I suspect the lake not only makes it cold - but also would prevent it from getting too cold. Even if the top is frozen, there's a whole lot of heat mass at > 32° sitting there, impacting the environment around it.
The top of the lake might be (in parts) frozen, it's still a giant body of water that's keeping things from getting too cold.
We have a few large lakes and some smaller bodies of water - but they're nothing compared to what you've got.
Yeah, that is true. Where I am the water is not deep enough but 40 miles away by the lake in the winter its warmer than here and in the summer it's cooler than here. They get more snow over there too by a lot. Lake effect snow.
Yeah and it's probably still acting on it where you live though not as much. Buffalo, NY, gets hit with some giant lake effect snow. I've been there for it in person - doing some work in the area on what's known as 'the skyway'.
The part of it that is real close tome freezes over and it goes out fifty miles or usually, but the part over on the other side of the peninsula never freezes, just a few small icebergs
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