On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 14:38:05 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

Any more experienced Great Lakes area pilots able to answer some questions
about lake effect snow?

1. When there are bands of lake effect snow across your path:
- how high up do they go?
- how much ice do they produce?
2. What about if the band is covering the airport? Fly the approach or
wait?

I am based in Chicago. With the prevaling Westerly winds, we don't
see the lake effect snow as often as the Eastern side of the Lake.

Having said that - I do make trips to Indiana and Michigan, and it is
easy to pick up icing when the wind is blowing across the warm lake.
The worst icing I have experienced was from a thin band of lake effect
weather. Flying at 4000, in well under one minute (although it seemed
like an hour), I went from IMC conditions with no ice to a frozen
windscreen and an asymetric ice load on the prop. So it is not to be
taken lightly.

Regarding #2. Most of the time the bands are just snow, so flying
through them is not a big deal. However, as another poster mentions,
the snowfall rates can be significant, reducing forward visibility to
near zero. This makes a missed approach a likely outcome.

-Nathan