Snow continues to fall in the Great Lakes after 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow has fallen and a new storm is brewing

CNN
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It’s still snowing in the Great Lakes after more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow fell over the holiday weekend, blocking travel, stranding motorists and burying homes. There’s a brief pause before more inches of snow and a blast of freezing air arrive.

But first, another 1 foot of snow is possible through Tuesday in some areas of the Great Lakes that were already blasted over the weekend as the current lake-effect snow event continues.

Lake effect snow, when cold air flows over relatively warmer lakes and occurs as a series of narrow but intense periods of snow – called snow bands – that flow downwind away from the lake into an area near the lake. Snow amounts can accumulate as these snow bands spread out over a particular area or remain more stationary.

Parts of far northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York could receive nearly 20 additional inches of snow. The most intense bouts of lake effect snow will end Tuesday, but some areas will only have about 24 hours or less to dig out before a storm sweeps across the region.

This fast-moving storm will bring several centimeters across much of the Great Lakes and parts of southern Canada beginning early Wednesday before moving through the Northeast on Thursday.

The total snowfall from this storm will not be nearly as high as the amount of snow created by the lake effect over the holiday weekend. A few inches of accumulation is likely from the Great Lakes across elevated areas of the Northeast, with some lower elevations experiencing a patchy mix of rain and snow.

Following the storm, lake-like snowfall will return on Thursday as another blast of cold, January-like air engulfs the eastern U.S. later this week.

It’s still too early to know exactly how much snow the next round of lake effect will bring to the Great Lakes, but early forecasts are nowhere near as extreme as last weekend’s.

Nearly 70% of the United States – about 220 million people – are expected to experience temperatures that reach or fall below freezing by next weekend.

By Thursday morning, low temperatures will fall back into the single digits or fall below zero across much of the north-central U.S. and parts of the Midwest. Temperatures will be below freezing almost everywhere in the Lower 48 on Friday, except for the West Coast and parts of the South.

Cold air flows past relative Warm Lakes is the same recipe that produced meters of lake-effect snow over the holiday weekend. Just over 65 inches fell in part of New York’s Tug Hill region – an area notorious for its massive rainfall during lake effect events.

“With lake effect snow, weather can vary from locally heavy bands of snow with severely reduced visibility to dry conditions just a few miles away,” said the National Weather Service in Buffalo, New York. “Be prepared for rapid changes in weather, visibility and road conditions.”

This weekend showed how crippling lake effect snow is for travel.

Hundreds of travelers were stranded

The most dangerous travel conditions occurred after Thanksgiving, on some of the busiest travel days of the year.

New York State Police helped at least 110 disabled vehicles from parts of western New York to the Pennsylvania state line between Thanksgiving and Sunday, officials said in a news release.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in 11 counties on Friday as conditions rapidly deteriorated.

“My administration is working around the clock to respond to the snowstorm in Western New York and the North Country,” Hochul said Saturday. “Our state authorities and over 100 National Guard members are on site to support storm operations.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also called up his state’s National Guard on Saturday to help stranded motorists and ensure emergency responders can reach anyone trapped, he said on X.

According to Shapiro’s office, Pennsylvania State Police responded to nearly 200 traffic accidents in a 24-hour period on Friday and Saturday.

In Erie, Pennsylvania, treacherous conditions on Sunday caused some of the city’s plow drivers to get stuck while clearing snow, city officials said on Facebook.

North East, Pennsylvania, a county in Erie County, recorded just over 42 inches of snow between Thursday night and Saturday afternoon, while Erie received 31 inches of snow. 46 inches of snow fell in the New York City town of Barnes Corners on Sunday morning.

“Yesterday I shoveled for four hours and today I’m here for about an hour,” Erie resident Richard Korytowski told CNN affiliate WICU over the weekend as he dug his driveway.

“I expected to shovel,” he said, “but not this much.”

In neighboring Ashtabula County, Ohio, resident Ashley Drew shared footage of a home in Conneaut disappearing into a thick blanket of snow on Saturday, with the blue front door only partially visible as the snow continued to fall.

Parts of the county, which sits on Lake Erie, recorded about 40 inches of snowfall through Sunday night.

About two feet of heavy snow also buried Orchard Park, New York, where the Buffalo Bills secured a 35-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night. Crews and volunteers had previously helped clear snow from the field at the open-air Highmark Stadium.

CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Gene Norman, Allison Chinchar, Elisa Raffa, Steve Almasy, Artemis Moshtaghian, Taylor Galgano and Sam Joseph contributed to this report.