Pan evaporation (ETpan) has decreased at 64% of pans in the conterminous U.S. over the past half-century. Comparing trends in ETpan and water budget-derived actual evapotranspiration (ET*a), we observe the so-called Pan Evaporation Paradox, which we confirm is no more than a manifestation of the complementarity between actual evapotranspiration (ETa) and potential evapotranspiration (ETp). Examining trends in the components of ETa-the radiative energy and regional advective budgets-we show that both components must be considered together to explain the relationship between ETpan and ET*a.