Dictionary

snowbelt en · NOUN

Etymology

From snow + belt.

Meanings

1. An area that is characterized by heavy annual snowfall.
2. (also, with capital) Especially, the area around the Great Lakes in the north-eastern United States.
   • Government employment has produced long-term job growth in both snowbelt and sunbelt central cities. 1984, Daniel Roland Fusfeld, Timothy Bates, Timothy Mason Bates, The Political Economy of the Urban Ghetto, page 99:
   • Higher elevations and snow squalls from Lake Erie give Chardon, located in the core of the snowbelt in northern Geauga County, an average snowfall of 105 inches. 1996, Leonard Peacefull, A Geography of Ohio:
   • Monthly totals of less than 6 inches fell in western, central, and east-central sections, with the exception of the Great Lakes snowbelt, where totals ranged from as much as 9 inches along Lake Erie up to 16 inches along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, amounts well below normal for the snowbelt in December. 1966, Climatological Data, page 229:

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