Almost all regions in the United States must accurately estimate evaporation to have effective water management programs. The purpose of this study is to develop a better method for measuring evaporation. Lake evaporation along with meteorological data are measured directly from a floating pan. The floating pan is specifically designed to account for one of the most sensitive parameters of evaporation, the water surface temperature, which the design achieves. However, other design factors such as air movement, solar radiation, stability, heat transfer, wave action, water level range, and site location were also taken into consideration. The evaporation measured from the floating pan is compared to the two aerodynamic methods, with the Sill (1983) method in close agreement. The evaporation estimate for the months of September and October, 2006 from the two aerodynamic methods provide a lower estimate of evaporation compared to the SCDNR land based pan data
