Dataset of high-frequency water quality and meteorological variables in Buffalo Pound Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2014 – 2021

Lakes can undergo rapid changes that are not captured during traditional, discrete sampling campaigns. Sensor-based data provide opportunities to understand these rapid changes in lakes. Here, we present eight years of sensor-based monitoring data from the open water season in a shallow, polymictic reservoir in southern Saskatchewan, which serves as an important drinking water supply. A monitoring buoy was moored annually at the same site providing sensor data including photosynthetically active radiation (PAR; 0.62 and 0.78 m below surface), pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, specific conductivity, phycocyanin and chlorophyll (0.8, or 0.8 and 2.8 m below surface), and temperature (multiple locations in the water column) at high frequency. The buoy was also equipped with a weather station to record air temperature, barometric pressure, PAR, rain, relative humidity, wind direction and wind speed. Data were reviewed for data quality. This long-term dataset can be used to understand thermal variation, chemical and ecological change, and to characterize the often rapid changes that polymictic lakes undergo, particularly those resulting from seasonal changes and development of cyanobacterial blooms.