What causes a "lake effect" in weather conditions. I live in jacksonville, fl. ??r=1218627127?

Question

What causes "lake effect" in weather conditions in Jacksonville, Fl. ?

Answer 1

I live in Jax too, but lived in Rochester NY for a few years where 'lake effect' was a fact of life. While you can sometimes get lake effect rain there in summer, usually the term references wintertime snows. When a cold front sweeps down out of Canada across the Great Lakes, the cold air over the relatively warm water can kick up some intense snowfalls within 50 miles or so on the southern side of the lake, with accumulations of several inches per hour not unheard of. Lake effect in Jacksonville is, of course, limited to rainfall, but the principle's the same. A cold front crossing the warm St. Johns river water where it's wide enough warms up the clouds and starts them dumping rain over Mandarin.

Answer 2

yup...cold air from canada going over the warm waters of the great lakes...i never heard of it occuring in florida though--i always thought it was a great lakes thing, especially the areas around western and central new york state...its most severe around early november when  it just starts getting reaaly cold air temperature wise but the hasnt been cold enough to really cold down the lakes--in other words, its 20 degrees out but the lake erie is still 50 degrees--leads to a 4 foot snow dump