Previously, portions of the Great Lakes were hit by a significant lake effect snow event which dumped incredible amounts of snow over portions of central New York. Several areas received over 115 inches (over 2.5 m) of snow in a ten-day period just before the large winter storm as northwesterly winds and unfrozen lake surfaces due to the early winter warm weather favored the heavy snowfall. Several areas across Michigan and Ontario also received significant amounts of snow with locally 1 meter (3.3 ft) of snow east of Georgian Bay in Ontario.