For some people, the first sign of spring is a robin on the lawn. For others, milder temperatures bring hope. Still others watch the snow melt and the creek rise or listen for the sound of the sump pump going day and night. For me, here by Lake Michigan, the surest sign of spring�s imminent arrival is something else altogether. The sign that gladdens my heart and gives me hope comes from meteorologists.

Yes, my favorite sign of spring comes from the mouths of people who sometimes don�t know what they are talking about. But my favorite sign of spring is a weather concept as well as reality. The sign of spring I count on consists of four little words: cooler by the lake.

I live within a mile of Lake Michigan. When the temperatures first drop, they do so faster in the air than in the water. Air cools faster than water. When winter first blows its nasty cold winds, how cold the air around my house gets depends on the direction of the wind. If the wind comes across the lake, the warmer water warms the air a bit and moderates our temperatures. Because the water temperature never gets as cold as the air does, when the wind comes off the lake, we�re often warmer near the lake (and sometimes snowier.) The weather guy says things such as �zero near the lake, below zero inland.�

Then, sometime in March or April, there comes a magical day when the air suddenly warms, yet the breeze comes from the southeast. That�s the day when suddenly the lake stops acting as a heater and begins acting as a coolant. Just as the water cools slower than the air, the air warms more quickly than the air. That�s the first day when driving four or five miles inland allows you to find ambient air that is ten or fifteen degrees warmer. Many more will follow, often well into the summer. They will follow each time the wind is from the east or southeast for, just as the lake never gets as cold as the coldest winter day, it never gets as warm as the warmest summer day.

And today I heard it and I lived it. Cooler by the lake----can spring be far behind?

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