You might as well just tell me in hectacres, or bushels. When it's snowing that hard, sow measurement in inches is not useful. It's just a lot. Anything over 60 inches, and all you need to know is how much food you have in the house, and how often you have to shovel off the top of your garage or house to keep the roof from collapsing. The Lake Effect .
Problems arise - especially around a large body of water like Lake Michigan.
We haven't figured out anything better to call it behind the weathermen's backs yet, so we have to call it the same thing. I am working on a new term for it in my spare time. Not sure about the science behind it, and I don't care to research it, but I know it happens. Random snow around the lake. This always happens on Monday mornings.