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Field data, scaling analysis, and three‐dimensional numerical experiments demonstrate that the dominant large‐scale circulation pattern during the southeast trade winds in Lake Tanganyika (East Africa) is a downwind flow in the metalimnion, with a returning southward upwind flow in the upper region of the epilimnion. This is in the opposite direction to all prior literature available on the lake, which has assumed that the southeast trade winds must drive a northward surface flow due to momentum induced by the wind. The gradient in wind speed and humidity along the length of the lake and the resulting gradient in heat exchange with the atmosphere result in warm water accumulating at the northern end of the lake. The north basin of Lake Tanganyika, thus, acts as a heat sink while the south basin is a net source of heat to the atmosphere. The resulting variation in buoyancy flux is strong enough to drive a …