75-Year Lake Evaporation Trends in Temperate Central Europe

This dataset contains reconstructed daily warm-season evaporation series (1950–2024) for four postglacial lakes in temperate Central Europe, derived from a hybrid physics-empirical model combining the Penman equation with lake memory features. The model was calibrated against in situ measurements and driven by bias-corrected ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis. All lakes show statistically significant positive evaporation trends (+8.9 to +15.1 mm decade⁻¹), corresponding to 13–19% cumulative increases over 75 years.

Use Cases

• Trend analysis of lake evaporation under climate change
• Validation of hydrological models
• Assessment of ERA5 reanalysis performance over lakes
• Study of warm-season evaporation dynamics

Strengths

• 75-year daily reconstruction (1950–2024)
• Bias-corrected ERA5 forcing
• Calibration against in situ measurements
• Comprehensive uncertainty quantification with bootstrap confidence intervals
• Open access with full Python pipeline

Limitations

• Limited to four lakes in Central Europe
• Warm-season focus (May–October)
• Uncertainty estimates rely on model assumptions
• Resolution limited to daily scale

Provenance

Source

ERA5 reanalysis bias-corrected against co-located synoptic stations

Collection Method

Hybrid physics-empirical model combining Penman equation with lake memory features, calibrated with in situ measurements

Time Range

1950–2024

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12

Geography

Four postglacial lakes in temperate Central Europe (Sławskie, Ruda, Rajgrodzkie, Sławianowskie)