Lake Climates

Lakes can greatly modify the climate conditions in a region, resulting in cooler summers and warmer winters. The primary reason for this local climate modification is that, for several reasons, the diurnal and annual temperature cycles of lake surface temperature are delayed behind those for the air in regions upwind of the lakes. A second important factor is that there is a surface roughness difference between the lakes and nearby land areas. In this entry, the multiple cool-season and warm-season impacts of these differences, such as lake-effect snow storms and lake breezes, on lake climate regions, and the reasons for these, are discussed.