds form. The clouds and moisture then move over the colder air on land, allowing precipitation to occur.

The lake-effect snow season is typically November through January or until the lake freezes. Even when Lake Erie freezes, our area can still see lake-effect snow thanks to an unfrozen Lake Huron or even Lake Michigan.

A typical heavy, lake-effect snowstorm would produce a wide variety of snow totals. The most snow typically falls in the primary snow belt. The heaviest yearly snowfall totals are measured in Geauga County, about 20 miles east of Cleveland. Totals from Chardon and Hambden often exceed 120 inches per year.

Snow totals in Cleveland are close to 70 inches per season. Akron sees about 48 inches of snow per season.

Lake-effect snows occur in only a few places on Earth. Snow belt conditions are also found along the other Great Lakes in the U.S., on the west side of the Japanese island of Hokkaido and on the west side of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Hudson Bay and Great Salt Lake also see some lake-effect snow.