Lake · United States
Bear Lake
Natural freshwater lake on the Utah-Idaho border in the United States
- Area
- 281km²
- Max depth
- 63m
- Average depth
- 37m
- Elevation
- 1,805m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 78km
- Volume
- 10.4km³
Bear Lake is a lake in United States. It covers 281 km². On average it is 37 m deep, and 63 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,805 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Bear Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 21 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 57 days a year, from around 11 January to 8 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 28 °C on average in July and -3 °C in January. The driest month is July (17 mm of rain), the wettest May (57 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (87 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | Ice | — | -3 | -13 | 52 | 13 | 4.7 | 12 |
| February | Ice | — | -2 | -12 | 50 | 13 | 5.5 | 13 |
| March | 1 | 3 | 4 | -6 | 49 | 13 | 7.1 | 14 |
| April | 6 | 8 | 10 | -2 | 55 | 12 | 8.3 | 15 |
| May | 12 | 15 | 16 | 3 | 57 | 12 | 9.4 | 14 |
| June | 18 | 20 | 23 | 8 | 33 | 7 | 11.9 | 14 |
| July | 21 | 22 | 28 | 14 | 17 | 6 | 12.6 | 12 |
| August | 21 | 21 | 26 | 12 | 25 | 6 | 11.2 | 12 |
| September | 17 | 19 | 20 | 7 | 39 | 7 | 9.6 | 12 |
| October | 13 | 15 | 11 | 0 | 45 | 9 | 7.1 | 13 |
| November | 8 | 10 | 3 | -6 | 46 | 11 | 4.9 | 13 |
| December | 3 | 5 | -3 | -12 | 57 | 13 | 3.6 | 12 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 108 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,022 km² of land.
- About 3.0 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Bear Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 24beaches and swimming spots
Cisco Beach, Ideal Beach, Legacy Beach Resort, Bluewater Beach, Rendezvous Beach and 19 more
- 12campsites
KOA Marina Side Campground, North Eden Campground, Rainbow Cove Campground, South Eden Campground, Bear Lake KOA Trailside and 7 more
- 3boat hire and water-sport clubs
North Beach Rental, Rendezvous Beach Rentals
- 14marinas and slipways
Bear Lake State Park Marina, Ideal Beach Marina and 12 more
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 6hotels, B&Bs and chalets
The Bluebird Inn, WorldMark Bear Lake, Sunrise Resort at Harbor Village, Park Hotel, Beach Hotel and 1 more
- —fishing spots
- 19restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Ogden Hinckley Airport (OGD), 109 km in a straight line.
Car hire at SLC airport (Salt Lake City)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | -3.1 | -1.8 | 4.2 | 9.5 | 15.8 | 22.6 | 28.1 | 26.3 | 20.4 | 11.4 | 3.3 | -2.9 |
| 2020 | +0.7 | −1.4 | −0.2 | −0.1 | +1.1 | −1.5 | −0.5 | +2.4 | +1.1 | +1.0 | +0.7 | +1.4 |
| 2021 | +1.4 | −0.7 | +0.6 | +1.3 | +1.1 | +5.3 | +2.3 | −0.4 | +1.7 | −0.2 | +2.4 | +2.2 |
| 2022 | −0.6 | −1.9 | +1.5 | −1.4 | −1.8 | +0.8 | +2.6 | +1.1 | +3.2 | +2.2 | −3.6 | −0.2 |
| 2023 | −0.9 | −1.4 | −5.9 | −3.0 | +1.8 | −2.4 | +0.3 | −0.8 | +0.2 | +1.1 | +1.1 | +3.2 |
| 2024 | +1.3 | +2.6 | −0.3 | +1.1 | −2.2 | +2.1 | +0.2 | +1.0 | +2.7 | +4.8 | −1.1 | +3.9 |
| 2025 | −2.1 | +1.0 | +1.4 | +1.1 | +2.6 | +2.5 | +0.9 | +1.1 | +2.3 | +1.3 | +4.4 | +5.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
About these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q812997) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
