Evaporation from Lake Kinneret, Israel, during hot summer days

•Evaporation from Lake Kinneret during exceptionally hot summer days was lower than normal.•Wind speed (Mediterranean Sea Breeze, MSB) was significantly lower during these hot days.•Two synoptic conditions are responsible for the reduction of the MSB and evaporation.•Synoptic condition 1. The weakening of the permanent synoptic Etesian winds.•Synoptic condition 2. The descent of the marine inversion to a height of the topographic ridge which blocks the MSB.

SummaryThe relationships between the evaporation from a medium size (168.7 km2) Lake Kinneret (Northern Israel), and its governing synoptic factors are well demonstrated during the summer of 2010. During July-August the daily temperature of the air and water surface were ∼2-4 °C higher, the daily wind over the lake was ∼80% weaker, and the evaporation from the lake was ∼5% lower than the long-term July-August mean. In this study, we explore the impact of the regional and local synoptic-scale atmospheric conditions on the evaporation from the lake during exceptionally hot days in the mid-summer months (July-August). The factors that were found to be correlated with the lake evaporation are the temperatures at 850 hPa (negative) and 500 hPa (positive), the sea level pressure difference between Northern Egypt and Armenia (positive), and the height of the marine inversion (positive). Synoptic analysis indicates that two conditions are responsible for the reduction of the Mediterranean Sea Breeze (MSB) during exceptionally hot days, and consequently to the reduction of evaporation from the lake. First, the weakening of the permanent synoptic Etesian winds, which otherwise supports the inland penetration of the MSB; and second, the descent of the marine inversion to a height below the topographic ridge of the Galilee Mountains upwind of the study area, which blocks the Marine Sea Breeze from reaching Lake Kinneret.