62.0k views
18 votes
Shipping across the Great Lakes is a multi-billion dollar industry which employs tens of thousands of people. Every year freighters get stuck in the ice delaying deliveries and costing money. Millions of people in the region are impacted by lake effect snow events. What is happening to the ice? How is regional climate change impacting Earth systems?

1 Answer

5 votes

Lake effect snow forms when cold, below-freezing air passes over a lake's warmer waters. This causes some lake water to evaporate and warm the air. Then, the moist air moves away from the lake. After cooling, the air dumps its moisture on the ground, potentially becoming snow.Cold winds in the winter typically prevail from the northwest in the Great Lakes region, producing the most dramatic lake-effect snowfalls on the southern and eastern shores of the Great Lakes.

User Dparoli
by
6.5k points