Internal wave weather heterogeneity in a deep multi-basin subalpine lake resulting from wavelet transform and numerical analysis

•We investigated the internal wave field in a deep Y-shaped south alpine lake.•The study included both wavelet analysis and numerical modeling.•We analyzed temperature and wind data collected over three years in three lake points.•We identified first and second vertical wave modes, the first active even in winter.•Oscillations in one lake arm resulted decoupled from the rest of the lake. The internal wave-field of a Y-shaped lake (Lake Como, North Italy) was investigated over a 3-year long period applying wavelet time–frequency analysis to temperature and wind data time series, recorded at the edge of each of the three arms. The comparison with the results from a modal model allowed to identify the presence of both first and second vertical modes of oscillations. The field data analysis underlined a heterogeneous baroclinic response with the eastern arm decoupled from the remaining part of the lake constituted by the northern and western arms (north–south west transect). This disjoined response is expected to enhance the water exchange between the northern and the western arm, with relevant consequences on the inter-basins water exchanges and on the distribution of chemical and biological species. In the north–south west transect the analysis of the low power signals in winter underlined a residual internal wave activity ascribed to the first vertical free mode of oscillation (V1H1).