Reservoir · United States
Cayuga Lake
Cayuga
Lake in central New York, USA
- Area
- 171km²
- Max depth
- 133m
- Average depth
- 4.8m
- Elevation
- 114m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 139km
- Volume
- 0.818km³
Cayuga Lake is a reservoir in United States. It covers 171 km². On average it is 4.8 m deep, and 133 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 114 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Cayuga Lake?
The water is warmest in August, around 24 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 28 °C on average in July and -2 °C in January. The driest month is January (54 mm of rain), the wettest July (101 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (99 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 | 2 | 3 | -2 | -9 | 54 | 11 | 2.2 | 12 |
| February | 0 | 1 | 0 | -9 | 54 | 9 | 3.4 | 12 |
| March | 1 | 2 | 5 | -5 | 67 | 12 | 4.6 | 11 |
| April | 4 | 7 | 13 | 1 | 80 | 12 | 5.8 | 10 |
| May | 11 | 14 | 20 | 8 | 87 | 13 | 7.1 | 8 |
| June | 18 | 21 | 25 | 13 | 101 | 14 | 7.7 | 7 |
| July | 23 | 24 | 28 | 16 | 101 | 15 | 8.2 | 6 |
| August | 24 | 24 | 27 | 15 | 99 | 13 | 7.4 | 6 |
| September | 21 | 23 | 23 | 11 | 97 | 12 | 6.4 | 7 |
| October | 15 | 18 | 15 | 5 | 100 | 12 | 3.9 | 8 |
| November | 10 | 12 | 8 | -1 | 65 | 11 | 2.9 | 9 |
| December | 5 | 7 | 1 | -6 | 73 | 12 | 1.5 | 10 |
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 5 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 4,211 km² of land.
- About 63 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.0 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Cayuga Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 4beaches and swimming spots
Cayuga Lake State Park Swim Area, Taughannock Falls State Park Beach
- 5campsites
Camp Barton BSA, Pete's Area Group Camping Area, Cayuga Lake State Park Campground
- 3boat hire and water-sport clubs
Ithaca College Ward Romer Boathouse, Paddle-N-More
- 19marinas and slipways
Long Point State Park Boat Launch, Myers Park Boat Launch, Mud Lock Boat Launch, Deans Cove Boat Launch, Taughannock Falls State Park Boat Launch and 14 more
- —ferry piers
- 4viewpoints
Taughannock Falls Overlook, Fuertes Swan Pond Overlook
- 11hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hilton Garden Inn, Inn at Taughannock Falls, John Morris Manor Bed & Breakfast, Newpark, Ithaca Gorge and 6 more
- 4fishing spots
- 57restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Ithaca30,788 people
- Cayuga Heights3,822 people
- Lansing3,649 people
- East Ithaca2,231 people
- Bridgeport1,479 people
- Northwest Ithaca1,413 people
- Union Springs1,175 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (ITH), 37 km in a straight line.
Car hire at SYR airport (Syracuse)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 | -1.6 | -0.4 | 4.8 | 12.6 | 19.9 | 24.7 | 27.8 | 27.0 | 23.1 | 14.9 | 7.7 | 1.1 |
| 2020 | +3.1 | +0.7 | +3.3 | −2.3 | −2.1 | +1.2 | +2.5 | +1.3 | +0.2 | +0.1 | +3.0 | +0.1 |
| 2021 | +0.5 | −1.9 | +3.7 | +0.7 | −0.6 | +2.3 | −1.9 | +0.8 | −0.9 | +2.8 | −1.3 | +2.5 |
| 2022 | −2.0 | +0.8 | +1.8 | −0.9 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +1.6 | +1.2 | −1.6 | +0.5 | +1.6 | +0.1 |
| 2023 | +3.5 | +3.8 | −0.4 | +3.0 | −0.2 | −0.7 | +0.6 | −1.4 | +0.2 | +1.7 | −0.7 | +3.4 |
| 2024 | +1.5 | +4.0 | +3.1 | +1.3 | +2.0 | +1.7 | +1.8 | −0.6 | +0.7 | +2.0 | +1.8 | −0.2 |
| 2025 | −1.7 | −1.1 | +4.5 | +1.2 | −2.1 | +1.1 | +2.2 | +0.8 | +1.6 | +1.2 | −1.0 | −1.9 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States174 km² · 17 km away24°maxOwasco LakeUnited States26.6 km² · 22 km away23°maxLake OntarioUnited States19,347 km² · 113 km away22°maxCanandaigua LakeUnited States42.0 km² · 45 km away24°maxOnondaga LakeUnited States11.6 km² · 57 km away25°maxOneida LakeUnited States207 km² · 85 km away24°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 (Q731175) · 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.
