Planning your visit
Finger Lakes Weather: What the Lakes Do to the Seasons
A lake several hundred feet deep takes a long time to warm up and a long time to cool down. That single fact governs the growing season, the harvest date, and what you should have in the car when you drive out here in October.
How do the lakes change the weather?
They store summer heat and give it back slowly through the autumn, which delays the first frost on the slopes near the water. In winter they hold off the deepest cold near the shoreline. The effect fades as you move uphill and inland.
This is why the vines sit on slopes rather than valley floors. Cold air drains downhill past them, and the water below moderates what is left. Without it, this latitude would be difficult for wine grapes at all, a point the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance makes about the region's growing conditions.
What is summer like?
Warm and humid by day, cool at night. Afternoons are comfortable rather than punishing, and the water stays cold well into July. Evenings on the terrace often need a layer even after a hot day.
Thunderstorms build over the hills and move through quickly. They rarely spoil a day, but they will interrupt one.
What is autumn like?
The best season here, and the busiest. September and October bring warm days, cold nights, dry ground and the colour on the slopes. Harvest runs through it, so the cellars are working while the leaves turn.
We wrote about what happens in the vineyard during those weeks in our fall foliage and harvest guide.
What to pack, whatever the month
- One more layer than the forecast suggests. Evenings drop fast near the water.
- Something waterproof. Weather moves through quickly here rather than settling.
- Shoes with grip if you plan on any gorge walking.
- Sunglasses in autumn. Low sun off the water is genuinely bright.
What about winter and spring?
Winter is cold, quiet and often beautiful, with snow on the vineyard rows and many seasonal businesses closed. Spring comes late and wet; the lakes hold the season back, and green arrives on the slopes weeks after it does further south.
Our winter guide covers what stays open and what the visit is actually like in January.
What does the weather do to the vines?
It sets the whole calendar. A late spring frost after the buds have opened can cost part of a crop. A long mild autumn lets the fruit hang and build flavour. The lake protects against both extremes, which is the only reason wine grapes work at this latitude.
Spring is the anxious season for anyone growing here. The vines wake when the air warms, and a cold night afterwards is the risk that matters most. Slopes near the water are safer than the flat ground above, because cold air drains downhill past them.
Autumn is the opposite. Every extra week of mild weather is a week the fruit keeps developing. When people ask why harvest dates move around by a fortnight from one year to the next, this is the answer.
Does it get lake effect snow?
The Finger Lakes are small compared with the Great Lakes that drive the heaviest lake effect snow in New York, so the extreme totals fall elsewhere. Winters here are properly cold with regular snow, and the shoreline stays milder than the higher ground behind it.
For driving, the practical point is that shaded stretches of the shore roads hold ice longer than the open highway. In January that matters more than the total on the ground.
Month by month, roughly
- May and June: green arrives late, everything opens, few crowds.
- July and August: warm days, cold water, busiest weekends.
- September and October: the best weather and the harvest, and the fullest hotels.
- November to April: quiet, cold, cheaper, with many seasonal places closed.
How much does the weather vary along one lake?
More than the distances suggest. A vineyard fifty feet above the water and one on the hilltop behind it can see different frost dates in the same autumn. The lake effect fades with elevation and distance from the shore, and it fades quickly.
This is why growers here talk about sites rather than regions. Two neighbours can have different seasons. It is also why a forecast for the nearest town is a rough guide at best for what is happening on a particular slope.
For a visitor the version that matters is simpler: the shore is milder than the hills, morning is calmer than afternoon, and the wind comes down the long axis of the lake.
Open daily through the year, ten to six, on the east shore of Keuka Lake.
When is the warmest month in the Finger Lakes?
July and August bring the warmest days, though nights stay cool near the water in every month of the year.
Does it snow a lot?
Winters are properly cold and snow is normal. The shoreline sees less extreme cold than the higher ground behind it, because of the water.
When does the harvest happen?
Through the autumn, with the timing shifting each year according to the season. The lakes delay the first frost, which is what allows the fruit to hang that long.
Written by
The Domaine LeSeurre Team
Céline & Sébastien LeSeurre and the team at Domaine LeSeurre — a family winery on Keuka Lake, in Hammondsport, New York. French roots, Finger Lakes soul.
