What is the climate around a lake?

The massive Lakes act like heat sinks that moderate the temperatures of the surrounding land, cooling the summers and warming the winters. The lakes also act like giant humidifiers, increasing the moisture content of the air. In the winter, this moisture contributes to heavy snowfall known as “lake effect” snow.



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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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Many lakes experience a turning of its water layers when the seasons change. 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.

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Temperature can vary depending on the time of year and the size and depth of a body of water. A unique phenomenon for lakes is the stratification of the water into layers due to changes in temperature at different depths. These layers occur because as water temperature changes so does its density.

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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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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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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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