TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Rising and falling water levels in the Great Lakes are influenced by evaporation, rain and snowfall in ways that aren’t fully understood and are becoming less predictable as the climate warms, according to scientific reports made public Tuesday.

This winter’s bitterly cold weather is forming ice on areas of the lakes that will reduce evaporation by blocking water vapor from rising into the atmosphere and keeping water temperatures cool well into summer. That should help water levels continue a rebound that began in 2013 following an unusually long slump across most of the lakes dating from the late 1990s, said John Lenters, senior scientist at LimnoTech, an environmental consulting firm in Ann Arbor.