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Upbeat_Estimate1501 t1_j5kqf96 wrote

Reply to comment by These-Days in Weather by Routine-Interview991

Having lived in Ohio I think they're talking about Ohio amounts of snow, which is generally 4+ inches whereas Pgh usually just gets dustings, or not enough to look like a "winter wonderland".

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arguchik t1_j5kv0uc wrote

Does Ohio get lake effect snow from Lake Erie? I've always wondered but never asked, never googled.

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Upbeat_Estimate1501 t1_j5kwd4b wrote

Yep it does. I've lived in both Northern and Southern Ohio. Southern the weather was more similar to here in Pgh in terms of snowfall. Northern, winters were very snowy, and I would not recommend visiting Cleveland in the winter unless you know what you're getting into.

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James19991 t1_j5l8d1b wrote

Columbus averages 28 inches of snow a year, Toledo averages 37 inches of snow per year, and Cincinnati averages only 23 inches of snow a year.

Pittsburgh meanwhile averages 44 inches of snow per year.

Sure Cleveland and points north and east of there in Ohio can do well with the lake effect, but it's absolutely not true that the other major cities of Ohio are snowier than Pittsburgh.

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Upbeat_Estimate1501 t1_j5l9qup wrote

Cbus is in Southern Ohio as is Cincy (note my original comment discussion the distinction between cities closer to Lake Erie versus southern).

Granted I've only been here in Pgh for about 8 years but in that time I've never seen snow compared to what I was used to growing up in Ohio. Maybe it's just climate change, if you've lived here for a long time maybe you can attest to that? But there's definitely a difference to the dig-your-car-out snows I was used to and moving here seeing very little and only a few storms, if that each winter.

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James19991 t1_j5lbi2k wrote

The area of Ohio that gets the lake effect is really a small portion of Ohio's land area as a whole to be fair. You generally can't get much lake effect in Ohio until you're in and around Cleveland to Youngstown, and points north and east of that. Even in Cleveland, the western parts of the metro area have much more manageable snowfall totals that are not that much worse than what you get around here, while it's the places just east of the city of Cleveland that get dumped on.

Pittsburgh has never been a spot for large 12+ inch snowfalls, but it gets plenty of 2 to 6-in snow falls throughout the year during a normal winter. Just two winters ago we had like four 6+ inch snowfalls throughout the season though, and that was fun

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kyach25 t1_j5lnwpw wrote

This is spot on. I feel like there were many times while I lived on the East Side that we would just get hammered with snow and the West Side towards Hopkins had a lot less. I just think especially with lake effect, it tends to roll in through the East Side more. As someone who loves snow, it was awesome being on the East Side.

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James19991 t1_j5lu4q2 wrote

Bingo. Yeah, if you're on west side of Cleveland, you can't get much if any lake effect from a west wind, and I think the elevation plays a role in those areas to the east too.

I love snow as well, so I wish I could spend a winter in Erie or Ashtabula once.

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arguchik t1_j5l1e66 wrote

Cool! I grew up in Grand Rapids, MI - lake effect snow from Lake Michigan usually ran out of gas by the time it got to us, but sometimes we'd get slammed with it. Not like the UP, though. Up on the Keweenaw Peninsula they have snow sticks as tall as telephone poles.

The reason I asked is because weather patterns usually go from southwest to northeast in the US. But I guess Lake Erie does sit at an angle, so it makes sense that Cleveland would get it.

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