As described in Steenburgh (2003, 2004), the Hundred Inch Storm provides a great example of what Mother Nature can do when the atmosphere and Great Salt Lake are in outlier mode. It was produced by two storm systems that were strongly augmented by the Great Salt Lake Effect. Each storm system featured a period of stable, pre-frontal precipitation, a period of unstable pre-frontal precipitation that followed the surge of cold, dry air aloft, heavy frontal precipitation accompanying the cold front, and then intense lake-effect snowfall.
Radar imagery from storm system I showing stable prefrontal (top left), unstable prefrontal (top right), frontal (bottom left), and lake-effect (bottom right) stages. |
Radar imagery from storm system II showing stable prefrontal (top left), unstable prefrontal (top right), frontal (bottom left), and lake-effect (bottom right) stages. |
The bottom line is that the 100-inch storm was a whopper of an event, especially with regards to lake-effect, and we haven't had anything like it since.
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