This month has set several different temperature records, including the longest heat wave in Buffalo history. July 2020 could even end up becoming Buffalo’s hottest month on record.
But that’s the air temperature. Lake Erie’s water has been much warmer than normal all month too. Several days saw a record high reading of 77 degrees off the Buffalo shoreline. For context, the average water temperature for that gauge ranges from 68 to 73 degrees throughout the month.
RELATED: How does the lake breeze work?
This year certainly doesn't stand alone. Lake Erie's average water temperature has been steadily rising over the past several decades.
The warmer-than-average water can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. Mild water is more welcoming for water sports and other recreation on the lake, and recent hot, dry weather has allowed for more evaporation on the lake.
That increased evaporation has been enough to bring the lake level down by about 2 inches from this time last year; welcome news for those who have had to worry about record high lake levels in recent years.
But in the long run, the bad could outweigh the good. I explain some of the side effects in this week’s Heather’s Weather Whys.
New episodes of Heather’s Weather Whys are posted to the WGRZ YouTube channel every Wednesday evening.
If you have a weather question for Heather to answer, send it to her at heather.waldman@wgrz.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.
