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Sault Ste. Marie Lake Effect Snow

Why Lake Superior buries Sault Ste. Marie, what NOAA's 1991-2020 normals show, and every active NWS winter product, as issued.

Season normal: 120.1 inches at SAULT STE MARIE SANDERSON FLD, MI US
Seasonal snowfall normal
120 in
Snowiest month
December
The lake
Lake Superior

Sault Ste. Marie snowfall, by the numbers

NOAA NCEI normals, 1991-2020
120.1 in
seasonal normal
SAULT STE MARIE SANDERSON FLD, MI US
30.4 in
in December alone
the peak month
Oct to Apr
months with 1 in or more
the season window
Lake Superior
the engine
MI snowbelt

Every figure is NOAA NCEI’s official 1991-2020 climate normal for the named station, SAULT STE MARIE SANDERSON FLD, MI US (USW00014847). Lake effect gradients are sharp: a few miles can change a season total by feet.

The calendar

Month by month snowfall in Sault Ste. Marie

NOAA’s 1991-2020 monthly snowfall normals for SAULT STE MARIE SANDERSON FLD, MI US, laid out as a snow season from July to June. Lake effect climates load their totals into the cold months when the lake is still open water; watch how fast the bars rise in November and fall off late winter.

Monthly snowfall normals (inches), SAULT STE MARIE SANDERSON FLD, MI US, NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals.
Satellite view of parallel lake effect snow bands streaming southeast off all five Great Lakes
Lake effect snow bands streaming off the Great Lakes, in a NOAA satellite view. Cold air crossing warm water organizes into these parallel cloud streets, and where one comes ashore it snows hard while the next town over sees sun. “Lake effect snow bands over the Great Lakes region” — NOAA — Public domain
The mechanism

Why Sault Ste. Marie gets lake effect snow

Sault Ste. Marie sits at the eastern outlet of Lake Superior, catching bands that form on northwest flow across Whitefish Bay and the lake's eastern basin. Superior is so large and deep that it rarely freezes over completely, so the eastern UP's season is long, and the Soo's winter is a mix of long-fetch lake effect, system snow, and the occasional band parked overhead for days.

The physics, in the National Weather Service’s own words: “Lake Effect snow occurs when cold air, often originating from Canada, moves across the open waters of the Great Lakes... The air rises, clouds form and grow into narrow band that produces 2 to 3 inches of snow per hour or more.” And on location: “Wind direction is a key component in determining which areas will receive lake effect snow. Heavy snow may be falling in one location, while the sun may be shining just a mile or two away in either direction.” (NWS, What is Lake Effect Snow?)

Satellite view of snow covered snowbelts downwind of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario with both lakes open
Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and their snowbelts from NASA's MODIS, January 13, 2017. The white land downwind of each lake is the belt itself: snow drawn on the map by fetch and wind direction. “Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and the Finger Lakes” — Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC — Public domain
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Live, as issued

Winter weather products covering MI right now

Every active National Weather Service winter product for Michigan, read live from api.weather.gov and reproduced exactly as issued. Zones are larger than the city, so confirm the listed areas include yours.

Checking api.weather.gov for active winter weather products…

Why the mixed product names: for the 2017-2018 winter the NWS consolidated its lake effect products into the general winter suite. The Lake Effect Snow Warning came back on October 1, 2019, but per Service Change Notice 19-63 its use is “optional at Regional discretion” and offices may still issue Winter Storm Warnings “with the lake effect component specified in the ‘What’ section”. The old Lake Effect Snow Watch and Advisory were never reinstated. So this page passes through every winter product for the area and tags the ones whose own NWS text names lake effect.

Whiteout and travel decisions belong with the National Weather Service (weather.gov winter safety) and the Michigan 511 system (511 road conditions). NWS products above are reproduced as issued.

The season

When lake effect season runs, and what ends it

Lake effect season opens with the first arctic outbreaks over still-warm water, usually November, and the early-season events are often the most violent because the lake is warmest. What closes the season depends on the lake: shallow Lake Erie usually freezes and shuts its machine off, while deep Lake Ontario and Lake Superior stay mostly open and can produce all winter.

Lake Erie

80%

average annual maximum ice cover; 34 of 53 winters peaked at 90% or more. The shallowest Great Lake freezes, and its snow machine stops.

Lake Ontario

29%

average annual maximum ice cover; only 7 of 53 winters even reached 50%. The deep lake stays open, and its belt keeps running.

Our averages, computed from NOAA GLERL’s daily Great Lakes ice cover record (GLICD), ice years 1973 to 2025: for each winter we take the season’s peak daily lake-averaged ice cover, then average those peaks.

A dark wall of lake effect snow advancing across Lake Erie toward the Buffalo waterfront
The wall of snow: the leading edge of the November 2014 lake effect band advancing on Buffalo, from the NOAA Photo Library. NWS Buffalo wrote that the band edge was so sharp "many described it as a wall of snow"; every Great Lakes belt town knows a smaller version of this sky. “Snowfall descending on the Buffalo Southtowns” — NOAA Photo Library, NWS Collection — Public domain
Common questions

Sault Ste. Marie lake effect snow FAQ

Cars buried to their rooflines in snow at the Broadway and Town Line Road intersection near Buffalo
Town Line, New York, after the November 2014 event: cars reduced to soft white mounds. NWS Buffalo measured up to 65 inches from the first band alone, with mere inches a few miles north, the signature gradient of a single-band event. “Winter Storm Knife - Town Line, NY” by Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0
Elsewhere in the belts

Other snowbelt cities

Michigan lake effect snowThe statewide belt map this city sits inside, with records and the season shape.Michigan winter forecastNOAA's seasonal outlook for the whole winter, read for this state.Lake effect snow, nationwideEvery belt, the mechanism, and the Erie versus Ontario ice story.
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Snowfall figures are NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals for SAULT STE MARIE SANDERSON FLD, MI US (public domain), refreshed with each new normals release. Alerts read live from api.weather.gov and reproduced as issued. Ice statistics computed by us from NOAA GLERL daily records and labeled as our arithmetic. No safety advice of ours appears on this page.
Hero image: “Keweenaw Snow Thermometer” by Nick Nolte, CC BY-SA 2.5