December 10th-11th Lake Effect Snow

In the wake of a departing low pressure system, northerly winds combined with forcing from an upper level disturbance to generate conditions favorable for the development of lake effect snow. Light snow began during the afternoon hours on Monday, December 10th and increased in intensity during the evening hours. Snow tapered off by the morning hours on Tuesday, December 11th. Accumulations were mainly limited to two main bands: one in western La Porte County and one from Berrien County to western Cass County into St. Joseph/Elkhart counties in Indiana. Locations in these areas received about 1 to 3 inches, with locally higher amounts. Locations outside these bands received less than a half inch of snow for the most part.

South Bend (NWS official observation) received 1.6 inches of snow during the event. This was the first measurable snowfall since March 5th, 2012. The streak of 279 days between March 5th and December 9th set a new record for consecutive days without measurable snowfall. This broke the previous record of 272 days set in 1948. For more information, see our story on the record.

The radar loop below is during the height of the event from 7:31PM EST (00:31Z) on December 10th through 12 AM EST (5Z) on December 11th.

The map below shows 24 hour snowfall totals ending around 9 AM EST on December 11th.

Location	Value
NILES 2.7 W	1.8
MILLERSBURG 0.5 SW	1.7
DOWAGIAC 5.3 NNW	1.6
GRANGER 2.9 W	1.5
KINGSBURY 5.0 ENE	1.5
LA PORTE 1.6 SW	1.4
GRANGER 1.6 N	1.0
SYRACUSE 3.3 NNE	1.0
WANATAH 2 WNW	1.0
CROMWELL 2.7 SW	0.9
LEO 2.2 NW	0.9
WAKARUSA 0.3 WSW	0.9
ELKHART 3.1 SSE	0.8
HUNTERTOWN 2.6 ESE	0.8
LA PORTE 2.3 ESE	0.8
SOUTH BEND 4.6 SE	0.8
MISHAWAKA 5.9 SE	0.7
WALKERTON 4.1 ENE	0.7
GOSHEN 1.2 WNW	0.6

Due to mostly sunny skies over areas near Lake Michigan, snowfall accumulations were visible in satellite images on the afternoon of December 11th.

Page Published 12/11/2012
CEO