The Mistake On The Lake

      Cleveland, Ohio's slogan is "The Best Location in the Nation", but that's malarkey. Back in 2010, according to a Reuters report a new poll had determined that Cleveland was deemed the most miserable city in USA. The rankings were based on jobless rates, inflation, taxes, commuting times, crime rates, performance by the city’s sports teams, weather, pollution and corruption by public officials.

     The reasons for Cleveland's poor ranking were plentiful: high unemployment, dismal weather, hefty taxes, corruption and even mediocre sports teams, all of which propelled the city to the No 1 position in the Forbes list. So bad was the report that Cleveland was the only city that fell in the bottom half of rankings in all nine categories. The old nickname, Mistake by the Lake, is more appropriate. 

     In 2019, a study conducted by Insurance Providers showed there had been an increase of almost 18 percent of Americans diagnosed with depression between 2016 and 2017, and guess which city had one of the highest rates of depression among large US cities with 21.9 percent of its residents so diagnosed? The correct answer is Cleveland. 

     The whole area is a gloomy place. The winter months are tough and it's hard to get pumped up to go outside and brave the elements. It's hard to deal with heavy snow, school closings, winter colds and frostbite. 

     Also in 2019, BestPlaces.net looked at the top 50 metro areas in the US and determined that Cleveland to Elyria (a city on the far west side) was fourth in the nation on their Gloom Score. They looked at: percentage of cloud cover, average hours of daylight and days with precipitation. The bad score means residents are at a high risk for Seasonal Affective Disorder the symptoms of which include feeling down, having low energy, and disruption of sleep patterns. 

     Even the Old Farmer's Almanac has been spot on predicting Cleveland's miserable July weather...rain and thunderstorms and above average rain. The Weather Channel's monthly forecast for July shows temperatures hovering around 90 degrees and their July calendar shows one (yes, one!) day with the little sun icon and six days with a partly cloudy icon. That leaves 27 days showing cloudy, rain and/or thunderstorms. 

     Lake Erie is one of two major factors responsible for Cleveland's crappy weather; the other, latitude. In the winter, northerly winds drag Arctic air down from Canada, dipping temperatures and triggering wind chills. When this air blows over the lake, it gains enormous amounts of moisture and dumps it as lake-effect snow on Northeast Ohio. If winds are from the northwest, this still brings in frigid air and could initiate snowfall across northern Ohio. 

     Lake Erie also has a strong effect on spring and summer weather. Water has a higher specific heat than air which means it takes much more energy to change its temperature. So, in the warm seasons, the lake tends to stay cooler than the air. Through convection, the cooler lake waters chill the air above and when the winds are right, they blow that cooler air onto the land. In terms of rainfall, passing showers strengthen greatly from the vast reservoir of moisture available in the lake, expanding the clouds higher and higher into the atmosphere to produce larger drops of rain and introducing enough instability to produce intensely strong storms.

Just another day in Cleveland