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    WeatherMatrix (Jesse Ferrell)

    5 feet of record lake-effect snow in Pennsylvania, New York on Christmas!

    By Jesse Ferrell
    12/28/2017, 1:41:57 PM

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    Erie, Pennsylvania, racked up over 65 inches of lake-effect snow on Christmas Day and the day after.

    Erie Snow (Cropped)


    We have photos from the event, and the NWS in Cleveland has posted this list of final snowfall totals and Erie records from this lake-effect event:

    Final Erie Snowfall Records / Totals


    The state of Pennsylvania's two-day record snowfall was broken, as well as Erie's one-day snowfall, Christmas Day snowfall and December snowfall records. This is what the final map looks like:

    Erie Record Snowfall 12/25-12/27 (Map)


    How did this happen? Very simply, a continuous west, cold wind for over 48 hours, which drew moisture up to form clouds and snow, which kept tracking east, "training" over the same areas.



    It wasn't just Pennsylvania -- the favored lake-effect area around Oswego County, New York, also got over 5 feet of snow... breaking records there too. These webcams show before-and-after pictures from New York state, courtesy NorthernChateau.com:

    NY State Snow Webcam Before & After

    NY State Snow Cams 2


    And finally, the Erie newspaper from Dec. 26:

    Erie Newspaper 12/26

    The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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    WeatherMatrix (Jesse Ferrell)

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    WeatherMatrix (Jesse Ferrell)

    AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Manager pens the WeatherMatrix blog covers extreme weather worldwide with a concentration on meteorology and social media.