Lake storage change serves as a unique indicator of natural climate change on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). However, comprehensive lake storage data, especially for lakes smaller than 10 km², are still lacking in the region. In this dataset, we completed a census of annual relative lake volume (RLV) for 976 lakes, which are larger than 1 km², on the endorheic basin of the Tibetan Plateau (EBTP) during 1989–2019 using Landsat imagery and digital terrain models. Our method first identifies individual lakes, determines their analysis extents and calculates annual lake area from Landsat imagery. It then derives lake area-elevation relationship, estimates lake surface elevation, and calculates RLV. Validation and comparison with several existing datasets indicate our data are more reliable and comprehensive. Our study complements existing lake datasets by providing a complete and long-term lake water volume change data for the region.

Lakes are sensitive indicators of climate change in the Tibetan Plateau (TP), which have shown high temporal and spatial variability in recent decades. The driving forces for the change are still not entirely clear. This study examined the area change of the lakes greater than 1 km² in the endorheic basins of the Tibetan Plateau (EBTP) using Landsat images from 1990 to 2019, and analysed the relationships between lake area and local and large-scale climate variables at different geographic scales. The results show that lake area in the EBTP has increased significantly from 1990 to 2019 at a rate of 432.52 km²·year⁻¹. In the past 30 years, lake area changes in the EBTP have mainly been affected by local climate variables such as precipitation and temperature. At a large scale, Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) has correlations with lake area in western sub-regions in the Inner Basin (IB). While Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) has a significant connection with lake area, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) does not. We also found that abnormal drought (rainfall) brought by the El Niño/La Niña events are significantly correlated with the lake area change in most sub-regions in the IB.