Lake · United States
Clear Lake
Lake in California
- Area
- 156km²
- Max depth
- 118m
- Average depth
- 41m
- Elevation
- 403m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 115km
- Volume
- 6.3km³
Clear Lake is a lake in United States. It covers 156 km². On average it is 41 m deep, and 118 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 403 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Clear Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 27 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 7 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from May to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 31 °C on average in July and 11 °C in December. The driest month is August (1 mm of rain), the wettest December (227 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (125 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 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 170 | 14 | 4.7 | 7 |
| February | 8 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 165 | 12 | 5.8 | 8 |
| March | 12 | 14 | 14 | 4 | 136 | 12 | 6.9 | 8 |
| April | 16 | 19 | 16 | 5 | 68 | 8 | 9.0 | 8 |
| May | 21 | 23 | 21 | 8 | 32 | 5 | 11.0 | 8 |
| June | 25 | 26 | 27 | 11 | 10 | 2 | 13.0 | 9 |
| July | 27 | 27 | 31 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 13.1 | 8 |
| August | 27 | 27 | 30 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 11.6 | 8 |
| September | 24 | 26 | 28 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 10.2 | 8 |
| October | 19 | 22 | 22 | 9 | 51 | 4 | 8.1 | 7 |
| November | 14 | 16 | 16 | 5 | 109 | 9 | 5.7 | 7 |
| December | 9 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 227 | 14 | 4.0 | 8 |
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 7.8 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,200 km² of land.
- About 26 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.6 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Clear Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 3beaches and swimming spots
Laurel Beach, Dorn beach
- 11campsites
Hike Bike Campground, Kelsey Creek Campground, Lower Bayview Campground, Upper Bayview Campground, Cole Creek Campground and 6 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 56marinas and slipways
Lucerne Boat Launch, Mike Thompson Harbor, Konocti Vista Marina and 53 more
- —ferry piers
- 7viewpoints
Vista Point and 6 more
- 10hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Skylark shores resort, Travelodge, Lake Point Lodge, Konocti Vista Hotel, Regency Inn and 5 more
- —fishing spots
- 21restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Clearlake15,182 people
- Lakeport4,807 people
- North Lakeport3,314 people
- Clear Lake Riviera3,090 people
- Lucerne3,067 people
- Nice2,731 people
- Clearlake Oaks2,359 people
- Soda Bay1,016 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS), 63 km in a straight line.
Car hire at STS airport (Santa Rosa)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 | 11.4 | 12.2 | 13.9 | 16.1 | 20.9 | 26.6 | 31.1 | 30.5 | 28.1 | 22.5 | 15.5 | 10.9 |
| 2020 | −0.7 | +2.7 | −1.2 | +2.1 | +1.0 | +1.2 | ±0.0 | +1.3 | +1.8 | +4.8 | +0.5 | +2.5 |
| 2021 | +0.2 | +0.9 | −0.7 | +3.3 | +3.7 | +2.3 | +2.0 | +1.2 | ±0.0 | −3.4 | +0.3 | −1.0 |
| 2022 | +1.7 | +2.3 | +2.4 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.4 | +0.9 | +0.2 | +2.1 | −1.5 | −0.5 |
| 2023 | −1.1 | −2.4 | −4.2 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | −0.9 | +1.3 | +1.0 | −2.4 | +0.7 | +0.9 | +2.1 |
| 2024 | ±0.0 | −0.7 | −1.3 | +1.0 | +2.1 | +2.7 | +3.8 | −0.9 | +1.3 | +2.4 | −1.5 | +2.2 |
| 2025 | +1.5 | −0.1 | −1.2 | +2.0 | +1.4 | +2.1 | −1.2 | +0.8 | −0.7 | −1.5 | +1.1 | +3.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States66.3 km² · 71 km away27°maxLake MerrittUnited States0.5 km² · 151 km away25°maxLake TahoeUnited States496 km² · 242 km away20°maxPyramid LakeUnited States477 km² · 302 km away23°maxMono LakeUnited States186 km² · 357 km away22°maxUpper Klamath LakeUnited States277 km² · 378 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 (Q1099503) · 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.
