A Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis was generated to examine patterns in November snowfall climatology for 47 observing stations surrounding Lake Michigan. Snowfall data compiled for each year from 1950 to 2012 was mapped using an interpolation method called kriging, which is a spatial analyst tool. Some of the data mapped includes average snowfall for the Lake Michigan region, number of days with measurable snowfall, number of days with snow on the ground, and correlation between snowfall and temperature. Overall, these maps show maximums in north-central and southwestern Michigan decreasing to the south, as expected. The first three loadings of principal component analysis were also mapped using the same data. Principle Component 1 (PC1) explains most of the data variance and shows that northern and southwestern Michigan do not correlate with areas on the western side of the lake, illustrating that the amount of snow that northern Michigan receives doesn\u27t correspond to the amount of snow that Chicago receives and vice versa. Once this primary pattern is captured, the second principal component shows an inverse relationship between the main NW and SW lake-effect regions in Michigan and the third principal component reflects the influence of snowfall from synoptic systems NW of Lake Michigan
