This dataset consists of hourly lake temperature, air temperature, solar irradiance and wind speed data from an automatic water monitoring buoy on Windermere South Basin, a lake in the North West of England. The lake temperatures are measured at 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 30 and 35 m depth (see supporting documentation for more information). Measurements were taken every 4 minutes and calculated as hourly averages. All data is given in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). The data were collected by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability