A Comparison of Microphysical Properties in Lake-Effect and Synoptic Snowfall near Buffalo, NY

In order to improve forecasting of snow events, it is imperative to understand how the snowfall event type, mesoscale versus synoptic, dictates what an observer sees at the ground level. One location that experiences extreme snowfall is Buffalo, NY, which is located along the long axis of Lake Erie, and can experience large lake-effect snow and synoptic snow accumulations. The University of Illinois System for Characterizing and Measuring Precipitation (SCAMP) is a suite of deployable ground-based instruments consisting of a profiling Micro Rain Radar2, a precipitation weighing gauge, a laser disdrometer, and a weather sensor. This instrument suite measures various characteristics of precipitation such as precipitation amounts, radar reflectivities and Doppler velocities, and hydrometeor particle size distributions. SCAMP was deployed, east of Buffalo, NY, for two winter seasons, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, allowing for sampling of both synoptic and mesoscale snow events. Using three events from this dataset (the two lake-effect events on November 18-20, 2022, and December 23-26, 2022, and a synoptic event observed on 17 January 2022), the observed snowfall parameters will be examined to help gain an understanding as to how the event type might impact surface snowfall characteristics. Additionally, observed characteristics are key to calculating snow density and reflectivity-to-snowrate relationships, which will also provide useful information for forecasting. Finally, scanning radar data from the WSR-88D in Buffalo, NY, will be incorporated to examine band structure and dual-polarization radar characteristics during these contrasting events.