Eastern Molehills and Retro Areas

The Adirondacks are rarely affected by lake affect snow due to the orientation of the lakes
The spine of the green mountains will receive orographic snows on a West wind and obviously Jay is the king of orographic snow on the north wind
Tug hill makes out on a west southwest wind.
McCaulay does well on this wind too, and I guess that’s considered the Adirondacks
 
I needed to go on Google Earth to check some geography in detail.

If you draw a line due east from Toronto, it passes over 150 miles of Lake Ontario, then over Snow Ridge and McCauley 45-60 miles later.

If you draw a line WSW-ENE from Hamilton, it passes over 185 miles of Lake Ontario (maximum fetch) to Watertown, and the high Adirondacks over 4,000 feet are 100 miles later on that line. Big Tupper ski area is just west of the high peaks with elevation range 2,000 - 3,000.

Anyone know how much snow Big Tupper gets? Based on local comments above I would conclude that either:
1) The due west-to-east winds are much more frequent than WSW-ENE, or more likely,
2) Lake effect snow is common 50 miles downwind from Lake Ontario but not so much 100 miles downwind.

A scan of the capital of "lake effect," Japan, reinforces theory #2 above. Niseko is less than 15 miles from the Sea of Japan. Almost all of the noted powder areas are within 50 miles of the Sea of Japan with at least 3,000 feet of orographic uplift, and the places 15 miles inland get more snow than the ones 50 miles inland.

Then you have Mt. Bohemia, which sits on a peninsula 5 miles from Lake Superior, with exposure over 80-130 miles of water to the west, north and east.
The Adirondacks are rarely affected by lake affect snow due to the orientation of the lakes
Click to expand...
So I'll say the Adirondacks are rarely affected by lake affect snow because they are not close enough to Lake Ontario. This would not have occurred to me without looking it up on Google Earth.
 
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What's different between myself and @Harvey is that I like to travel, whether driving or flying. If I only cared about powder turns, I wouldn't have bothered with ski safaris in New England, New York, or Michigan in the last decade. Planning to use Indy in the northeast next March, partially because a friend is interested to join me to check out Jay and a few other places.
 
Tony Crocker said:
I needed to go on Google Earth to check some geography in detail.

If you draw a line due east from Toronto, it passes over 150 miles of Lake Ontario, then over Snow Ridge and McCauley 45-60 miles later.

If you draw a line WSW-ENE from Hamilton, it passes over 185 miles of Lake Ontario (maximum fetch) to Watertown, and the high Adirondacks over 4,000 feet are 100 miles later on that line. Big Tupper ski area is just west of the high peaks with elevation range 2,000 - 3,000.

Anyone know how much snow Big Tupper gets? Based on local comments above I would conclude that either:
1) The due west-to-east winds are much more frequent than WSW-ENE, or more likely,
2) Lake effect snow is common 50 miles downwind from Lake Ontario but not so much 100 miles downwind.

A scan of the capital of "lake effect," Japan, reinforces theory #2 above. Niseko is less than 15 miles from the Sea of Japan. Almost all of the noted powder areas are within 50 miles of the Sea of Japan with at least 3,000 feet of orographic uplift, and the places 15 miles inland get more snow than the ones 50 miles inland.

Then you have Mt. Bohemia, which sits on a peninsula 5 miles from Lake Superior, with exposure over 80-130 miles of water to the west, north and east.

So I'll say the Adirondacks are rarely affected by lake affect snow because they are not close enough to Lake Ontario. This would not have occurred to me without looking it up on Google Earth.
Click to expand...
The energy from Lake effect band holds together for a couple hundred miles. The example is Plattekill gets lake effect from Lake Ontario.
I’m just guessing the distance from Lake Ontario to Platte
 
I would suggest that Plattekill gets more snow than Hunter from being on the windward rather than leeward side of the Catskills. With no high mountains west or northwest of the Catskills, Plattekill should get something from orographic uplift in many weather disturbances.

I'll ask again about Big Tupper. Plattekill in addition to being farther from Lake Ontario has a shorter fetch across the lake
 
jasoncapecod said:
The energy from Lake effect band holds together for a couple hundred miles. The example is Plattekill gets lake effect from Lake Ontario.
I’m just guessing the distance from Lake Ontario to Platte
Click to expand...
West Virginia can get lake effect snow. More likely at the three ski hills in northern WV: Canaan Valley, Timberline, and White Grass (nordic trails).

A really big push can mean natural snow NC and TN, but that's pretty rare. The ski resorts are happy enough with cold temps for snowmaking coming down from the Arctic.
 
Harvey said:
80 inches. 60 is probably pretty common.
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So that means the ADKs have two ski areas that average approx. 80 inches these days. Wow, that ain't much. New York Ski Blog has good coverage of both over the years, including:
  • Harv's report from Hickory in January 2024. Here's an article after it joined Indy Pass; however, it's opened very rarely due to sparse snow and no snowmaking.
  • Big Tupper in February 2014 when it was operated by a volunteer org for a few seasons during the mid-2010s. New owners have talked about reopening it; however, one assumes that it faces a lot of headwinds.
 
jasoncapecod said:
The energy from Lake effect band holds together for a couple hundred miles. The example is Plattekill gets lake effect from Lake Ontario.
I’m just guessing the distance from Lake Ontario to Platte
Click to expand...

There is no Lake Effect at Platekill. Zero.

I lived in Upstate NY and on the Hudson River. Look - Lake Effect rarely hits Binghamton.


The Lake Effect idea began when new owners needed something to market. And inflate snow numbers. And insanity.
 
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