Climatological estimate of the average monthly energy and water budgets of Lake Tahoe California‐Nevada

Abstract

An estimate of the average monthly energy and water budgets of Lake Tahoe, California‐Nevada is made from commonly available meteorological, hydrological, and limnological data. The water budget indicates that precipitation, discharge, runoff, and evaporation dominate the water balance in seasonal succession, each associated with an appropriate minimum or maximum in the lake water storage. The annual energy budget is dominated by the net radiation and evaporation terms with 93% of the radiation input used to evaporate water. The seasonal energy budget indicates that (1) energy storage is in phase with the radiation input and is a dominant term in the periods November–January and May–July, (2) evaporation reaches a maximum value in the fall, 3 months after the radiation maximum, (3) upward transfer of sensible heat from the lake surface reaches a maximum another 3 months later, in the winter, and (4) the sensible heat flux is downward in late spring and early summer, indicating stable stratification in the atmospheric surface layer over the lake during this period, a result of possible significance to air quality in the Tahoe basin. The energy storage and sensible heat transfer terms show large fluctuations in the fall which may be associated with large‐scale meteorological events during a season in which energy is trapped in the surface waters by stable stratification in the thermocline layer.