{"id":671393,"date":"2026-05-15T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/671393\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:15:08","slug":"wny-without-lake-effect-snow-ancient-iceberg-scratches-reveal-a-reverse-snowbelt-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/671393\/","title":{"rendered":"WNY without lake-effect snow? Ancient iceberg scratches reveal a reverse snowbelt | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO \u2014 The region\u2019s legendary snowfall totals are largely the result of one unlucky geographic reality: the city sits east of the Great Lakes instead of west.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has lived through a winter in Buffalo, Cleveland or any snowbelt city knows that prevailing westerly winds pick up moisture from the lakes and dump lake-effect snow on their eastern shores.<\/p>\n

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\"Great<\/p>\n

In this 2015 satellite image, the Great Lakes are almost completely covered in ice. A new study suggests that, during the last Ice Age, winds likely pushed lake-effect snow toward the lakes\u2019 western shores instead of the eastern snowbelt cities familiar today. Photo courtesy of NOAA\/NASA\/NESDIS Environmental Visualization Laboratory.<\/p>\n

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