Author Topic: Cool example of lake microclimate at Cayuga Lake  (Read 863 times)

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Offline Carbon

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Cool example of lake microclimate at Cayuga Lake
« on: May 17, 2017, 06:39:52 PM »
Hey everyone!

I wasn't sure where else I should share this, but I think this is the right place. I wanted to show you a very strange example of a microclimate, and also ask a few questions. This weather station is placed right next to Cayuga Lake. Because of being right next to the lake, the conditions are often much different and change much faster than even just a bit inland. For example, it's 84.7 at home right now a couple miles inland, but at the lake it's 76.5.

I've noticed some strange temperature fluctuations because of its location. I mostly recognized this by looking at the graphs of its data. Here is a photo: (http://imgur.com/TwLeYQU). This graph is from today, a particularly sunny day with record breaking temperatures (not by the lake microclimate!). Here is a picture of the smooth graph from my home PWS, what I would think most inland stations look like: (http://imgur.com/XYxKHWR). It appears that once the sun rises, the water warms and a lake wind effect begins to take place. With the fluctuating wind speeds and air pockets of different temperatures that come off the lake, you get spikes and dips in temperature. One looking at this data might think it's incorrect, but when biking and standing next to the lake, you can definitely feel the temperature changes as it shows on live data. Each of these stations have a fast reporting interval, so that isn't really a factor. Just note, these are just speculations and I might be totally wrong.

To support what I said about the sun warming the water, here is a picture from a gloomy and windy day on March 9th during the Northeast Blizzard: (http://imgur.com/BhEh4rp). The temperature has nearly no fluctuation compared to days with sun.

If you have seen something with fluctuations this extreme, or if you have a better explanation than I do, please reply! I thought this was moderately interesting and deserved to be shared.

-Ethan

Offline CW2274

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Re: Cool example of lake microclimate at Cayuga Lake
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2017, 07:41:31 PM »
It appears that once the sun rises, the water warms and a lake wind effect begins to take place. 
Water cools and heats MUCH less efficiently than air. When you say the sun rises and warms the lake, that's not really happening, at least not even remotely to the degree you're implying. Think of it this way, put your hand over a stove burner on high, gets hot immediately, right? Now put on a pot of water on that same burner and stick your hand in it. How long before your hand burns? An eternity compared to sticking your hand over the burner.
Read here on lake (sea) breezes if you'd like. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_breeze

Offline Carbon

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Re: Cool example of lake microclimate at Cayuga Lake
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2017, 07:56:46 PM »
I definitely understand that water cools and heats less efficiently than air - water has a high specific heat. However, while trying to find a correlation between something and these temperature fluctuations, I've come up with nothing better.

I'm not too knowledgeable on this side of things.