Stormy Subtleties

Although it's true I have moved to a place with more weather (precipitation types and frequencies, temperature fluctuations, humidity), I've come to realize that the raw beauty of the weather may be less prominent in my new locale. And I do not meant that there is a lack of scenic days (72 and sunny is well matched by 22 with fresh snow, in my mind), but rather that the humbling nature of a powerful storm system may be lost due to the geography of the area.

I miss the well defined comma of a Pacific storm system. First of all, the predictable shape and movement allows for even laymen meteorologists to accurately predict the timing and impact of a storm. But the things I have most come to miss are the perfectly regular bands of increasingly ominous clouds that ceaselessly roll inland ahead of a coming storm. First a wide band of thin high clouds drifts in accompanied by a soft breeze. Then more prominent cloud bands roll in, darkening the sky as the wind begins to gust. Finally, the rain can be seen hanging in curtains beneath poorly defined clouds, the storm being upon you when you can no longer tell the boundary between cloud, rain and air.

Current weather over the Northeast US

By the time a Pacific storm has made it to the East Coast, the clouds are a disjointed mess. After passing over the Sierras and Rockies, mixing with cold air from Canada or warm moisture from the Gulf, the storm's structure is often unrecognizable once it has traversed the country. Still packing a punch, but not delivering it with the same grace [see image to the right].


"But what about all those nor'easters that we hear about?" you ask. The infamous nor'easters that you see on the news dumping feet of snow on NYC and Boston are well-formed indeed. However, they rarely send even modest amounts of precipitation towards upstate and central NY. The cause for this discrepancy is that a nor'easter, by definition, is a storm thats center of rotation sits off the East Coast, battering the coastal cities with marine moisture and the strong northeastern winds for which the weather pattern is named. Remember that Ithaca is 175 miles from NYC and 275 from Boston. To assume that our weather must be similar is like saying that LA and San Diego are getting hit hard with a storm thus Las Vegas must be too.

Superimposed images of SoCal and Northeastern locations, so as to compare distances. 

Another one I hear frequently is that we should be getting plenty of lake effect snow. Though our local Finger Lakes are technically large enough to produce the effect, any meaningful snowfall requires a much bigger body of water. Though our part of the state is bordered by two Great Lakes, they are both too far away to affect Ithaca with any level of severity. Do we get lake effect snow? Yes, but we get between "flurries" and a few inches at most. Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo on the other hand get buried under feet of snow on a regular basis, because they are on or near the downwind side of a great lake.

The only time we really get snow is when the big Pacific storms mentioned at the beginning of this weather rant make it all the way across the country, hopefully picking up some moisture from either the great lakes or the gulf en route. Now you know.


Again, I in no way want to portray that I'm unhappy either with my new home or the snow. In fact I have often remarked that I feel like I'm learning about winter weather like a five year old: everything seems new and wondrous and people think I'm crazy for taking such notice of the day to day things to which they have become accustomed. I love experiencing this new place with its new climate, but one of the bittersweet benefits of this move has been learning to appreciate what I left behind. And, in this regard, weather is by no means the greatest example.