DCHP-2

streamer DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• n. — Ontario, especially Southwestern Ontario, Outdoors

  a long band of cloud connected with extreme snowfalls around the Great Lakes.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — In the Great Lakes area, a streamer is a cloud pattern connected with the onset of lake-effect snow. As cold wind flows across warmer lake water, it picks up moisture, which rises by convection and freezes, to fall as snow on the downwind side of the lake. Streamer may simply refer to the appearance of the cloud, or in this sense may have its antecedent in a more specialized sense, "a long narrow strip of vapour, snow, etc.", which dates back to 1871 (see OED-3, s.v. "streamer" [2.e]). As Chart 1 shows, the term is most frequent in the US and Canada, which is to be expected considering both US states and Canadian provinces border the Great Lakes (the UK hits refer to the same effect on the Thames, on the Kent coast or in other locations).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "streamer" (6), which is marked "Cdn".

  See also: wind chill  

  • Most lake-effect snow delivered by streamers falls in Southwestern Ontario, impacting life there to a considerable degree, hence Type 4 - Culturally Significant.