snowbelt

snow +‎ belt

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “On the model of sunbelt?”)

snowbelt (plural snowbelts)

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.
   • 1966, Climatological Data, page 229:

     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.

   • 1984, Daniel Roland Fusfeld, Timothy Bates, Timothy Mason Bates, The Political Economy of the Urban Ghetto, page 99:

     Government employment has produced long-term job growth in both snowbelt and sunbelt central cities.

   • 1996, Leonard Peacefull, A Geography of Ohio:

     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.