Why are lakes colder?
Heating from the sun during the day causes the land to warm and air to rise since warm air is less dense than cold air. The rising air at the surface creates an area of low pressure since that air is forced up creating higher pressure aloft. This flow of air from high to low is your lake breeze!
Why does Michigan have hot summers and cold winters?
Continental Location Because Michigan is far from any oceanic influence, it has a “continental climate.” Land masses retain much less heat than do large bodies of water, so they change temperature more quickly in response to variations in the amount of solar energy received.
Why does the temperature differ within a lake?
Many lakes experience a “turning” of its water layers when the seasons change. When this happens, the surface water becomes more dense than the deeper water with a more constant year-round temperature (which is now warmer than the surface), and the lake “turns”, when the colder surface water sinks to the lake bottom.
Do the Great Lakes regulate temperature?
The Great Lakes modify the local weather and climate. Because water temperatures change more slowly than land temperatures, lake waters gain heat in summer and release heat during cooler months. This results in cooler springs, warmer falls, delayed frosts and lake-effect snow.
Will Great Lakes rise with global warming?
The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments, a NOAA-funded center in Ann Arbor, projects that Great Lakes states’ temperatures will increase by 3.6 to 11.2 degrees by 2100. Warmer weather is producing more atmospheric moisture in the region.
Do the Great Lakes cause rain?
The mechanism that produces the localized areas of rainfall is essentially the same as lake-effect snow. Cold air moves across the relatively warmer waters of the lakes and that creates a steep drop in temperature from the lake surface through the first several thousand feet in the atmosphere.
Will the Great Lakes dry out?
The Great Lakes share a surprising connection with Wisconsin’s small lakes and aquifers — their water levels all rise and fall on a 13-year cycle, according to a new study. But that cycle is now mysteriously out of whack, researchers have found.
What is causing great lakes to rise?
Since 1995, average surface water temperatures have increased slightly for each of the Great Lakes (see Figure 2). Recent increases in water temperature have mostly been driven by warming during the spring and summer months (see Figure 2).
What is the average water temperature of the Great Lakes?
The average water temperature now is 76 degrees, with the long-term average water temperature at 70 for this date. Lake Superior average water temperature this year (red) versus long-term average. Lake Superior might still sound cold with an average surface water temperature of 54 degrees.
What month are the Great Lakes the warmest?
Lake Michigan’s average water temperature reached 75.1 degrees on July 8, nearly 11 degrees above normal, and the warmest mark on record so early in the year…
Which Great Lake has the warmest water?
Lake Ontario
Can bacteria grow in Lake Superior?
The water in Lake Superior is cold enough year-round to inhibit bacterial growth, and bodies tend to sink and never resurface. The lack of nutrients inhibits algal growth (unlike Lakes Erie and Ontario) and bacterial growth is referred to as an oligotrophic lake.