Lake effect snow

Snow is already frozen, so it doesn't cause icing BUT there
is also a lot of unfrozen water in the snow clouds that will
cause icing. Moderate snow will reduce vis to at or below
ILS minimums and lake effect snow can last for hours.
Tops can be very good producers of ice and it pays to have a
good report on temps aloft.

Unless you have a fully de-iced airplane certified for known
ice, fall, winter and spring in the Great Lakes region can
be tough. Mid-winter is probably easier since it is colder
and the lakes may be frozen over, stopping the lake effect.


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

"A Lieberman" wrote in message
...
| On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 14:38:05 +0000 (UTC), Paul Tomblin
wrote:
|
| Hey Paul,
|
| Can't answer from "experience" but that won't stop me from
trying to say my
| opinion :-))
|
| 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?
|
| Don't know how high the tops are, but lake effect snows do
produce thunder
| snow, having been there done that when I lived in Ohio.
It's a wild
| experience on the ground, I sure wouldn't want to be
inside a band of lake
| effect snow. I'd imagine, it be a pretty rough ride. I
think the tops go
| up to 15 to 20K based on the inversion levels in the more
intense bands.
|
| I would think you would need to treat the more intense
bands as if you
| would a thunderstorm?
|
| 2. What about if the band is covering the airport? Fly
the approach or
| wait?
|
| In the more intense bands, I'd say you would not be able
to fly the
| approach as the viz would be well below minimums.
Ceilings I'd imagine
| would be close to minimums or obscured in the more intense
snow bands.
|
| Since there are bands of lake effect snow almost
continually from now
| until March between here and anywhere I want to go,
should I give up any
| dreams of flying IFR during the winter?
|
| Having never dealt with snow, I wonder about the safety of
flying IMC in
| snow in general..... Wouldn't the clouds produce some
form of icing within
| the snowfall if you were in IMC? I'd imagine below the
cloud deck the snow
| would be "relatively" harmless, but inside IMC, wouldn't
the clouds be
| supercooled droplets?
|
| Allen
|
|