If you're an optimist, you'll appreciate this.
Forecasters say the bitter cold temperatures we've been experiencing this week actually diminish the likelihood of lake effect snow.
Meteorologist Aaron Reynolds of the National Weather Service in Buffalo says it's because Lake Erie is about 95 percent ice covered, and even the much deeper Lake Ontario is frozen along the shoreline."When you remove the moisture source and it freezes over, you've effectively taken away that moisture source. When you have a colder air moving over it, it's a frozen lake and you have no more moisture to work with any more."
Reynolds says that phenomenon also means fewer clouds and more sunshine, even though that sun isn't making it feel any warmer.
