Weather Explainers

Weather Words: Snowbelt

Snowbelt is a term used to describe a region that sees consistent, heavy snowfall in the colder months.

A snowbelt is a region that gets consistent, heavy snowfall in the colder months, often in the form of lake-effect snow.

While a snowbelt can refer to any area that gets a lot of snow, the Great Lakes Snowbelt is the most prominent one in the U.S. Despite often being lumped into one region, the snowbelt can be broken down into sub-regions, each region being a “snowbelt” of its own.

As you can see on the map below, all of these snowbelts are located downwind of the Great Lakes — this is not a coincidence.

Lake-effect snow occurs when a frigid air mass from Canada moves over a relatively warm body of water, like one of the Great Lakes. The lake adds warmth and moisture to the air, which then rises and condenses, forming heavy lake-effect snow bands. These snow bands are localized and can drop feet of snow in downwind areas — creating the snowbelts!

Other examples of snowbelts in the U.S. include parts of the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains.

Hayden Marshall is a meteorologist intern and First-Year-Master’s Student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has been following weather content over the past three years as a Storm Spotter and weather enthusiast. He can be found on Instagram and Linkedin.