Evaporation and the hydrologic budget of Crater Lake, Oregon

Abstract

The hydrologic budget of Crater Lake, Oregon is investigated by taking advantage of its relatively simple geometry, climatic circumstances, and the concurrent availability of many years of traditional data. Buoy data are here utilized for the first time for this purpose. The lake gains water through precipitation and delayed runoff from the caldera sides and Wizard Island. The lake loses water through evaporation and seepage. Seepage can be estimated quite well from ice-covered precipitation-free intervals in 1985, and is 127 cm/year. Evaporation has previously been determined as a residual, but is here estimated directly from the floating buoy, with an approximate value of 76 cm/year, a downward revision from previous estimates. These losses are balanced by precipitation input, nearly all in the form of snow or snowmelt runoff. Factors contributing to the uncertainty in each of the water budget components are discussed in some detail. The buoy data corroborate previous findings based on studies of stage that evaporation is greatest on the coldest days. Seasonally, the greatest evaporation occurs in the autumn and the least in spring. Proxy records are used to extend the effective length of the buoy record. Monthly estimates of evaporation are calculated for 1950–1996 and used to deduce temporal characteristics. The standard deviation of water year precipitation is 4.6 times larger than that of evaporation. Thus the water budget is controlled more by variability of precipitation than evaporation. An additional 15 years of data since earlier studies confirm that the annual lake level variations from one September 30 to the next are highly correlated (r = 0.96) with Park Headquarters water year precipitation for the 42 years from 1961–2003. The lake rises 1.4 cm for every cm of measured precipitation over equilibrium value (168.6 cm) at Park Headquarters. Sources of this “magnification” are discussed.