01:17 Making Snowflakes Any Time of the Year The Weather Channel meteorologist Kelly Cass looks at how you can make a snowflake any season of the year.

At a Glance A lake-effect snowband dumped over 4 feet of snow in Erie, Pennsylvania, in just over one day's time.

This shattered the city's calendar-day snowfall record, on Christmas Day, no less.

Continuing into Tuesday, this also clobbered the previous state record two-day snowfall.

Erie picked up more snow in 30 hours than its previous 13-day snowfall record.

The storm total for the event reached an incredible 65.1 inches by Wednesday morning.

Officials declared a snow emergency for the city.



A lake-effect snowstorm hammered Erie, Pennsylvania, Christmas Day into Tuesday, shattering not only city records, but also at least one all-time Pennsylvania snowstorm record.

A stationary lake-effect snowband off Lake Erie dumped an incredible 34 inches of snow at Erie Airport on Christmas Day alone, quadrupling its previous record-snowiest Christmas Day – 8.1 inches in 2002 – as well as smashing its all-time snowiest single day on record by over a foot – 20 inches on Nov. 11, 1956.

That heavy snow continued into Wednesday morning, bringing its storm total since 7 p.m. EST Christmas Eve to an incredible 65.1 inches of snow – more than five feet of snow – in about 60 hours.

This prolific event shattered all previous multi-day snowfall records in Erie dating to 1893, according to the National Weather Service office in Cleveland, including:

Two-day snowfall: 26.7 inches (Nov. 24-25, 1950; the "Great Appalachian Storm")

Three-day snowfall : 30.2 inches (Dec. 29-31, 2002)

Seven-day snowfall: 39.8 inches (Dec. 27, 2001 - Jan. 2, 2002)

13-day snowfall: 52.8 inches (Dec. 31, 1998 - Jan. 12, 1999)

That's not a misprint. Erie picked up more snow in less than 36 hours in this event than its previous 13-day snowstorm record.

Needless to say, the 102.1 inches of snow so far in December, through Wednesday, is the city's snowiest single month on record, crushing the previous record of 66.9 inches in December 1989. This is also more snow in one month than Erie averages in an entire winter season – 101 inches.

(MORE: The Great Lakes' Amazing Lake-Effect Snowfall Records )

This wasn't just a snowstorm record for the city, however.

According to the National Weather Service office in Cleveland, Erie also shattered the previous Pennsylvania state two-day snowstorm record of 44 inches set in Morgantown from March 20-21, 1958.

This northwest Pennsylvania city of just under 100,000 is used to heavy lake-effect snow and is one of America's snowiest cities, averaging 101 inches of snow a year.

However, picking up roughly the average December and January snowfall – 57.1 inches – in just over a day is something long-time residents have never seen before.

Put another way, Erie picked up more snow in this event than the yearly average snowfall in the following cities:

Minneapolis/St. Paul: 53.4 inches

Boston: 43.5 inches

Chicago: 37.1 inches

(MORE: weather.com's Top 10 U.S. Weather Stories of 2017 )

A snow emergency was declared in the city, with city officials stressing roads were "dangerous and impassable," the Erie News reported.

"The crews are out, but quite simply they can't keep up with the amount of snow that's falling," said Matt Exley, Director of Emergency Management, Millcreek Township, Pennsylvania, in a Tuesday morning Facebook live post . Millcreek Township immediately surrounds the city of Erie.

"Most of the side roads have either not been touched or are one lane," Exley told the Erie News . "These guys have been working their tails off just trying to keep main routes as passable as possible."

Needless to say, residents in Erie County were asked to avoid all travel until roads could be cleared.

(MORE: How Much Snow Can You Expect in La Niña Winters? )

One Erie resident even resorted to putting on snowshoes simply to trudge through a snow-choked driveway to reach a snowthrower in his detached garage.

We may have witnessed one of the most prolific Christmas snowstorms on record in the U.S. , according to Western Regional Climate Center climatologist Dr. Brian Brettschneider.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter .