Does rain make lake water warmer?

Rain may have a cooling effect on the lake surface by lowering the near-surface air temperature, by the direct rain heat flux into the lake, by mixing the lake surface layer through the flux of kinetic energy and by convective mixing of the lake surface layer.



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Due to seasonal changes in sunlight intensity, surface water temperature begins to transition in the spring and fall. In the spring, the water surface warms.

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Often, during hot summer months, the amount of dissolved oxygen in a lake becomes low, making fish inactive. Rain will aerate the surface water and often has a cooling effect, both of which can activate fish.

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During the summer the lake absorbs energy, but the land reradiates energy to the atmosphere. Therefore, air over land is warmer than that over the water. In the winter the energy absorbed by the lake water is gradually released to the atmosphere, making the air over the water warmer than that over the land.

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In summer, the top of the lake becomes warmer than the lower layers. You've probably noticed this when swimming in a lake in summer - your shoulders feel like they're in a warm bath while your feet are chilled. Since warm water is less dense that colder water, it stays on top of the lake surface.

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Lake temperatures are largely driven by interactions with the atmosphere, so colder air temperatures lead to colder lake temperatures, according to the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).

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During the night, the high specific heat capacity of the water causes it to cool much slower than nearby land areas. This makes the air over the body of water warmer than air over the land. Now the warmer air over the water will be rising and the cooler air over the land will move in to replace it.

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We now have a micro (small) scale circulation — the lake breeze. This lake breeze that develops in the spring can cause a 30 degree difference in temperature over a few miles. It can oscillate back and forth, where you a warm one minute, but cold the next. We see this on a grand scale as well around the globe.

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During the early morning hours, the land and the water start out at roughly the same temperature. On a calm morning, a given pressure surface will be at the same height above both the land and water. A few hours later, the sun's energy begins to warm the land more rapidly than the water.

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