Reservoir · United States
Big Stone Lake
Freshwater lake and reservoir on the border between western Minnesota and northeastern South Dakota, United States
- Area
- 44.6km²
- Max depth
- 5m
- Average depth
- 5.7m
- Elevation
- 293m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 98km
- Volume
- 0.253km³
Big Stone Lake is a reservoir in United States. It covers 44.6 km². On average it is 5.7 m deep, and 5 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 293 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Big Stone Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 124 days a year, from around 25 November to 28 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 30 °C on average in July and -5 °C in January. The driest month is January (14 mm of rain), the wettest June (98 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (80 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 | — | -5 | -15 | 14 | 4 | 5.7 | 19 |
| February | Ice | — | -3 | -14 | 18 | 4 | 7.5 | 19 |
| March | Ice | — | 6 | -6 | 30 | 6 | 6.9 | 20 |
| April | 6 | 11 | 14 | 1 | 56 | 8 | 7.4 | 20 |
| May | 15 | 19 | 21 | 8 | 75 | 11 | 7.8 | 19 |
| June | 22 | 24 | 27 | 14 | 98 | 14 | 9.1 | 17 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 30 | 17 | 80 | 13 | 10.3 | 15 |
| August | 23 | 24 | 28 | 16 | 76 | 10 | 8.8 | 15 |
| September | 18 | 21 | 23 | 11 | 69 | 8 | 7.2 | 18 |
| October | 11 | 15 | 14 | 2 | 58 | 7 | 5.3 | 19 |
| November | 3 | 7 | 5 | -4 | 20 | 5 | 4.4 | 18 |
| December | Ice | — | -3 | -11 | 21 | 4 | 3.5 | 18 |
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 17 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,884 km² of land.
- About 5.6 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.1 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Big Stone Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 6beaches and swimming spots
North Beach, South Beach and 4 more
- 10campsites
Big Stone Lake State Park Campground, Riverside Park Campground, Big Stone Rearing Pond, West Campgound, East Campgound and 5 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 16marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 1viewpoints
Willard Andrews Lookout
- 1hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Park Inn by Radisson
- 7fishing spots
- 3restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Ortonville1,815 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Watertown Regional Airport (ATY), 71 km in a straight line.
Car hire at FAR airport (Fargo)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 | -5.4 | -3.3 | 5.6 | 13.9 | 21.0 | 26.6 | 30.1 | 28.2 | 23.3 | 13.6 | 5.1 | -3.0 |
| 2020 | −0.6 | +1.4 | +1.9 | −1.9 | −2.0 | +1.8 | −0.6 | +0.7 | −1.8 | −3.6 | +2.0 | +2.9 |
| 2021 | +3.9 | −3.9 | +3.9 | −0.6 | +0.7 | +5.3 | +1.2 | +1.3 | +0.9 | +2.9 | +0.1 | +0.1 |
| 2022 | −2.1 | −2.2 | −1.1 | −4.9 | −0.6 | +1.1 | −0.5 | +0.3 | +2.0 | +2.0 | −1.8 | −3.3 |
| 2023 | ±0.0 | +2.4 | −3.3 | −1.8 | +4.2 | +2.6 | −0.3 | +0.6 | +3.1 | +0.7 | +1.8 | +5.2 |
| 2024 | −0.2 | +7.9 | +0.2 | +0.2 | +0.8 | −1.3 | −2.4 | −2.0 | +4.1 | +4.8 | +0.5 | +0.8 |
| 2025 | −0.5 | −1.3 | +3.4 | +0.4 | +1.5 | −0.6 | −1.5 | −1.8 | +1.3 | +3.5 | +1.3 | ±0.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States4.0 km² · 231 km away23°maxLake MinnetonkaUnited States31.1 km² · 234 km away25°maxMille Lacs LakeUnited States516 km² · 242 km away22°maxBde Maka SkaUnited States1.6 km² · 252 km away26°maxLeech LakeUnited States413 km² · 259 km away22°maxRed LakeUnited States1,142 km² · 313 km away22°maxAbout 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 (Q859342) · 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.
