Reservoir · Finland
Kemijärvi
Lake in Kemijärvi, Finland
- Area
- 226km²
- Max depth
- 24m
- Average depth
- 20m
- Elevation
- 131m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 428km
- Volume
- 4.5km³
Kemijärvi is a reservoir in Finland. It covers 226 km². On average it is 20 m deep, and 24 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 131 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 Kemijärvi?
The water is warmest in July, around 18 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C in July: brisk, refreshing swimming.
The lake usually freezes over for about 177 days a year, from around 31 October to 25 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 19 °C on average in July and -10 °C in January. The driest month is February (37 mm of rain), the wettest July (106 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (101 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 | — | -10 | -16 | 46 | 13 | 0.6 | 10 |
| February | Ice | — | -9 | -15 | 37 | 11 | 2.5 | 10 |
| March | Ice | — | -4 | -11 | 41 | 12 | 5.9 | 10 |
| April | Ice | — | 1 | -5 | 47 | 11 | 8.4 | 9 |
| May | 6 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 77 | 16 | 8.2 | 9 |
| June | 14 | 17 | 16 | 8 | 89 | 17 | 8.9 | 8 |
| July | 18 | 19 | 19 | 11 | 106 | 19 | 7.9 | 7 |
| August | 17 | 18 | 16 | 9 | 93 | 17 | 5.9 | 7 |
| September | 11 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 82 | 15 | 3.3 | 8 |
| October | 4 | 8 | 2 | -2 | 70 | 16 | 1.1 | 8 |
| November | Ice | — | -4 | -8 | 58 | 15 | 0.3 | 9 |
| December | Ice | — | -7 | -13 | 53 | 14 | 0.2 | 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 6 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 29,316 km² of land.
- About 303 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 8.0 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Kemijärvi
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 10beaches and swimming spots
Uimaranta, Kemijärven uimaranta, Kalkonniemen uimaranta and 7 more
- 3campsites
Matkatupa Camping, Kalasataman, Camping Kemijärvi / Pyhä Safaris
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 29marinas and slipways
Kalasatama, Venesatama, Veneenlaskupaikka, Narkiperän venesatama, Narkiperän veneenlaskupaikka and 24 more
- 2ferry piers
Räisälä, Haaparanta
- 7viewpoints
Kotavaara näkötorni, Kalkiaisuopajan lintutorni, Suomujoki lintutorni and 4 more
- 11hotels, B&Bs and chalets
AslakinMaa Oy, Hotelli Kemijärvi, Hotelli Mestarin Kievari, Lohen lomakeskus, Hostel Kemijärvi and 6 more
- —fishing spots
- 9restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Kemijärvi6,918 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Rovaniemi Airport (RVN), 68 km in a straight line.
Car hire at RVN airport (Rovaniemi)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 | -10.2 | -9.2 | -4.4 | 1.0 | 9.9 | 15.7 | 19.2 | 16.4 | 10.5 | 2.1 | -3.7 | -7.3 |
| 2020 | +4.7 | +3.5 | +1.6 | −1.3 | −3.7 | +3.2 | −1.5 | +0.5 | +0.6 | +1.3 | +2.8 | +1.3 |
| 2021 | −3.0 | −2.5 | +0.4 | −0.6 | −2.1 | +3.2 | +1.3 | −1.0 | −2.1 | +0.9 | −1.3 | −3.0 |
| 2022 | +1.7 | +1.3 | +1.9 | −0.6 | −0.1 | +2.2 | +0.5 | +2.0 | −1.1 | +2.1 | −0.9 | −0.7 |
| 2023 | +4.6 | +2.9 | −1.3 | ±0.0 | +1.6 | +1.3 | −1.1 | +2.3 | +3.2 | −3.8 | −4.4 | −3.6 |
| 2024 | −2.2 | +0.5 | +1.8 | −2.6 | +1.2 | +3.4 | +1.0 | +2.7 | +3.3 | +2.5 | +1.5 | +1.0 |
| 2025 | +0.8 | +4.0 | +2.0 | +1.3 | ±0.0 | −1.1 | +2.8 | +0.3 | +3.3 | +2.8 | −0.7 | +1.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
RussiaAbout 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 (Q1738491) · 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.
