Are Any Of The Great Lakes In The Northeast?

Is it possible for a major squall line to sweep across the great lakes out of the east or northeast?

• i want to see it move across canada across the lakes off lake erie into nw ohio and keep going or move from the quaker state through cleveland into toledo through indiana into chicago and keep going. can it happen? has it ever happen ? will it ever happen?

• Answer:

  Yes, it is possible, but extreme rare. If it does happen, it will likely be short lived. The only cases that I can see a strong convective boundary moving from out the east or northeast that may be strong enough to be considered a major squall lined are these situations as follows: 1. A line of convection caused by an outflow boundary where the air mass is unstable to the west of this boundary and the the winds in the mid levels (the steering currents) are weak. 2. When convection occurs in a closed pressure systems. Examples would be wrap around flow convection around a closed upper low where the north-northwest quad of the upper low remains unstable with a good source of moisture still in place. Or any short convective clusters that spreads out to become a short convective line associated with an upper level disturbance that is rotating around the outer northern edge of a large upper level high (warm season "ring of fire" type pattern) 3. Any organized convection that forms or moves into a strong difluent 1000-to-500 mb thickness pattern. If this difluent thickness pattern is to the west of this organized convection, these convection may start to move to the west if the instability is strong enough to support its this line.. All three of these cases are rare, but has happen before. If a significant squall lines does form, I don't expect this line to be very long in distance or that the squall line will last very long in time.