sunday closing day

Trust me, I've been to the park several times over the winter, and I do not exaggerate how cold it gets.

Friday night was very, very cold, but it's nothing compared to a snowy winter day.

I've never been to the park in winter but I spent my fair shre of time waiting for busses in down town Cleveland in February while in college and I'm guessing that's probably what it's like.

I wasn't suggesting anything about January and February, when the winter is at it's peak. I was suggesting only November and December, like Kennywood and Hershey park do which are in a similar climate, and it looks like they are moderately successful. I think it could make a little extra money for the parks if they had holiday festivities. As long as it was better planned and executed than Christmas in the Park was in 1994, it could work out.

Have you been to Sandusky in December? It's really, really not a good idea. If the park had more heated, indoor locations that guests could spend time in to escape the cold and wind, I'd say maybe, but it's too sketchy.

No I haven't been to Sandusky in December or anytime in the winter months, but I can't imagine it being much better or worse than down here in the Akron and Canton area. Lake Effect snow mostly effects Cleveland and anything east of there.

Lake Affects snow does not affect Chicago???????

I don't think so

I meant for Ohio

You get the snow in Akron/Canton but the lakefront wind can be down right brutal.

Yeah, it's way worse than down here in the Akron area. The lake winds are unforgiving, and not just at the park. I have friends who grew up in Sandusky, and I've visited them in winter months. Kalahari doesn't count, either - that's too far from the lake. The weather really changes when you get near the water.

Over the winter, I'll check Sandusky weather reports to see the difference between where I live and there. I never really did in the past because I never went there. In the summer though, it seems Sandusky is always a few degrees warmer than where I live.

Degrees is one thing, wind whipping across the peninsula is another.

I always thought that Chicago doesn't get much lake effect snow because the winds there tend to be from the northwest which do not pass over the lake to get to Chicago. It gets some but not like northeastern Ohio, northwestern PA and central and western NY. But maybe thats wrong. Seems to me though there is a tendency to view any heavy snows in an area near a large lake as lake effect.

Scottyf said:
Degrees is one thing, wind whipping across the peninsula is another.

This.

I grew up near Boston, MA - and I compare Sandusky winters to that, more than winters near us down here. Don't forget, even if the temperature in the city of Sandusky shows a few degrees warmer and bone dry, it could still be raining and frigid on the peninsula.

Water, science, weather.

There was a day in the spring where I was working in the park and it was about 40 degrees with wind and when I got home about 45 minutes away and maybe 5 miles inland, the temperature was close to 80. The point really does get some odd weather.

Because the lake is slower to cool and warm than the air, the lake tends to make temps warmer in the fall and cooler in the spring.

Sandusky, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron all have pretty much the same climate as far as temperatures go, and it probably isn't much different than Pittsburgh in terms of temperature. I have lived in NW Ohio south of Toledo in Wood County for the past 22 years (also lived in Cleveland for 23 years and Akron for 3 years). The area is as flat as a pool table throughout much of NW OH, at least in the lake plain which was once the Great Black Swamp. It isn't so much the lake that makes CP windy at times, it is the lack of trees and hills to act as a break as weather systems generate wind while passing through the region. I have found that it usually is just as windy in Bowling Green, Van Wert, Toledo, etc. several miles inland but on the same flat treeless lake plain. Temps in the area don't really get too bad until the 1st or 2nd week of December other than a few cold spells. I'm talking about below freezing during the day and lasting several days or weeks.

As for the lake's affect on temperatures, since it is warmer relative to the air temp in December it moderates the cold somewhat, but by the time it freezes in January (if it freezes much at all), the lake plain can resemble the tundra. Winters have been much milder this past 10-15 years to the point that the lake doesn't freeze to the degree it used to. In the spring, the lake will make areas close to it colder depending on the wind direction. If it is a warm southwest, you will be warm at CP. I have been on the Chausee in the spring with a southwest wind and it was pretty warm, even though the lake was still very cold. If it comes out of the NE in April and May, it can be 10-20 degrees cooler near the lake. I have experienced this first hand several times as I have worked at several different project sites in the area (as well as throughout 20+ counties in NW Ohio) for the past 20 years. One day in early May I was at a project site behind the Sandusky Mall and it was almost 80 degrees and we were sweating bullets. My second site was in Huron directly on the lake and we had a northeast wind that day and we were very cold and unprepared. I don’t know what the temperature was but it had to be in the upper 40's or lower 50's.

It is not significantly colder/warmer on the peninsula in Nov-Dec than it is in Bowling Green, Toledo, etc. and all places are equally windy as the winds are dictated by weather systems passing through, not the lake. I have experienced this hundreds of times visiting project sites near the lake (even on the Chausee) in the winter as well as sites several miles inland on the same day, it isn't as bad as you might think though.

I may be a bit biased since I spend so much time outside. I acclimate faster than most and only despise the cold when it gets into the teens or less. I like to go for walks on the beach at Sheldon's Marsh (where the CP peninsula meets the mainland near Huron) several times through the winter and most of the time it isn't that windy to make you freeze during Nov-Dec. It is very pleasant to be on the lake and is a pretty popular place for locals to walk, but January is a different animal, though I still go for walks on the beach even then.

^ I went to college @ BG, and the wind there was at times worse than what I deal with here in Cleveland, and I live literally 2 blocks from the lake. In BG, all that open farmland, you can put on 10 layers and all that wind that has been building up over Indiana just cuts through it. Ugh.

I wish I could have gone Sunday for closing day. I could only go Friday/Saturday. Friday night was awesome, some say it was cold but honestly it was better than Closing Friday of last year where it rained basically the whole night. Really enjoyed finishing out Fri night with 5 consecutive rides on Magnum, ending up on the last train of the night.

Saturday morning I looked at the forecast and saw gale warning and knew we were screwed. We still tried to make the most of it. The night before, a very nice couple gave me and my girl 2 front of the line passes for Maverick. When Maverick finally got up and running, we used those immediately. (Thanks again if you are reading this!) Closed out my 2013 season on the Blue Streak front seat.

Sorry I'm posting this a week late.

I wanted to close out my season on Blue Streak but it was closed when I went by it on the way out the week before and I didn't get to closing weekend.