I have not seen much on the wind mask over lakes. I would say that it is being overdone, especially for the gusts.
My first example shows the large reservoirs on the Upper Missouri in ND, SD and MT. The mask is visible in the sustained wind plots, but is most evident on the gusts. I have seen other examples from Fort Peck (MT) that are much worse than this example.
Although I thought that the wind mask would be mostly for larger lakes, I have seen it on smaller lakes in MT as well.
This second example shows the gusts on Lake Elwell (48.3179° N, 111.1427° W) and Lake Frances (48.9382° N, 114.0022° W). I was most surprised to see it also applied on a lake the size of Lake Frances (less than 6 square miles).
I have been on both of these lakes when it was on the breezy side, and the lake is definitely NOT where I would have gone to find lower wind speeds! They are both very exposed (no trees).
Dave
