Thermal-hydraulic conditions in a partially uncovered nuclear fuel assembly mock-up are studied with particular focus on the influence of the horizontal air flow above the rod bundle. The investigations are performed at the ALADIN test facility, which models a boiling water reactor fuel assembly at a 1:1 scale both axially and radially. In the scenario studied, the main heat transfer mechanisms – conduction, convection and radiation – are strongly coupled and all are of similar importance. A combination of measurements and CFD simulations serves to analyze the heat transfer processes in detail. Contrary to previous studies in this field, all heat transfer mechanisms were considered in the simulation with sophisticated models. The numerical results show a good agreement with the measurements, given the inevitable differences between the approaches. Although the successive evaporation of cooling water in a fuel assembly is a transient, multiphase process, the steady, single-phase simulation yields acceptable results. While single effects are overestimated in the simulation, the important dependencies are predicted similarly. A general result is that the maximum cladding temperature rises with decreasing water level. Further results indicate an impact of the horizontal air flow on the residual heat removal for moderate rod powers. Higher horizontal velocities above the fuel assembly lead to slightly higher temperatures inside. A characteristic flow field forms in the test facility that prevails for all studied water levels and horizontal velocities. However, it has only a minor effect on the temperature distribution in the central rod bundle. By combining experiments and numerical simulations, the study provides important information about the decisive parameters for the heat exchange in a spent fuel pool in case of an accident with loss of cooling. The exposed length of the fuel rods is of much more importance than the magnitude of the horizontal velocity above the fuel assembly.