Sunday's Buffalo Marathon will take thousands of runners on a 26.2 mile tour of some of the Queen City's biggest landmarks. It will also give runners a taste of how different the weather can feel depending on how close they are to Lake Erie.
Whether at the starting line on Huron and Delaware or up in Delaware Park or along the Outer Harbor, humidity will be the biggest weather factor this weekend.
Temperatures at the starting line at 6:30 a.m. will already be in the mid 60s. By the time the elite runners near the finish a couple of hours later, temperatures will be in the mid 70s with a heat index nearing the upper 80s. Most runners will cross the finish line much later when temperatures are nearing the daily high of about 81 degrees.
Runners may feel a little relief as they run a couple of miles along the waterfront. Lake Erie's temperature is still in the low 50s, so even a slight breeze off the water would be refreshing.
Race officials will be carefully monitoring something called the "wet bulb globe temperature" which is a way to monitor potential heat stress on athletes and spectators. If conditions are deemed to be dangerous, runners may be asked to slow their pace.
The duration of the race looks dry with any pop-up thunderstorms most likely away from the lake and later in the afternoon.