Water and Weather

Temperature and Heat:
About four times as much heat is required to heat a given quantity of water one degree as to heat an equal quantity of earth. In summer, when the rocks and the sand along the shore are burning hot, the ocean and lakes are pleasantly cool, although the amount of heat present in the water is as great as that present in the earth. In winter, long after the rocks and sand have given out their heat and have become cold, the water continues to give out the vast store of heat accumulated during the summer. This explains why lands situated on or near large bodies of water usually have less variation in temperature than inland regions. In the summer the water cools the region; in the winter, on the contrary, the water heats the region, and hence extremes of temperature are practically unknown.