Do Lake Effect Precipitation Events have a Unique Stable Isotope Fingerprint?: An Analysis of Isotope Data from Western New York

Project Objectives

• See if lake effect events produce an unique stable isotope fingerprint that can be used to identify events that weren’t classified as lake effect but still came from the lake.

Data and Results

•Downloaded precipitation isotope data and created a list of LES days based on NWS archive.

• Discovered that lake effect events generally produce more depleted values of the stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen and higher values of d-excess.

Significance

• This data can be fed into a moisture recycling model to see how much the lake has contributed to precipitation over the past 11 years.

• Possible to use paleoclimatological records to see how lake effect has changed in the past.

Publication or Conference

Not at this time.

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Center for Geological and Climate Hazards

Interdisciplinary Research Experience for Undergraduates in Atmospheric and Geological Hazards