A Single Lake Effect Snow Band is Stretching 700 Miles from Michigan to Albany, New York

If you asked someone what Whitefish Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Albany, New York have in common, the answer would be not much.

But for one winter weather system in February 2025, the two points on the globe shared the same band of lake effect snow despite being separated by some 700 miles. The snow show occured on February 18.

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Whitefish Point marks the entrance to Whitefish Bay - well known as the destination the doomed Edmond Fitzgerald failed to reach when it sank in a Lake Superior winter. The spit of land is northwest of Sault Ste Marie.

Albany is, of course, the capital of New York state an well, well inland from Lake Ontario far from the Empire State's typical lake effect snow areas of Buffalo or the Tug Hill.

Meteorologist Eric Snitil who serves as the chief for WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, pointed out the band, sharing on social media:

One, two & three Great Lakes are getting involved to produce a roughly 700 mile long (as the crow flies) band of lake effect snow this afternoon. Each of those lakes helps to reinforce the structure & integrity of the band with added moisture/lift. Beyond Lake Ontario, the band runs out of Great Lakes (and the necessary fuel to survive) and gradually fades away.

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The band began over Lake Superior and intensified with fuel from each succeeding lake. The show was narrow but heavy across the Canadian peninsula between Lakes Huron and Ontario. While Lake Ontario really ramped things up with a walloping blow to New York communities like Oswego, Rome and Utica. The band tapers over the Mohawk Valley but had enough fuel to carry lake effect snow into New York's Capital Region.

It's striking to see the flow of snow on a map: