The Great Lakes are known as the lake-effect snow machine for a reason.

These lakes are notorious for producing crippling snow events, piling up feet of snow in a matter of days! It isn’t unusual for snowfall rates to exceed 4-5 inches per hour in a lake-effect snow band.

Two back-to-back lake-effect snow events struck Buffalo, N.Y. in Nov. 2014, crippling parts of the area. Storm totals from the two events peaked at nearly seven feet!

What’s interesting with lake-effect snow is how much snowfall can vary from one community to the next. Where one community measured snow in feet, the next community located a few miles to the south measured snow in inches. 

Watch the video above to learn how lake-effect snow forms.