Hourly Lake and Atmospheric Measurements from Blelham Tarn Buoy

Hourly data from an automatic water monitoring buoy on Blelham Tarn in England's Lake District, collected by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. The dataset includes lake temperature at 12 depths, air temperature, solar irradiance, and wind speed, with measurements taken every four minutes and aggregated as hourly averages. Data spans from 2016 to 2018 and is recorded in Greenwich Mean Time.

Use Cases

• Model lake temperature stratification dynamics using the 12 depth profiles from 0.5m to 12m.
• Analyze correlations between solar irradiance and surface lake temperature at 0.5m depth.
• Investigate wind speed's influence on thermal mixing across the measured depth layers.
• Build a time-series model to forecast air temperature or lake temperature from the hourly atmospheric and hydrographic data.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution temporal data with measurements taken every four minutes.
• Includes a detailed vertical temperature profile with measurements at 12 specific depths.
• Covers a multi-year time range from 2016 to 2018.
• Data is collected and aggregated by a authoritative research organization, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Limitations

• Geographic scope is limited to a single lake, Blelham Tarn, reducing generalizability.
• The dataset's temporal coverage ended in 2018, which may limit analysis of recent trends.
• Unknown total row count and specific file structure within the ZIP archive.

Provenance

Source

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, via the Environmental Information Data Centre.

Collection Method

Automated measurements from a monitoring buoy, aggregated from four-minute intervals into hourly averages.

Time Range

2016 to 2018.

Freshness

Dataset metadata was last updated in March 2026, though the data itself covers 2016-2018.

Geography

Blelham Tarn, a lake in the Lake District National Park, North West England.