What we're getting now is certainly not global warming. It's weird weather variations. The trees had leaves around here until the week after Thanksgiving! (metro Cleveland)
Doesn’t lake effect snow depend on the Great Lakes not being frozen?
Interesting question got me to looking on the internet for an answer. Looks like once frozen, lake effect snow is reduced. A storm can’t pull in additional moisture from the frozen surface to contribute to the snowfall. The temperature differential between the land and the lake is also reduced once the surface is frozen, so you no longer have a relatively warmer front running into colder land triggering precipitation.
https://www.almanac.com/blog/weather-blog/frozen-great-lake-story