A new analysis of data from buoys, weather stations, and historical ice records indicates that summer surface temperatures of Lake Superior have increased approximately 2.5°C since 1979, roughly twice the rate of regional atmospheric warming.
Austin and Colman hypothesize that declining winter ice cover is causing the lake to absorb more solar radiation than it did in past years. The increased absorption, in turn, causes earlier stratification of the lake at a rate of roughly half a day per year.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070322110147.htm
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