What's lake effect snow and how does it form?

DETROIT – In Michigan the term "lake effect snow" is thrown around a lot, even if the snow isn't due to the "lake effect." 

But what exactly is lake effect snow and how does it form? Meteorologist Paul Gross offers a quick and simple explanation. 

Watch above. 

Meanwhile, in Metro Detroit we're expected to see more snow Thursday night into Friday. Here's the latest forecast from Gross:

At first glance, this doesn't appear to be a powerful storm -- perhaps a 1-3 inches type of storm -- but keep in mind that the upper level disturbance that will create this storm is still out over the Pacific, and won’t cross onto the continent for another day or so.  Only then will we be able to study its physics with data from our land-based upper air weather balloon network, at which point the computer models should start coming into better agreement on its strength and track.

Read the full forecast here.