Quote:
Originally Posted by The North One
So you could grow Southern Magnolia trees in Glen Arbor but not Traverse city?
That's very interesting.
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Yes it does seem to be possible prolly because of the way the prevailing winds in that area in winter will be blowing from the lake especially during cold snaps but because there is higher terrain the further inland you go and traverse city is separated from the main coast line by the Leelanau Peninsula the effects of the marine influence are mitigated to a degree. It also seems to have some correlation to the snow belt areas which makes since because of how lake effect snow is created that the areas down wind would have their temp's moderated by the marine influence and cloud cover protecting from radational cooling during the night.
Another example of how complicated and localized great lakes influenced weather patterns can get is if you look about mid way up the west coast of MI the Ludington area doesn't seem to have much marine insulation at all and 5b climate zone seems to get right up to the coast there. However it certainly does get heavy lake effect snow but the area to the west of Traverse City is known as an area that can get extra enhancement from lake effect events because of the shape of the coast the shape of the lake offshore and a continuation of moisture picked up from lake superior that is recharged over lake MI because of the prevailing winds.
I was looking for this article about super enhancement zones of lake effect snow which seems to have some correlation to the 6b going all the way up to Glen Arbor at least from my amateur meteorologists glance, although i wasn't able to find it quickly enough before i lost interest
